As a Somerset girl, I was really interested in reading this tale based in ancient Dorset. At lot of the place names referred to were familiar to me as modern day towns which did add to it's interest. Ultimately though, I found it really hard to engage with this book.
It is a big book and covers a big subject - the black death was vividly described and gave you a real feeling of sympathy for the characters. The characters were strong - vile Sir Richard (thankfully killed off early on), his long suffering wife Lady Anne and wilful serf Thaddeus being among the main players. Indeed the storyline could have been brilliant - especially as you near the end of the book and the extent of Sir Richard's vileness becomes clear - but somehow whilst there were some strong storylines there were also large chunks of the book where not much happened at all.
It's not a thriller so you don't expect wall to wall excitement but nevertheless there were times when I struggled to maintain interest for more than a couple of chapters and, consequently, it took a long time to get to the end of the book.
Somewhat frustratingly it transpired that the book is clearly the first in a series so you end up with more unanswered questions than satisfactory conclusions. I'm not sure though that I care sufficiently about any of them to read the next instalment.
All in all it's not a bad book but could have benefitted from a bit more pruning!
It is a big book and covers a big subject - the black death was vividly described and gave you a real feeling of sympathy for the characters. The characters were strong - vile Sir Richard (thankfully killed off early on), his long suffering wife Lady Anne and wilful serf Thaddeus being among the main players. Indeed the storyline could have been brilliant - especially as you near the end of the book and the extent of Sir Richard's vileness becomes clear - but somehow whilst there were some strong storylines there were also large chunks of the book where not much happened at all.
It's not a thriller so you don't expect wall to wall excitement but nevertheless there were times when I struggled to maintain interest for more than a couple of chapters and, consequently, it took a long time to get to the end of the book.
Somewhat frustratingly it transpired that the book is clearly the first in a series so you end up with more unanswered questions than satisfactory conclusions. I'm not sure though that I care sufficiently about any of them to read the next instalment.
All in all it's not a bad book but could have benefitted from a bit more pruning!