‘’Bones and shadows and dust. I am the last. The others have slipped away into darkness. Around me now, at the end of my days, only an echo in the still air of the memory of those who once I loved. Solitude, silence.’’ Kate Mosse is one those writers that I trust completely. I’d choose one of her books without reading the blurb or a single review without reservations. Although I’ve never read the Languedoc trilogy because I’ve been spoiled to the degree of knowing every single detail, ‘’The T

It's 288 pages? What is this a short story? The Winter Ghosts is a stand alone novel, not part of the series that ties Labyrinth and Sepulchre.Is Kate Mosse mad at me? The Winter Ghosts starts like a classic spook tale with the arrival of a stranger. In 1928 Freddie Watson enters a bookshop in Toulouse clutching a letter written in a dead language. He then tells the shocked bookseller his story. Watson had not been able to get past his adored brother's death during WWI. After ten years of grievi...

This is not a hefty tome like Kate Mosse's previous novels; in reality it is a novella and I read it in two sittings. As I haven't read her previous works I didn't have any preconceptions about this. Past and present are woven together well and the ghost story is redolent of M R James. The themes of love and loss are central and the setting is post WW1. Freddie is mourning his older brother who died in the war; the exploration of male grief is very interesting and poignant. the resolution and wo...

An exquisite ghost story, well told, highly emotive, short and to the point. This one has a beautiful backdrop to it in southern France, a land of snow-clad mountains and icy forests. I'm not ashamed to admit it had me bawling at the end.The various plot strands are neatly woven: the great sense of loss following the Great War; psychological grief; 14th century history; an atmospheric and subtle ghostly presence worthy of the best Victorian authors and even a little mystery here and there. I've

What a strange and dreamlike story. For those hoping for a scary ghost story I think you will be disappointed because it portrays so much more...Freddie has lost his beloved brother George in the trenches and, after being released from a sanitarium where he has been convalescing following a breakdown he winds up in France on the way to visit some friends. A day later, Freddie is trapped in a small village following a snowstown that has caused his car to crash and is invited to the annual celebra...

I found this brief novel about the Cathars' persecution in the 14th Century of France to be much more elegant and rewarding than The Labyrinth. I think Mosse uses the time shifting from the early 20th Century to the 14th century much more skillful and convincing. As with the Labyrinth, the caves allowed whole communities to hide from persecution and death--to a point. The main character has to resolve issues in his modern life with his grief for his brother who was killed in WWI, with his relati...

This was a quick yet entertaining read. The ending was a little confusing and vague though...I will say straight off this book was perfect for my snowy getaway to Switzerland in December. It had a good dark, cold and even a bit eerie feel to it and as night comes early in the winter this was a really good pick.I really liked how the author was able to create a really good atmosphere in this, she fully managed to paint a good picture of the time periods and the setting. Heck it even made me want

Rating Clarification: 4.5 StarsBeautifully rendered ghost story that encapsulates grief better then any I have read in a long time. This tale of separation, loss and redemption is bittersweet to the very end. Author Kate Mosse's descriptive prose is lovely, and the story is haunting without being cliched. While I wasn't too impressed with her longer novel, Labyrinth, Mosse delivers an emotional knockout with this shorter work. Of added bonus is the ink drawings preceeding each chapter by Brian G...

I have created a new shelf in honor of this book, ie 'too painful to finish'. I tried for another 20 pages or so, but it is too awful for me to waste my time on. This is my review when about one-third through. This story is so tediously over-written, that I am not sure I can finish it. The plot moves at a glacial pace with childish elaboration. As I finish reading several pages when almost nothing happens, I can't help but think of the few sentences that Elmore Leonard would have wrapped it up w...

The ideal setting to read a book concerning ghosts would be during the dead of winter, tucked up comfortably in an armchair in front of a warm cosy fire, while the wind outside howls through the eaves and the snow blankets the land outside.For some reason I always manage to time my reading of ghost stories when the weather is unseasonably warm (for goodness sake, we're only a third of the way into spring and it's already stinking hot!) so the ideal mentioned above unfortunately fell by the waysi...

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. At the outset, it reminded me a bit of The Shadow of the Wind with its atmospheric tone with a touch of suspense and creepiness. The story opens at an antiquarian bookseller in Toulouse, France. Our main character, a young man, presents the shop owner with a very old piece of parchment written in a long-gone language. He needs a translator, but the shop owner wants to know how he came to have it first. It's the telling of this story that makes up the bulk o...

I thought this would might made a good short story, but it was padded out to novel length. The beginning quarter of the book was largely unnecessary to the overall story, and rather tedious. I was thinking of abandoning it when the story really began (as far as I was concerned).Unfortunately, the main story seemed full of plot holes, or plot devices pushed too far. Having the main character, who was the narrator, write "Looking back, I cannot believe I thought X/did Y" did not fill them as far a...

This was a thoroughly enjoyable little story with plenty of atmosphere and intrigue. I've only read one other book by Kate Mosse - the readable but somewhat heavy-handed Sepulchre - and The Winter Ghosts was far better. Like Sepulchre, it reads rather like a YA novel, and I wasn't at all surprised to learn it's an expanded version of a previously published short story. But the characters are likeable, the plot grips, and Freddie's meeting with the mysterious Fabrissa and his subsequent discoveri...

Loved it! Loved the atmosphere, the writing and the history!

1.5 rating, since there were one or two things I actually liked about this book. It is suffice to say that it was a load of sentimental bollocks. I would have given up on this book, only if I hadn't read and enjoyed Mosse's previous novels (see Labyrinth and Sepulchre). Also, it was a short read, so I thought I might as well finish it because I absolutely hate abandoning books half-way through. Just like Hosseini in The Kite Runner, Mosse tries to over-sentimentalize the suffering and grief of h...

This is the expanded story that was originally released as The Cave, a 97 page short story for World Book Day 2009:0752884506 (ISBN13: 9780752884509)A beautiful cover - silver hoar frost roses as if on a pane of glass and inside there be maps *swoon*.Illustrations by Brian Gallaher.'Known unto God'Rudyard Kipling(epigraph carved on the tombstones raised to the memory of unknown soldiers and airmen)OLD WINTERPitiful old Winter has returned,Limping up and down our roads,Spreading his white blanket...

Beautifully written. The descriptions absolutely came to life on the page. This story of ghosts, love and romance, and the supernaturalism of the past leaking into the present (1933) is a fascinating one. Freddie is a charming and sympathetic character, deeply introspective, who stayed with me long after I closed the book. Hidden caves, mysterious images, and Mosse’s evocative prose made for a suspenseful read. This is not a scary ghost story, more melancholy and cerebral. I liked this novel far...

I struggled with the first half of this book. I almost put it down. The lovely language kept me loyal. I persisted. The reward was a bittersweet ghost story that leaves one feeling happy to be human inside. I love that sort of book.