Company Of Liars by Karen Maitland

 

In 1348, a group of nine travelers come together to travel safely as they attempt to find a village or monastery safe from the Black Plague that has come to England.  Camelot is the leader of the group, an individual who sold religious relics, some of which he made.  There is a musician and his gay apprentice, Rodrigo and Jofre from Italy.  A painter and his young, pregnant wife, Osmond and Adela, join the group, obviously from a wealthy background.  Zophiel is a magician and sideshow displayer, traveling with a mermaid corpse.  Narigorm is a young child, very blonde, who tells the future with runes and seems to not like anyone.  Pleasance is an older woman who travels with Narigorm and watches over her.  Cygnus is a storyteller, a man with a swan's wing instead of a left arm.  

In normal times, villages were glad to see such a group come to their location to entertain them.  But when the plague is raging, every traveler is viewed with suspicion.  There were those who blamed the illness on the Jews or on magicians or on anyone different or from another land.  The group finds it difficult to find food and shelter and spends many nights camping outside.

Then the deaths start.  Some are suicides, or are they murders?  A wolf is following the group and is implicated in another death.  Another one gets afoul of the local villagers who may have killed him.  As the group starts to shrink, Camelot is determined to get this group to safety and to have Adela deliver a healthy baby.  But is that possible?

Maitland has written an intriguing tale that is reminiscent of both the Canterbury Tales and Agatha Christie's Then There Were None.  Maitland is a historical novelist whose novels show the intensive research that was done so as to portray another time and place.  The characters are each clearly drawn and the conflicts that arise between them seem logical for the stress and hardship the group is traveling with.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.