Mondays Book Talk: The Tenth Chamber

Written by MikeH

The Tenth Chamber by Glenn Cooper 

The Tenth Chamber is a fictitious thriller by best-selling American author Glenn Cooper. Having read two books from his trilogy The Library of the Dead, I knew this novel would be an excellent choice. In fact, I completed it in less than two weeks, while commuting to and from work. 

In The Tenth Chamber, a medieval script is discovered hidden behind an antique bookcase in the Abbey of Ruac, in rural France. Badly damaged, it is sent to Paris for restoration, and literary historian Hugo Pineau begins to read the startling fourteenth-century text. Within its pages lies a fanciful tale of a painted cave and the secrets it contains - and a rudimentary map showing its position close to the abbey. Intrigued, Hugo enlists the help of archaeologist Luc Simard and the two men go exploring.

When they discover a vast network of prehistoric caves, buried deep within the cliffs, they realise that they've stumbled across something extraordinary. And at the very core of the labyrinth lies the most astonishing chamber of all, just as the manuscript chronicled. Aware of the significance of their discovery, they set up camp with a team of experts, determined to bring their find to the world. But as they begin to unlock the ancient secrets the cavern holds, they find themselves at the centre of a dangerous game. One 'accidental' death leads to another. And it seems that someone will stop at nothing to protect the enigma of the tenth chamber.

I found this novel very enjoyable. The story is engaging and very interesting. For a brief moment, I felt transported to the famous caves of Lascaux, in France. Like his other books, Cooper jumps around to different time periods to tell the whole story. In this one, the story mainly starts in 1899, moving to the 12th century, going back the Upper Palaeolithic period and then to the present, with little forays into 1307. Although the story is not presented chronologically, it is very easy to follow. I love how the little clues add up to one stunning conclusion revealing the ancient secrets. 

All the characters in this book are well presented, especially the ones from the Upper Palaeolithic period. Cooper did a great job of depicting them and their lives. Overall The Tenth Chamber is a good thriller, although I have a couple of complaints about it. First, there are some scenes which I found to be overly violent; I could not see the justification behind these explicit scenes even though some of the characters seemed to be protecting the secret in the cave. Secondly, I found that the truth behind the enigma is somehow implausible. 

Hope you all have the occasion to read this novel and to draw your own conclusions about all the mysteries lying in The Tenth Chamber.