I rather enjoyed this. The historical setting in Carcasona/Carcassonne was more interesting than the modern version. The modern part of the story read much more like mystery than SF/F. I'm not a fan of the mystery genre, but as it goes, that aspect was fine. Really, I think a story just about Alaïs during thé Crusade against the Languedoc would be more interesting as that part was quite good. As a grail story, it was passable. As historical fiction, it was compelling. As mystery, it was so so, and I don't think a few long lived people is enough to call it fantasy.