Een prachtig verhaal wat geschiedenis, bon homme, een codex, een oorlog, en liefdesverhaal met elkaar verweven. The ending was of course tragic but given that I could not empathize with the characters I found that I did not care one way or the other. The Prologue describes ‘the woman known as Sophie’ and the reader is left to wonder, which of the women in the story is ‘Sophie’?

Moreover, I have no intention to attempt another Mosse novel again - my Year 11 narrative writings were more interesting and original! Perhaps those who caught the first two instalments would find something of value here, but for newcomers like myself, Citadel is definitely not the place to begin with Mosse. Found the previous two books real page turners; this one was a slightly more laborious read and I'm not sure why. It’s not until the very end that he experiences any sort of conflict, and as such, his story is quite boring.

not only as divine prediction of future events but also as divine diagnosis of the present state of affairs. Mosse emphasizes dialogue over description, so despite Citadel’s generous endowments, I found myself speeding through it. What she really needed was a bloody good editor who could have taken a machete to the thing and cut it down to about 200 pages and then it would have felt like a more worthwhile read or at least less of a waste of my time.

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. Well, I had read 'Labyrinth' which I really enjoyed and 'Sepulcher,' which was also relatively enjoyable as far as light holiday reads go.Despite some poetic license being taken throughout the novel, Mosse does stay true to the key facts of the French Resistance and the courage it took to sustain such a movement. 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. As I say, I loved the second half of the book and couldn't put my Kindle down and was utterly heartbroken at the conclusion; tears of joy and sadness.