The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse

Being a huge fan of Kate Mosses' previous books, Labyrinth and Sepulchre, I had very high hopes for what was described as the follow up in the Languedoc trilogy. Winter Ghosts was the third and final instillation of this Languedoc series which was all set in France.

The book is about Freddie Watson, who whilst in a book store trying to translate an old letter, tells us his story. To tell us this story he takes us back to the 1920's where he is suffering the loss of his older brother from the Great War. Driving through France he, due to unforeseen circumstances finds himself in an isolated village called Nulle. In this village, at a social Gathering, he meets a very intriguing woman named Fabrissa and they share their stories. Fabrissa later asks for Freddies help in what is the main plot of the story.

The winter Ghosts took me a while to really sink my teeth into the storyline but I wasn't worried as this did occur with both Labyrinth and Sepulchre, however unlike the other two books, I guessed the ending rather quickly, which spoiled the book for me somewhat. What didn't help was that I had picked up Mosses' Novella named The Cave some time before and had read a good chunk of it (only stopped when I found out it was going to be made into a novel).

Kate Mosses' writing and descriptions are still in keeping with the other two and so the book does have some redeeming qualities but I found that it didn't move me as much as the other two had. With the others I felt great empathy with the central protagonists and once finished couldn't find a book to match up with its style. Both Labyrinth and Sepulchre have a unique beauty about them that is very clearly lacking in The Winter Ghosts.

The story line is good but the sequence of events made it too obvious for the reader to guess what exactly was happening. It was almost infuriating for me as a reader to read that Freddie Watson couldn't understand what was happening when to me it was so obvious.
Overall I would say this was a disappointment. Yet if you do not mind knowing the plots before you read or if you haven't read one of Mosses over books before I would certainly give this a go. I feel that my love of the other two has definitely prejudiced me against this book and because I was expecting so much more I never would have liked it.

This book still has that beautiful way of words that Kate Mosse is so good at and so is not an awful read (just not a very good one).