- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Piatkus Books LTD (Dec 31 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0749906685
- ISBN-13: 978-0749906689
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,253,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
'a beguiling author who interweaves past and present. Like its predecessor... the book works well on both levels' The Times 'detective fiction with a historical twist - fans? will love it.' Scotland on Sunday 'moody mystery...a splendid piece of whodunnit, and when?' Newcastle Evening Chronicle 'a satisfying and enjoyable read' Martin Edwards
Product Description
When a letter arrives at Tradmouth police station, addressed to a DCI Norbert it causes a stir. For though DCI Norbert has long since moved on, the letter claims to have evidence that the man convicted of murdering the Rev. Shipbourne, Vicar of Belsham, during the course of a robbery, is innocent.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good stuff, this., Sep 12 2005
By Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Plague Maiden (Paperback)
qKate Ellis, The Plague Maiden (Piatkus, 2004)Filthy, uncultured American that I am, I sometimes miss out on what's going on overseas where mysteries are concerned. Thankfully, though, my mother is both a mystery fan and rather well-traveled, so I sometimes pick up a name here and there to check out. The most recent of these was Kate Ellis. I managed to track down an import copy of The Plague Maiden and got to reading.
As far as mysteries go, it's good stuff. Ellis' books (all of them, according to her website) combine a contemporary murder mystery with an historical event which also includes a murder mystery. Nice, that. After all, mystery novel detectives are usually working on two cases at once, anyway (and yet somehow can never figure out how they go together until the last fifty pages; figure that out for me, will you?). Why not set one four hundred years ago?
In this eighth installment, Detective Wesley Peterson has himself a nasty case of threatening; the manager of the local Huntings supermarket has received a threat. When it pans out, things start getting ugly. At the same time, Wesley's mate Neil is on an archaeological dig at a plague pit where a new Huntings is slated to go up, and finds a couple of skeletons who look rather like they didn't die of anything carried by fleas.
Ellis is quite good at integrating the history lessons into the storyline, something all too many authors fail miserably at, which makes The Plague Maiden a much easier read than one might expect, given that the author is going to be forced to do some explication for those of us not up on South Devon during the Black Plague. (How much of what's here is true, of course, I've no idea for that very reason; even if it's fabricated, the point is that it's well-meshed with the story.) The book is quite readable, and there are enough unexpected twists and turns to keep most mystery fans guessing. I've become a Kate Ellis convert, and will be reading more of her stuff as time goes on. ***
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read--mystery is why not a larger following, Dec 12 2006
By Maryland Reader "marylandreadr" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Plague Maiden (Paperback)
I am a little surprised this author doesn't have more of a following in the U.S. I read this a while ago, so I am going to be lean on detail.The lead character is a detective who read anthropology at the university, but ended up as a policeman. He's been assigned to a historic area and things keep turning up that use his expertise, directly or indirectly.
This series is well-plotted and paced, with interesting characters.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern and medieval murders, April 8 2012
By Damaskcat - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Plague Maiden (Paperback)
A middle-aged woman comes forward twelve years after a murder to say that she was with the convicted murderer on the night in question. Janet Powell left for the USA within a few days after the murder and had not been aware that anyone had been convicted until she saw a programme about prisons on television.A local supermarket receives a letter saying that products have been tampered with and people will die. Neil Watson, archaeologist, has uncovered a plague pit where the victims of the Black Death were buried but a skeleton near the top of the excavation has clearly been murdered. Then Neil is attacked and injured when he sleeps overnight on site to deter Nighthawks who have been targeting the site.
This is a complex plot with many intertwining strands - murder both ancient and relatively modern - as well as a death from contaminated jam. Plenty of people with a grudge against the local businessman who owns the chain of supermarkets and plenty of people who might have committed the murder of the clergyman twelve years ago now that the case needs to be re-opened. Gerry Heffernan and Wesley Peterson start to suspect a police cover up with the murder of the clergyman and need to tread carefully to avoid a public relations disaster.
I enjoy the way the characters are developing in this series; Wesley with his growing family and the tensions between his job and his home life; the interactions between the various police characters; the way Neil is becoming, to me, less and less likeable. This is an enjoyable and interesting series with its historical backgrounds showing how present day actions and crimes are not so very far removed from those in the past. The series can be read in any order but the if you read them in the order in which they were published you can follow the development of the series characters.
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