The Rose Labyrinth

Reading this novel is like walking a labyrinth--one gets caught up in the measured pacing, but around every corner are glimpses of a bigger picture. During the first three quarters of the book I wondered how Ms. Hardie would tie together so many story lines, but realized once I was well into it, she was deftly and deliberately weaving wide ranging bits of information into a most unusual plot. The facts of the story are a mysterious set of papers and a couple of buried keys belonging to a 16th century alchemist. Hot on the trail are modern fundamentalist Christians who believe the papers hold the secret of the exact date and time of the 'Rapture' and a heart surgeon's family to whom the keys and papers have been passed down for 17 generations. Complicating the search is the surgeon's involvement with a transplant patient who received his dead brother's heart and the brother's fiance and best friend. References to cell memory, windows between the 16th and 21st centuries, numerology, astrology, British history, the Masons and Rosicrucians make this a very different and interesting story, indeed. Thrilling without being a thriller, romantic without being a romance and mysterious; all these elements are present and make this exactly the kind of novel I love and am constantly searching for. All the characters are well-bred and even the villains have nice manners. If you liked Michael Gruber's Book of Air and Shadows, this is similar, though much less edgy and cynical. If you were sorely disappointed in Rebecca Stott's Ghostwalk, this is the book that one should have been. Fans of Arianna Franklin, Kate Mosse and Katherine Neville will probably enjoy it also.

With "The Rose Labyrinth," Titania Hardie enters the rather lofty ranks of Umberto Eco and Katherine Neville as she employs historical documents and personae to create a suspense story that I believe will become a classic. Modern-day descendants of Dr. John Dee find themselves hounded by a Christian Zionist/Theocratic group that believes their inherited treasures include documents that will allow them to unleash "the Rapture" and leave more moderate believers (as well as non-Christians) behind to deal with Armageddon. The book employs modern science, cabala, the writings of John Dee and William Shakespeare, and a host of other interesting clues to weave a tale that could serve as a lesson to many as the "Left Behind" theocracy becomes more popular. I would recommend this book highly to those who are interested in Tudor-era history, as well as in a more balanced and enlightened view of theology. (Review based on advance reading copy.)

Fascinating mystery with lots of twists and turns that keep you turning the page. As far as the review bashing it for the "evil fundamentalists" in the story I would remind them that this is first of all fiction and second of all there is evil within all groups. Don't let this fear stop you from at least giving the book a try! You won't want to put it down.

Not all of what Titania Hardie write about esotericism in her work THE ROSE LABYRINTH is correct but she does give the uninitiated a veiled view of how the individual seeker can search out the Mind of God. If but one person that reads this work is inspired to search out the deep things of God then Titania Hardie's work is a masterpiece: thought it is flaud on some technical points. The one glaring point that the author erred on was having one of the character's (Alex) say that Yahweh represented the Moon. This is in error. Actually Yahweh represents the Sun and Elohym represents the Moon as outlined in the Zohar. The Zohar is a Jewish Kabbalistic mystical work on the Torah. The first chapter of Genesis from an esoteric point of view actually validates that interpretation. I await with anticipation Titania Hardie next endeavor in this genre of thought.

This book is an out an out joy to read. A love story with more than a little twist (you need to read it to understand!) this is an intelligent book that will stimulate, educate and at times make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as the medieval mystery unfolds and reveals that the issue of religious tolerance is just as relevant today as it was in the time of Queen Elizabeth the first. Hardie has scored with this, her first novel and I cannot recommend it more highly.