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A review by tshrope
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
5.0
I wasn’t sure if I would like this book since it is set in England during the mid 1300’s, not my favorite time period. But I was pleasantly surprised and was kept enthralled throughout the book. Nine traveling strangers meet along the road as they desperately try to outrun the Plague. All have secrets and all try to cover their secrets through lies to each other and sometimes even to themselves with deadly consequences. I was able to figure out a couple of the secrets early on, but others not at all until they were revealed at the very end.
Although this is set during the Middle Ages, most of us would agree that it was still an unenlightened era similar to the Dark Ages when the Church still ruled and controlled every aspect of every life through fear-mongering, taxation, religious mysticism, and pagan ritual. Maitland’s research of this era is excellent and her descriptions of both characters and landscape are vivid and realistic.
What Maitland captures best is the idea that although much has changed in terms of enlightenment and living conditions since this period, basic driving forces like love, lust, jealousy, and fear of the unknown have not changed at all.
Maitland holds the reader’s attention to the last page of its 576 pages with suspense and tension. This is historical suspense at its best.
Although this is set during the Middle Ages, most of us would agree that it was still an unenlightened era similar to the Dark Ages when the Church still ruled and controlled every aspect of every life through fear-mongering, taxation, religious mysticism, and pagan ritual. Maitland’s research of this era is excellent and her descriptions of both characters and landscape are vivid and realistic.
What Maitland captures best is the idea that although much has changed in terms of enlightenment and living conditions since this period, basic driving forces like love, lust, jealousy, and fear of the unknown have not changed at all.
Maitland holds the reader’s attention to the last page of its 576 pages with suspense and tension. This is historical suspense at its best.