WINNER ARTHUR ELLIS AWARD BEST CRIME NOVEL IN CANADA 2015‘The very best of history, mystery, romance and sheer fun.’ Diana Gabaldon On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong – when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who … into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him – the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer – and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields.
But there’s another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich.
A mass murderer.
Plague…
Murder has a new friend.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book – in fact I found it very difficult to put down! The author has a very individual style, and managed to combine compelling storytelling, fabulous historical detail woven seamlessly into the story, with wonderful and believable characters. It was one of those books that pulls you completely into the story and time period, so that you live in the book, as it were. I can’t recommend this highly enough. A must-read for all fans of historical fiction.
As Humphreys builds his story, he takes the reader into London’s tenement warrens. In one eery scene, fleeing characters find themselves in a warehouse where tanned skins from dead cats hang from the ceiling.With the setting in place, Humphreys turns his attention to a people still recovering from almost 20 years of civil war and continued friction.The novel Plague begins with an introduction to Captain William Coke, once a member of Sir Bevel Grenville’s Royal Regiment, now a highwayman who only loads his guns with powder.
With him is Dickon, a street urchin Coke found on his doorstep, who serves as a lookout as Coke stakes out a carriage. The vehicle has three passengers, including a woman wearing a necklace that would pay Coke’s debts. As it turns out, this heist is different, because everyone inside the carriage is already dead.
EXCELLENT HISTORICAL DRAMA WITH PLENTY OF SURPRISES
• A fantastic book for capturing the daily drudgery & fear of living in London in the summer of 1665 during the Bubonic Plague. Supported by clever word choice and word order (not to mention what must have been months of research), “Plague” draws the reader into a murder mystery as a thief, bounty hunter, and actresses cross paths with dukes and drunkards, earls and the ecclesiastical, kings and killers.
• Set with wonderful bits of acrimony that immediately followed the end of Britain’s bloody civil war, the plot winds steadily with very little sag in the middle, the backdrop of the ever-present invisible threat of death (something that we can all certainly relate to in these crazy times of COVID-19) guaranteeing to keep you reading.
• I found the first few chapters difficult to read quickly, as the author’s style (word order & word choice) was foreign to me. But then, a funny thing happened—I was sucked into the story as those very words wrapped me into the surroundings of those days of chivalry, gallantry, bawdiness, and rampant death. It’s quite helpful to read this as an e-book, for Mr. Humphreys cherry-picked the *perfect* words to accurately describe everything from clothing to card games from that era. Being able to highlight the word (in an e-book) & get an immediate definition will aid in drawing the complete picture for the reader.
• Quite often, I felt I was walking the dark streets of London with these very visceral characters. An excellent historical drama with several “nice” surprises. The amount of research that went into this book was amazing, and that work truly brought the novel to life.
• The climactic chase scene at the end left me with an unsatisfied feeling, but I suppose that’s been left open for a sequel.
This was an outstanding read. Really loved the writing.