An avid reader, Stephen's knowledge of Crime Fiction is fairly extensive, with The Golden Age is his greatest interest.
What momentous times the English 1660s were, particularly in London. So, 1660 marks the Restoration of the Monarchy, an event almost unthinkable only a year prior. Then in 1665, the Great Plague of London followed very quickly came the Great Fire of London. It is in this tumultuous decade that Ms Valentine has carved a terrific, intriguingly twisty tale.
All the atmosphere of the seventeenth century is here as we are pulled straight into the smells, the filth, the barbarity beliefs and of course the wigs of that era! The stench of death, and fear is present in every street as more and more die of this horrible disease.
So many of those who could, have left the city to try to escape the horror. Those who remain have nowhere else to go, or like the Reverend Symon Patrick believe in a duty to their parishioners and fellow Londoners.
Letters are a way of staying in touch with those who have left the city, so Patrick writes to his friend Mrs Elizabeth Gauden as often as his duties allow. But his thoughts and feelings are complicated and mixed up.
Among all the cadavers brought to Patrick's Church for burial is the body of one of his own household, a maid not long in his employ who had gone missing. Her body is not like the others; though she had the disease, it appears she has been experimented upon with cuts and marks visible on her body. Patrick is distressed by his maid's death but he is also worried about what happened to her, so when a second body is brought to the church with even more bizarre and inexplicable injuries, he quickly seeks the aid of his friend Boghurst, the Apothecary.
As more bodies appear among the plague dead (with grievous injuries inflicted before the disease had chance to claim them) - the Reverend and his Apothecary friend become convinced that they must try to find the perpetrator.
The Society for the Prevention and Cure of Plague, is a group brought together to try to find a treatment for the disease by Dr Alexander Burnett Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. It is to this group that Patrick and Boghurst bring news of the mutilated corpses. The Society, however, wants nothing to do with the issue, as they are more concerned in obtaining corpses on which to study the disease, not find murderers of those already dying.
The two friends must investigate alone in this dangerous and dreadful plague-ridden city where everyone is frightened and many are desperate. There request for help is turned down by the Lord Mayor, and without royal patronage, their investigation is hampered.
Information and evidence comes from an unusual source.
The characters of the Society are expertly created with detail that is grotesquely flamboyant. This is a tantalising novel full of period detail that will delight those who enjoy the novels of Andrew Taylor, Susanna Gregory or C J Sansom.
And with all this COVID-19 in the air, this novel is as disturbing and as prescient as one would wish for.
