#BlogTour ‘The Plague Letters’ by V.L Valentine

About the book….

WHAT IS ONE MORE CORPSE, WHEN ALL AROUND YOU ARE DYING…

London, 1665. Hidden within a growing pile of corpses, one victim of the pestilence stands out: a young woman with a shorn head and pieces of twine delicately tied around each ankle.

Symon Patrick, rector of St. Paul’s Covent Garden, cannot say exactly why this corpse amongst the many in his churchyard should give him pause. Longing to do good, he joins a group of medical men who have gathered to find a cure for the plague, each man more peculiar and splenetic than the next. But there is another – unknown to The Society for the Prevention and Cure of Plague – who is performing his own terrible experiments upon unwilling plague-ridden subjects.

It is Penelope – Symon’s unwanted yet unremovable addition to his household – who may yet shed light on the matter. Far more than what she appears, she is already on the hunt. But the dark presence that enters the houses of the sick will not stop, and has no mercy…

This hugely atmospheric and entertaining historical thriller will transport readers to the palaces and alleyways of seventeenth-century London. Perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Andrew Taylor and C.J. Sansom.

Huge thanks to independent publishers, Viper Books, for the blogtour invite and gifted e-arc of ‘The Plague Letters’ which is out in hardcover on April 1st!

There is such a disonance between the plot of ‘The Plague Letters’ and the current pandemic situation, particularly in the way that panic gathers hold and people begin to flee central London for ostensibly safer environs. Modern days require modern methods and the internet engines buzz and whirr with conspiracy theories, half baked ideas and fear mongering whereas in the past, letters, diaries, and physical manifestations of thought mean that even this many centuries later, we have a bird’s eye view of the oncoming plague.

It makes this reader wonder if in centuries to come, the outpouring of our internal monologues on the web, will survive and what residents of the future cities, whatever form they take, will be left puzzling over such gems as ‘This lockdown is doing my head in good and proper’ ‘What’s up? Inbox me hun…’

Such facetious wandering down future rabbit holes aside, this is a gloriously rendered novel of historical fiction which is centered in London as the plague takes hold. Funny in the darkest way possible-I am thinking of the way that a certain person keeps trying to get hold of dead bodies to track the way that the disease takes hold, and in the meantime, makes do with dogs!-this is almost an epistolary novel interspersing narrative with letters, snippets of published works(e.g Samuel Pepys) and maps illustrating the boroughs of London as they fall.

Religion and science alike battle over whether the iniquities of class, sex and money means certain people will be saved from the ravages of this illness, whilst extolling the virtues of their particular vice-either holy salvation or a medicinal cure.

For those who are not fond of historical fiction, and feel it may be impenetrable and hard to relate to, fear not! There is no need for a degree in history to enjoy this novel, it is not only impeccably researched, it brings this time period to life with beautiful descriptors that lie uneasily next to the ravages of corpses, with their plague bubo, scars and assorted marks. It is clearly a labour of love with so much to offer, I very much enjoyed it and hope that you will as well.

About the author…

V.L. Valentine is a senior science editor at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., where she has led award-winning coverage of global disease outbreaks including Ebola and the Zika virus.

She has a master’s in the history of medicine from University College London and her non-fiction work has been published by NPR, The New York Times, The Smithsonian Channel and Science Magazine. The Plague Letters is her first novel.

Twitter @ViperBooks @valentinevikki