The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is the final book in the Joubert Family Chronicles quartet (see my blogs on The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship) and having read the penultimate book in the series in the Autumn I bought the final book in the airport as a hardback paperback on my way on holiday to some sunshine at the beginning of January.

This was perfect holiday reading and for once I had read the last one recently, so even more than usual I was champing at the bit to pick up the characters where they’d been left off. The Map of Bones is set in South Africa, in the Huguenot refugee communities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, all of which I enjoyed visiting back in 2020 just before the pandemic, so it was great to be immersed in the history of these beautiful places. Suzanne is off to find out the end of the story of her ancestor, pirate and relative Louise Reydon-Joubert, whose diaries she has inherited, and ventures to Cape Town in 1688 for her adventure. She is then followed in 1862 by Isabelle Lepard, who has Suzanne’s accounts of her time in the country and wants to fill in the gaps as she establishes herself as a Victorian woman travel writer.

Violence against women and telling women’s silenced histories is the theme that runs throughout this quartet and this one again shines a light on women taking back their power after being victims of rape. I would highly recommend this series as a thought provoking, educational and enjoyable read that provided perfect immersive escapism into another time and place.