The Last Hours Minette Walters

Bestselling crime writer Minette Walters turns historical novelist in this doorstopper of a book set in 14th-century Dorset in southern England. As the Black Death lays waste to the county, Lady Anne tries to ward off the plague by confining all her serfs within the estate walls. But with panic spreading like wildfire, the enclosed community is riven by in-fighting. Throw in the odd ‘illegitimate’ baby and there are enough whodunit-type riddles for Walters to have fun with. Alas, the cod period prose – full of ‘liege lords’ and women hissing ‘Unhand me!’ – is so dire that suspension of disbelief is impossible.