The Heretics’ Revenge is part historical re-telling, part fictional adventure. Its first few chapters give the story of a 13th Century community of Cathars – a heretical Catholic sect – and its bloody persecution by the Church of Rome. This community was believed to have held possession of the Holy Grail, and to have hidden it somewhere in southern France. The next part of Barrett’s book tells the tale of one Otto Rahn, a student of medieval history, recruited by the Nazis to find the Cathars’ treasure. The third, and longest, section of the book imagines a modern day seeker of the Grail, and gives a detailed description of both his search in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the controversial secret he eventually uncovers.
Barrett’s re-telling of the factual elements of this story are well paced, with just the right amount of historical detail, and just the right amount of imaginative license to enliven the ‘documentary’ style of narration. Once the real story gets going, a very similar style is maintained – and while this cleverly lends an authenticity to the fiction, and gives the book as a whole a real sense of unity, I must admit that I found it all a little heavy going. The modern day characters are desperately two dimensional, and their dialogue is clunky at best; and while the descriptions of the search itself are compelling, they are intercut with so many details of the protagonist’s business ventures, and the food he eats, and his rather too comfortable relationship with his girlfriend, that I frequently wondered if my interest would be maintained.
However, maintained it was; and in one sense, this book is a triumph of delivering exactly what the author intended to deliver. While I feel the human elements of his story can be discounted, the real ‘character’ is the quest itself, and the surprising quality of its conclusion. Yes, the ‘Holy Grail’ is finally discovered – I feel this is no spoiler – but its precise nature is nothing like what I’d been expecting, and in explaining the book’s unusual title, provides a satisfying resolution to the opening tale of
the Cathars’ persecution. If you want a book rich in impeccably researched historical detail, a fine sense of place, and a memorably twisty and thought-provoking final act, then I can certainly recommend The Heretics’ Revenge. Much more than the sum of its faults, I award this book 4 stars.
