The Last Hours (Black Death #1) by Minette Walters

 

Summary (from the publisher): A deadly plague is spreading across the land...

June, 1348 : the Black Death enters England through the port of Melcombe in the county of Dorsetshire. Unprepared for the virulence of the disease, and the speed with which it spreads, the people of the county start to die in their thousands.

In the estate of Develish, Lady Anne takes control of her people's future - including the lives of two hundred bonded serfs. Strong, compassionate and resourceful, Lady Anne chooses a bastard slave, Thaddeus Thurkell, to act as her steward. Together, they decide to quarantine Develish by bringing the serfs inside the walls. With this sudden overturning of the accepted social order, where serfs exist only to serve their lords, conflicts soon arise. Ignorant of what is happening in the world outside, they wrestle with themselves, with God and with the terrible uncertainty of their futures

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Lady Anne's people fear starvation but they fear the pestilence more. Who amongst them has the courage to leave the security of the walls?

And how safe is anyone in Develish when a dreadful event threatens the uneasy status quo..?

Review: In the summer of 1348, the Black Death begins to weep through England. Lady Anne, alone in her estate of Develish while her husband is traveling, decides to have all of her serfs join her inside the walls of her home and bar the outside world to try to quarantine themselves away from the raging plague outside. She angers some when she raises a serf as her steward. And her daughter, an evil and spoiled girl, angers even more as she intrigues and endangers the lives of several. While safe from the plague, they have no knowledge of what is happening beyond their walls and the uncertainty of their future weighs heavily on each resident of Develish. 

This was an interesting novel, that has both the horror and suspense of a terrible epidemic that threatens each character, and the intrigues of the characters to move the plot forward. Lady Anne does seem almost too good to be true. She is wise, good, and kind, with learning that others in her realm lack that help her improve the lives of her serfs despite the cruelty and ignorance of her husband Sir Richard. Yet the reader never really gets any insight into her true feelings about anyone else and where her true loyalties lie. 

My greatest complaint with this novel is that it moved incredibly slowly. I felt like I waited the whole novel for something big to happen, but it never arrived. To compound that feeling, the novel is the first of two and ends rather abruptly with no resolution. For any knowledge of which characters will survive and thrive, the next book in the series must be read first. A well-done novel about the plague with an interesting premise and characters that did drag at times.

Stars: 4