Company of Liars: A Novel of the Plague
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Imagine a sinister version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, overlaid with a touch of And Then There Were None. Far from the royal court's pageantry, nine outcasts form an unlikely band that, beginning on Midsummer's Day, 1348, journeys across England in an attempt to outrun the Black Plague. Camelot, a disfigured peddler of fake relics, narrates; others include an expectant young couple, an Italian minstrel and apprentice, an ill-tempered magician, an herbalist, a storyteller with a swan's wing for an arm, and an albino child rune reader whose predictions are uncannily prescient. Each reveals his story; each hides a dark secret that proves his undoing. Maitland excels at describing the bleak, devastated landscape of a pestilence-torn country, with its rampant famine and superstitious, terrified inhabitants, although the pace approaches that of the travelers, trudging endlessly through the mud and muck. Likewise, some revelations are signposted too clearly. But interspersed in the cheerless realism, there's much to absorb about medieval folk customs, garments, guilds, and religion. These details, plus the intriguing characters and burgeoning suspense, keep pages turning.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2008 Booklist

Desperate to outrun the Black Death ravaging England during the sodden summer of 1348, nine disparate souls band together in this harrowing historical, which infuses a Canterbury Tales scenario with the spectral chill of an M. Night Shyamalan ghost story. Maitland (The White Room) gives each of the travelers a potentially devastating secret. How did narrator Camelot, a glib-tongued peddler of false relics and hope, really come by that hideously scarred face? What is magician Zophiel hiding inside his wagon? And just who is Narigorm, the spooky albino girl whose readings of the runes are always eerily on target? As the nine strangers slog cross-country through the pestilential landscape, their number shrinking one by one, they come to realize that what they don't know about each other might just kill them. Despite Maitland's yarn-spinning prowess, her narrative occasionally stalls because of unrelenting grimness and an increasingly predictable plot--that is, until its gasp-out-loud finale. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Set in 14th-century England, Maitland's U.S. debut has nine strangers fleeing the plague. Each traveler tells a tale, revealing secrets of the troupe, one of which proves deadly. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Nine pilgrims try to outrun the Black Death in first novelist Maitland's sensational take on The Canterbury Tales. It's 1348, and nonstop rain has been soaking England for months. Plague has struck the port cities, and a half-blind, disfigured peddler stops at a village fair to sell his fake religious relics. He plans to make for an inland shrine, in hopes of wintering far from the encroaching Black Death. The peddler haphazardly and reluctantly accumulates eight traveling companions. Zophiel, a magician and con man who has a wagon and horse, totes cargo (including an embalmed mermaid) that he won't let anyone touch. Pregnant Adela and her husband Osmond have been banished by their families. Venetian minstrel Rodrigo and his apprentice Jofre have been sacked by their lord. Cygnus is a man born with a swan's wing. Midwife/healer Pleasance is accompanied by her young albino charge, Narigorm, who casts runes. With echoes of The Seventh Seal and a nod to The Decameron, Maitland describes an England mired in superstition and paranoia as, destabilized by famine, pestilence and climate change, feudal society breaks down. The fugitive pilgrims can never shelter long in any town; either their own behavior (mostly Jofre's drunken homosexual escapades) or the arrival of plague drives them on. They're pursued by mysterious wolf-howls, and soon death stalks their numbers as well. After Pleasance is found hanged, they learn she was Jewish, concealing that fact because Jews are banned in England. Zophiel admits he's a disgraced priest who's being pursued by a "bishop's wolf," a holy hit man. Adela and Osmond may be brother and sister. One of the biggest mysteries here is why the group tolerates bad seed Narigorm. Although they believe in witches, vampires and werewolves, they apparently don't mind that Narigorm revels in their misfortunes, when she's not foretelling their doom or torturing small animals. Decidedly not your English teacher's Chaucer, but creepy, suspenseful fun. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Imagine a sinister version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, overlaid with a touch of And Then There Were None. Far from the royal court's pageantry, nine outcasts form an unlikely band that, beginning on Midsummer's Day, 1348, journeys across England in an attempt to outrun the Black Plague. Camelot, a disfigured peddler of fake relics, narrates; others include an expectant young couple, an Italian minstrel and apprentice, an ill-tempered magician, an herbalist, a storyteller with a swan's wing for an arm, and an albino child rune reader whose predictions are uncannily prescient. Each reveals his story; each hides a dark secret that proves his undoing. Maitland excels at describing the bleak, devastated landscape of a pestilence-torn country, with its rampant famine and superstitious, terrified inhabitants, although the pace approaches that of the travelers, trudging endlessly through the mud and muck. Likewise, some revelations are signposted too clearly. But interspersed in the cheerless realism, there's much to absorb about medieval folk customs, garments, guilds, and religion. These details, plus the intriguing characters and burgeoning suspense, keep pages turning. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Nine strangers desperate to escape the Black Death come together in 1348 England, each hiding a secret that will be revealed in successive rounds of storytelling. British author Maitland's U.S. debut. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

In England, 1348 was a very bad year: rains fell from Midsummer's Day to Christmas, causing crops to rot in the fields, and the plague swept through the country, killing and displacing high and low alike. Told from the viewpoint of Camelot, a peddler of relics, Maitland's story twists and turns deftly as a motley crew of travelers seek to hide their secrets from one another. Held together more by fear than comradeship, they wend their way across the south of England, seeking lasting refuge from the uncertainties of life. Like the pilgrims of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , to which this book has been likened, each of the travelers has a tale to tell. Those tales intertwine and unfold in a page-turning novel in which hope seeks to balance despair despite everything. Maitland, whose previous novel, The White Room , was released in the United Kingdom 12 years ago, has put the intervening years to good use. This novel vividly evokes the landscape of 14th-century England without putting too many 21st-century interpretations on actions and events. Public libraries should have this on their shelves. [See Prepub Alert & Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/08.]—Pamela O'Sullivan, SUNY at Brockport Lib.

Desperate to outrun the Black Death ravaging England during the sodden summer of 1348, nine disparate souls band together in this harrowing historical, which infuses a Canterbury Tales scenario with the spectral chill of an M. Night Shyamalan ghost story. Maitland (The White Room ) gives each of the travelers a potentially devastating secret. How did narrator Camelot, a glib-tongued peddler of false relics and hope, really come by that hideously scarred face? What is magician Zophiel hiding inside his wagon? And just who is Narigorm, the spooky albino girl whose readings of the runes are always eerily on target? As the nine strangers slog cross-country through the pestilential landscape, their number shrinking one by one, they come to realize that what they don't know about each other might just kill them. Despite Maitland's yarn-spinning prowess, her narrative occasionally stalls because of unrelenting grimness and an increasingly predictable plot—that is, until its gasp-out-loud finale. (Oct.)