Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth – A review

Having recently read Kate Mosse’s novel Labyrinth, I couldn’t wait to get a hold of a copy of the (2012) television adaptation starring Sebastian Stan, Vanessa Kirby and John Hurt.

The novel and Channel 4 adaptation are based upon the lives of two woman, PHD graduate Dr. Alice Tanner and seventeen year old Alaïs Pelletier Du Mas. Alice come to France as a volunteer on a archaeology dig with her friend Sheila after finding out she is to inherit something from her  Aunt who  lived and died France. When Alice walks into a cave on the site of the dig her life is changed forever when, she finds a mysterious ring and begins to have visions of Alaïs who lived 800 years previously.

Dr Alice Tanner and Alaïs Pelletier Du Mas

The story is told from both Alice and Alaïs’s perceptive, Alaïs’s was a  young married woman who had an older sister Oriane Congost who was having an affair with her husband, but to Oriane it had nothing to do with love or affection it was all about power and manipulation. Oriane soon found out that their father was not her’s biologically and her attitude soon changed toward her family. Alaïs’s father confesses that he is the keeper of one of three books that can locate the grail, not the Holy grail of Christian mythology but something far more special and secret.

Sisters – Alais Pelletier Du Mas and Oriane Congost

Mean while in the present day Alice’s visions are becoming more intense and, as her friend Sheila has gone missing she goes looking for her and stumbles across Will Franklyn and his dangerous older lover Marie Cecile. Marie Cecile is a member of a cult like organization desperate to find the ring and the books so, they can find the grail, ultimately prolonging her life something she desperately craves.

Looking for the grail is all that Marie Cecile cares about and is not afraid to kill if it gets her what she wants, to her all men are her play things, the grail is all that matters.

Lovers – Marie Cecile and Will

Alice met Will in the hope of finding Sheila but to no avail and although she is unsuccessful there is a clear  attraction between the two, there relationship develops further when it becomes apparent Marie Cecile is not all that she seems and might know more than she is letting on about Sheila’s disappearance.

When looking round her Aunt’s house Alice finds a letter from a mysterious man who seems too know something about her visions. The mysterious man played by John Hurt takes Alice back to where it all began, the caves. He explains how she and Alaïs  are connected and what her visions of the past really mean.

John Hurt and Vanessa Kirby talk visions

Labyrinth is a well thought out well executed drama that did well not to get tangled in it’s own complications, each of the two episodes where  two hours long and were real treat that I would recommend watching. It was really enjoyable watching how the past and present intertwined together as well as learning about past histories of the Cather people and their ultimate down fall as well as what religion meant to people of that time compared with today.

At War – Tom Felton

The cast was really excellent  which included John Hurt (Merlin), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abby) and Katie McGrath (Merlin) just to name a few. This story has twists and turns and in the end doesn’t go where you think it will, it kept me hooked for a grand total of four hours.

Dr Alice Tanner

It’s a great adaptation of a novel I really enjoyed, the woman are kickass and don’t wait for men to rescue them, the go out and save themselves. I have often heard this book compared this book compared to the Di Vinci Code in my opinion they are nothing alike because the story and characters fly off in completely different directions.

Would recommend reading before watching.