Company Of Liars by Karen Maitland
May. 22nd, 2014 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
1348.
Plague has come to England. And the lies you tell will be the death of you.
A scarred trader in holy relics. A conjuror. A musician and his apprentice. A one-armed storyteller. A young couple on the run. A midwife. And a rune-reading girl.
A group of misfits bands together to escape the plague. But in their midst lurks a curse darker and more malign than the pestilence they flee …
It’s 1348. Camelot is a peddlar of relics and charms, plying his trade up and down England. Used to being alone, a momentary act of kindness to a strange, white-haired girl brings him into contact with 8 strangers – Zophiel (a conjurer), Rodrigo and Jofre (a musician and his apprentice, recently forced to leave their employer’s service), Osmond and Adela (a young couple looking for a new life now Adela’s pregnant), Cygnus (a one-armed storyteller), Pleasance (a midwife and healer) and Narigorm (the white-haired girl who reads runes). Together they plan to head north but their plans are disrupted by the arrival of a deadly pestilence. As they try to out-run it though, they discover that death is already in their midst for all of the band have secrets that they’d do anything to prevent coming out into the open …
Karen Maitland’s historical thriller is rich on period detail but low on actual thrills while the supernatural elements never really catch fire. I picked this up expecting a literary crime thriller thanks to the blurb on the back but while there’s a great sense of life in 14th century England and the fear that swept it during the arrival of the plague, the slow reveal of each of the company’s secrets is spoilt by the fact that they’re so predictable while a key twist is obvious from the start. I also found the supernatural elements unconvincing, mainly because no one tackles Narigorm on what she’s doing or even asks basic questions about it and while some of that can be explained by the superstitious nature of the times, it nonetheless reduces it to a get out of jail card. At the same time, the company themselves are little more than stock characters, which makes it difficult to care about them. This is a shame because Maitland does well at creating atmosphere and there was enough there for me to be interested in checking out her other work, even if this book didn’t do it for me.
Maitland does well at showing everyday life and beliefs in 14th century England. I particularly enjoyed a scene involving a cripple’s wedding, which is chilling and tragic in equal measure and shows how brutal life was for those at the bottom of the social pile. I just wished that the rest of the book had been as good.
The Verdict:
Karen Maitland’s historical thriller is rich on period detail but low on actual thrills while the supernatural elements never really catch fire. I picked this up expecting a literary crime thriller thanks to the blurb on the back but while there’s a great sense of life in 14th century England and the fear that swept it during the arrival of the plague, the slow reveal of each of the company’s secrets is spoilt by the fact that they’re so predictable while a key twist is obvious from the start. I also found the supernatural elements unconvincing, mainly because no one tackles Narigorm on what she’s doing or even asks basic questions about it and while some of that can be explained by the superstitious nature of the times, it nonetheless reduces it to a get out of jail card. At the same time, the company themselves are little more than stock characters, which makes it difficult to care about them. This is a shame because Maitland does well at creating atmosphere and there was enough there for me to be interested in checking out her other work, even if this book didn’t do it for me.
Plague has come to England. And the lies you tell will be the death of you.
A scarred trader in holy relics. A conjuror. A musician and his apprentice. A one-armed storyteller. A young couple on the run. A midwife. And a rune-reading girl.
A group of misfits bands together to escape the plague. But in their midst lurks a curse darker and more malign than the pestilence they flee …
It’s 1348. Camelot is a peddlar of relics and charms, plying his trade up and down England. Used to being alone, a momentary act of kindness to a strange, white-haired girl brings him into contact with 8 strangers – Zophiel (a conjurer), Rodrigo and Jofre (a musician and his apprentice, recently forced to leave their employer’s service), Osmond and Adela (a young couple looking for a new life now Adela’s pregnant), Cygnus (a one-armed storyteller), Pleasance (a midwife and healer) and Narigorm (the white-haired girl who reads runes). Together they plan to head north but their plans are disrupted by the arrival of a deadly pestilence. As they try to out-run it though, they discover that death is already in their midst for all of the band have secrets that they’d do anything to prevent coming out into the open …
Karen Maitland’s historical thriller is rich on period detail but low on actual thrills while the supernatural elements never really catch fire. I picked this up expecting a literary crime thriller thanks to the blurb on the back but while there’s a great sense of life in 14th century England and the fear that swept it during the arrival of the plague, the slow reveal of each of the company’s secrets is spoilt by the fact that they’re so predictable while a key twist is obvious from the start. I also found the supernatural elements unconvincing, mainly because no one tackles Narigorm on what she’s doing or even asks basic questions about it and while some of that can be explained by the superstitious nature of the times, it nonetheless reduces it to a get out of jail card. At the same time, the company themselves are little more than stock characters, which makes it difficult to care about them. This is a shame because Maitland does well at creating atmosphere and there was enough there for me to be interested in checking out her other work, even if this book didn’t do it for me.
Maitland does well at showing everyday life and beliefs in 14th century England. I particularly enjoyed a scene involving a cripple’s wedding, which is chilling and tragic in equal measure and shows how brutal life was for those at the bottom of the social pile. I just wished that the rest of the book had been as good.
The Verdict:
Karen Maitland’s historical thriller is rich on period detail but low on actual thrills while the supernatural elements never really catch fire. I picked this up expecting a literary crime thriller thanks to the blurb on the back but while there’s a great sense of life in 14th century England and the fear that swept it during the arrival of the plague, the slow reveal of each of the company’s secrets is spoilt by the fact that they’re so predictable while a key twist is obvious from the start. I also found the supernatural elements unconvincing, mainly because no one tackles Narigorm on what she’s doing or even asks basic questions about it and while some of that can be explained by the superstitious nature of the times, it nonetheless reduces it to a get out of jail card. At the same time, the company themselves are little more than stock characters, which makes it difficult to care about them. This is a shame because Maitland does well at creating atmosphere and there was enough there for me to be interested in checking out her other work, even if this book didn’t do it for me.
