"Vivid historical detail, headlong pace, and gratifyingly feminist finale... this sends out Mosse’s saga on a high note." Publishers Weekly
"The detailed, woman-centric series showcases her talents as a storyteller and is both well-considered and well-written." Library Journal
A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land.
Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, arrives in search of her cousin ― the notorious she-captain and pirate commander Louise Reydon-Joubert ― who landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years before, then disappeared without a trace . . .
Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid and courageous woman of the Joubert family ― Isabelle Lepard ― has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. Intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the crimes and tragedies still shadow the present. And now, Isabelle faces a race against time if she is to discover the truth, and escape with her life . . .
Painstakingly researched and beautifully told, The Map of Bones is the fourth – and final – novel of The Joubert Family Chronicles, following the bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship.
'Mosse gives us both the satisfying intricacy of historical fact and a fictional narrative that carries us along at a rollicking pace. The long, rich, tragic history of the Huguenots deserved a series of novels as brilliant and well researched as [The Joubert Family Chronicles], in which the past is felt deep in the reader’s bones' – The Observer
'This is adventure-stuffed historical fiction in the grand tradition' – The Telegraph
'A fittingly terrific conclusion [to The Joubert Family Chronicles]' – i newspaper
Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, The Joubert Family Chronicles (the number one bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship and The Map of Bones), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction. Her highly acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World. The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, she is also the founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is also a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, President of the Festival of Chichester, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Authors and a Trustee of the British Library. She was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List 2024.
