The Last Hours - Minette Walters

Paperback, 547 pages

Published November 2nd 2017 by Allen & Unwin

Series: Black Death #1

Historical fiction

For review

My Thoughts:

1348 is not the time to be around in England, or anywhere in Europe for that matter. The plague is scary. SO very scary. Checking wiki it says that 40-60% died in England. But on to the book then.

Lady Anne of Develish was raised at a convent and she did take some strange ideas with her. Like helping the serfs, because if they are healthy they work better. Go figure! Giving out medicine makes people healthy, yes crazy ideas. But they love her.

Her husband is a big ass who cares nothing for those beneath him. He would crush them with the sole of his foot.

Her daughter, omg, I can not tell you how much I despised this creature. She is all that is wrong with nobility who think they are above others. And then when we learn more, no, I still despise her. It is bred into her.

Then we have 200 serfs and one that stands out, Thaddeus. He is a smart young man who wants more. His family treats him as garbage as he is a bastard. 

There are more prominent players, like Giles, the only servant who rode with Anne's idiot of a husband and higher up servants. Oh and an idiot priest who cowers in the church a lot.

All these people will be crammed together in the holding. Because Anne did learn a few other things at that convent. If you isolate the sick you can save those not sick. But it is something that will grow resentment. Some who think they are better than others *coughs Lady Eleonore* and some who think that this new strange world will help them.

And then there is the plague itself. Villages disappearing. People fleeing. A wasteland of the dead and dying. Wondering why this happened. And realising that they can not stay hidden forever.

But the real drama does take place inside. How it slowly grows and festers.

Conclusion:

It was an interesting book and it gave me this other way to look at the plague. 

Also there is a book 2 so the plague is not done with them.

Blurb

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. 

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..?