Citadel

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Aurelius' journey was not particularly exciting and the hokum about the ghost army was particularly unconvincing. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Observer Kate Mosse OBE, her reputation as a champion of popular fiction cemented. It is also steeped in a passion for the region, its history and legends, and that magical shadow world where the two meet.

I failed to be moved by the love story because to me it seemed to have been put together in haste, as if the author suddenly realized she needed to have a romance thrown in. It was as if she was holding back on this because ultimately she thought she might need them to change sides later, but wasn't quite sure so just left them in an ambiguous zone that was unhelpful and eventually served no purpose. This secondary thread is only a minor part of the book, which concentrates on the primary story of the struggles of a group of women Resistance fighters trying to help people escape Nazi-occupied France.

But smuggling refugees over the mountains into neutral territory and sabotaging their Nazi occupiers is only part of their mission.

Moreover, I have no intention to attempt another Mosse novel again - my Year 11 narrative writings were more interesting and original! What she suffered through and how she supported others was a tribute to the many women who led the pack to protect their families, friends, and even strangers in their towns during the Nazi invasion of France in the 1930s and 1940s. Citadel likes to talk about itself, and boy, it had certainly had its share of adventure sto relate. When a bomb goes off at a crowded, peaceful demonstration, Raoul realises he has been set up by Authié to look like the perpetrator.The police were to protect, although many of them were involved with the Nazi's, who to trust was a significant problem. Revelation 1:1 announces both the book's title (it is a 'revelation') and its divine author ('Jesus Christ').

In fact, she's more than adept at writing two parallel tales with hundreds of years between the two. Like their ancestors who fought to protect their land from Northern invaders seven hundred years before, these women—code-named Citadel—fight to liberate their home from the Germans. Because I haven't read Sepulchre, I can't comment on how that book fits into the trilogy, but there are references to the two previous books that lead up to Citadel.Packed with some terrifyingly realistic action scenes, portraying the horrors of war and the evil that men can do to each other, it is also at times, gentle and down-to-earth - portraying the small French town and it's folk with incredible realism. Some might suggest that Citadel's ending is shocking, but I did suspect about 75 pages prior to the book's conclusion how Mosse would complete her story. This action-packed epic contains everything we've come to expect - mystery, adventure and long-buried secrets just waiting to be uncovered. The combination of harrowing wartime setting and the supernatural romance of the Codex can sometimes feel jarring – tales of Nazi brutality do not usually need mystic additions to make them convincing – and at 919 pages, Citadel is very long, but the story progresses rapidly and for the many fans of Mosse's Languedoc novels, it will be a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

The story itself has potential as it charts the development of a group of women who come to run a Resistance movement named Citadel in Southern France during the Nazi occupation. I think this would make a good holiday read - well apart from when the Gestapo are involved - it is pacy and made me question again what I would do if my country was invaded as France was, and how I would respond to torture, but in my opinion it isn't quite as good as her other work, perhaps because instead of telling a more straightforward tale of the resistance, Mosse attempted to press the story into the same shape as the first two Languedoc novels.

However, I found the length off-putting and it was hard to keep up with all the characters as some of them melded together they were so indistinct.