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A review by andrew_j_r
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
4.0
Company of Liars is a very dark book, but perhaps not in the way that I was expecting. Being sold as a “novel about the plague” in fact it is rather a novel that uses the plague as a backdrop, and whilst what is going on around the country influences the story, by the end in fact you realise that something else has been shaping the events of the story far more than the pestilence.
There are a very diverse group of characters that have been forced to travel together, each of them has their own secret, hence the name of the book. Some are obvious - by the time you know that everyone has a secret, you are looking for clues, and as there are very few red herrings dropped, so often you will find out that your hunch was right.
But this doesn’t detract from how powerful the story is. You get a real sense of a country decaying around you, and of how desperate everyone is becoming - both the nine travellers and the larger community. There are also a few pages at the back that explain what elements of the story are based on reality, and that is also fascinating. It is genuinely a cracking read, and I am fascinated to read other books by the same author.
There are a very diverse group of characters that have been forced to travel together, each of them has their own secret, hence the name of the book. Some are obvious - by the time you know that everyone has a secret, you are looking for clues, and as there are very few red herrings dropped, so often you will find out that your hunch was right.
But this doesn’t detract from how powerful the story is. You get a real sense of a country decaying around you, and of how desperate everyone is becoming - both the nine travellers and the larger community. There are also a few pages at the back that explain what elements of the story are based on reality, and that is also fascinating. It is genuinely a cracking read, and I am fascinated to read other books by the same author.