Kate Mosse : The Labyrinth

Labyrinth might be described as the thinking woman's summer reading, chick lit with A levels for those with only a passing interest in getting a boyfriend. The story - a quest narrative set simultaneously in the 13th century and the present - concerns the safety of a set of crumbly books containing eternal verities that date back to ancient Egypt. The books belong to the Cathars, a sect active in medieval Pyrenean France who represent tolerance, ecumenicalism and all things nice (in fact, at times they resemble nothing so much as go-ahead Church of England curates in a multicultural urban parish). The baddies are the northern French, who disguise their greedy designs on the rich agricultural land of the Languedoc by using the language of religious orthodoxy and the cultural authority of the inquisition.