Company of Liars

Karen Maitland really knows her stuff, working details about life in the middle ages around her story of a company travelling around England, trying to avoid an outbreak of the plague. She also manages to create a fascinating mystery - are the travellers dying one by one of unrelated causes, or is there a murderer in their midst?

An engrossing story about a group of travellers, each with a story to hide and to tell, with the 1348 onset of the Black Plague in England as a backdrop. There is a horror-story frame to it, which I didn't like because I thought it was so unnecessary, given that it all takes place while the Plague is raging–what could be more horrifying than that?! The only way I can find the “horror story” aspect of this book acceptable is to explain to myself as a kind of personification of the horror of the Plague. I don't want to spoil anything for other readers, so if you have read the book and have thoughts about this, please comment. Anyway, the book makes good use of historical details about the Plague year 1348 and has well drawn characters –there is a lot to like.