The Map of Bones is the final novel of the Joubert Family Chronicles, a series of four books by the British author, Kate Mosse. It couldn’t really be described as crime fiction, although many crimes are committed in the story. Instead, it is the closing chapters of an extraordinary historical saga, and well worth reading. No surprise that soon after it was published in October 2024 it was longlisted for the 2025 Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown Award.
The four books in this series – The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship and this, The Map of Bones – trace the fate of a Protestant Huguenot family from deadly religious persecution in Southern France in 1562, through years of intimidation, to their new life in the Huguenot settlements in Franschoek, South Africa in the 19th Century; and their subsequent descendants settling back in Europe.
The Map of Bones begins in 1688 in the new Dutch colony of South Africa. The heroine has only recently arrived and is driven by a compulsion to uncover the deeds and fate of her ancestors there in 1622. The final section of the novel involves a family member who arrives 240-years later, in 1862, similarly obsessed by her need to discover the final parts of the family secrets.
Kate Mosse is a feminist author who has stated “unless women’s stories and testaments are included alongside those of men – it cannot be called history at all”. Thus, nearly all the main characters in this book are women and their actions, adventures and sufferings are seen through a feminist lens, which provides a refreshingly different narrative. Having said that, I’m just not sure how likely it is that a woman would be a pirate captain in 1622, or an intrepid traveller into the frontier lands of South Africa in 1688, although that doesn’t detract from the story, which is completely gripping.
At the heart of this long-running saga are dark deeds in 1622, which subsequent generations of women risk life and limb to uncover. Their adventures on that journey are hair-raising and tension builds throughout the novel as they stumble from one danger to another.
My verdict
The Map of Bones is a long book – far too long, in my eyes – but it’s so very well researched and written that it brings the harsh realities of the new colony of South Africa vividly to life. It wasn’t just a good story; it was thought-provoking as well.
There was so much about South Africa’s history and the Huguenots that I learned from this book. From the perils of sailing to South Africa in the 17th Century and the fate of young, orphan girls who were shipped there to be wives to the new settler farmers; to the exploitation of enslaved peoples to build the new colony, and the taking of land from the African tribes.
This book rather reminded me of Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, which is a novel about the founding of New York. Here though, we are closely involved in the struggles of the French Huguenots and their success in persuading the South African authorities to let them migrate from the impoverished soils they were originally allocated to the fertile valleys of Olifantshoek where, with their knowledge of fruit farming and viniculture, they established vineyards which developed into the huge enterprises of today.
Somehow, Kate Mosse has brought to life the hazards, opportunities and harsh realities of survival in the new colony. And seeing all this through the eyes of women turns some bits of history that I thought I knew on its head. I listened to this as an e-Audiobook on BorrowBox and I’m really glad I did. I give this 4 Stars.
Review by: Silent Witness
What’s in a Star?
For our book reviews, 4 Stars means “A good book with an interesting, layered story that you will still remember after a month”.
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