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Plague Land

ebook / ISBN-13: 9781444785760

Price: £9.99

ON SALE: 25th September 2014

Genre: Fiction & Related Items / Historical Fiction

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Book 1 in the gripping Oswald de Lacy series, which can be read as a standalone, from ‘the medieval CJ Sansom’ (Jeffery Deaver)

England, 1350: the Black Death has changed the country forever, taking master and servant alike.

Young Oswald de Lacey was never meant to be Lord of Somershill Manor, but when his father and older brothers die of the Plague, he must return home from the monastery and assume responsibility for an estate ravaged by pestilence.

Almost immediately Oswald is confronted with the vicious murder of a young woman, Alison Starvecrow. The village priest claims it is the work of demonic dog-headed men, a theory Oswald rejects as nonsense. But proving this – by finding the real killer – only leads Oswald deeper into a maze of political intrigue, family secrets and violent strife.

And then the body of another girl is found…

‘Sykes has really reset the bar for medieval mysteries’ Medievalists

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Reviews

If you're looking for a well written and engaging book set in the Middle Ages, or you happen to like thrillers, mysteries and "whodunnits", then this is your cup of tea. Sykes has really reset the bar for medieval mysteries. Throughout the book, every clue brings with it unexpected twists and turns. When you think you know who the killer is, you're slapped with yet another surprise.
Medievalists
Plague Land is a gripping historical crime thriller, an engaging coming-of-age story and a richly textured evocation of 14th Century Kent. I was totally hooked.
Jake Woodhouse, author of The Amsterdam Quartet
PLAGUE LAND is a fascinating historical crime novel about a world turned upside down, inhabited by a rich cast of characters. A terrific debut and a wonderful start to a brand-new series.
Antonia Hodgson, author of THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA
There are plot twists aplenty . . . PLAGUE LAND is a quest to rebuild identity in an apocalyptic world, a theme that makes this new medieval series one I will be sure to follow.
Martine Bailey, author of An Appetite for Violets
The medieval CJ Sansom
Jeffery Deaver
Sykes's damp, depopulated, miasmic Middle Ages is well evoked, making this an impressive debut with at least one sequel on the way.
The Herald, Scotland
A novel full of suspense and intrigue that will have you gripped.
Best magazine
There's a nice, cliché-free sharpness to Sykes' writing . . . that suggests a medieval Raymond Chandler at work, and there are no phony celebrations of the peasantry or earth-mothers thrusting herbal concoctions down grateful throats. Plenty of action and interesting characters, without intervention of the libertarian modern conscience that so often wrecks the medieval historical novel.
Independent
PLAGUE LAND is a fascinating historical crime novel about a world turned upside down, inhabited by a rich cast of characters. A terrific debut and a wonderful start to a brand-new series.
Antonia Hodgson, author of THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA
Sykes has really reset the bar for medieval mysteries . . . every clue brings with it unexpected twists and turns. When you think you know who the killer is, you're slapped with yet another surprise.
Medievalists
Sykes's debut provides everything a reader would want in a historical mystery: a gripping plot, vivid language, living and breathing characters, and an immersive depiction of the past.
Publisher's Weekly

The Oswald de Lacy Medieval Murders