Review: The City of Tears by Kate Mosse

Minotaur Books

St. Martin's Publishing Group

On Sale: 01/12/2021

ISBN: 9781250202192

480 Pages

Following #1 Sunday Times bestseller The Burning Chambers, New York Times bestseller Kate Mosse returns with The City of Tears, a sweeping historical epic about love in a time of war.

Alliances and Romance

August 1572: Minou Joubert and her husband Piet travel to Paris to attend a royal wedding which, after a decade of religious wars, is intended to finally bring peace between the Catholics and the Huguenots. 

Loyalty and Deception

Also in Paris is their oldest enemy, Vidal, in pursuit of an ancient relic that will change the course of history. 

Revenge and Persecution

Within days of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the street, and Minou’s family will be scattered to the four winds . . .

The City of Tears has left me in tears throughout various chapters covering the family relationship between mother, Minou and daughter, Marta. The mother/daughter relationship covering abandonment, treachery and deceit broke my heart to read; set against French, sixteenth century religious wars between the Catholics and the Huguenots. 

Very refreshing to read were the chapters covering the region of Amsterdam during the sixteenth century. Specifically, the The Eighty Years War in the Low Countries and the Act of Abjuration bringing self-rule to the Netherlands. I really enjoyed the father and daughter relationship between Willem van Raay and his daughter Cornelia. 

As if this weren’t enough, once again, you have the wedding of Marguerite de Valois and Henri Navarre. Bringing back my passion for Dumas’ novel, La Reigne Margot and my all time favorite film of the same name.  Heart stopping chapters covering the St.Bartholomew Day massacre in all the violent, bloody, death,loss, and grief as only gifted writer Kate Mosse can.  She has a masterful way of writing about death, loss and grief; almost as if bringing ghosts back from beyond the veil.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Pan Macmillan in the US for my review copy.

Due to COVID 19, the publication date has been pushed back to January 2021.
Feel free to pre-order a copy on Amazon or your local independent bookshop.