The Plague Maiden

By Kate Ellis

Book Overview

'A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The Times

A stir is caused in Tradmouth when a letter arrives at the police station claiming that the man convicted of murdering the Vicar of Belsham is innocent. DI Wesley Peterson already has his hands full with threats made to local supermarket chain, Huntings - the last thing he needs is an alleged miscarriage of justice to investigate.

Meanwhile, Wesley's friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, uncovers a medieval plague pit at a site near Belsham church earmarked for Huntings' new superstore. As Wesley's investigations continue, he begins to suspect that the vicar's murder, the disappearance of a woman and the threats to the supermarket may be linked in some way.

Whether you've read the whole series, or are discovering Kate Ellis's DI Wesley Peterson novels for the first time, this is the perfect page-turner if you love reading Elly Griffiths and Ann Cleeves.

PRAISE FOR KATE ELLIS:

'I loved this novel . . . a powerful story of loss, malice and deception' Ann Cleeves

'Haunting' Independent

'Unputdownable'Bookseller

'The chilling plot will keep you spooked and thrilled to the end' Closer

'A gripping read' Best

'A fine storyteller, weaving the past and present in a way that makes you want to read on' Peterborough Evening Telegraph

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0349418918
• ISBN13: 9780349418919
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Piatkus
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read--mystery is why not a larger following

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.

Good stuff, this.

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. *** ½