Unlikely Heroes In Times Of The Plague

It’s the summer of 1665. The Plague is spreading through London and those who can afford it have fled to the countryside.

Symon Patrick is rector of St Paul in Covent Garden and has only recently returned to his parish after spending some much needed in a spa. Now he has to take care of the dead and give them a Christian burial. He’s invited to become a member of a society that wants to find a cure as well as preventing the Plague. They’re a weird bunch of medical professionals that quarrel most of the time and achieve nothing. Amongst those dead that are delivered to his church, Symon recognizes Mary a maid of his household that was missing since May. It looks as if she was tortured before she died; there are strange burns and scars all over her legs and ankles and wrists are bound with a length of twine. The same day another girl who’s on death’s door arrives in his churchyard. Instead of bringing her to a pesthouse, he puts her in a cot in the vestry. As by a miracle, Penelope survives and soon claims a place in his own household. It’s she that discovers another victim of the same butcher: shorn hair and a puzzle of wounds encased in inked squares. Who would murder the dying? When they look closer, they discover that in some wounds there are strange objects sewn in; the foot of a frog and a hare, a virgin's fingernail, ... This looks like someone is experimenting on these girls.



At regular intervals, this narrative is interceded by the genuine historical notations of the renowned Samuel Pepys on the progression of the Plague. Dr Burnett is also a real historical figure and was a friend of Samuel Pepys. Some of the others are also authentic. At the end of the book, there’s some explanation about the real people that figure in the book.

Penelope is an enigma. She can see ghosts and thinks nothing about it. We learn that she a bit of an ‘heiress’ and suffered abuse from her aunt and uncle that were after her inheritance. She’s amazingly well educated and can read Greek and German, as well as a bunch of other languages. She turns out to be a good detective using logic and science to discover what she wants to know. She’s the most likeable character in the book.

The main character, Symon is a douchebag. His drooling and pining for Elizabeth annoyed me a bit. The rector is a weak and indecisive man. Even his friends call him that to his face. He suffered some kind of breakdown prior to the events of this book as he returns from a health spa. But with his nice income, he’s considered a good match by his female parishioners and their mothers and he’s handsome as well. To his defence, I must say that he has a just moral compass about duty and has the courage to stay in his parish instead of fleeing the city as most well-off people did.

Although Penelope convinced the rector that the culprit was one of the men of the plague society, I wasn’t all that certain. They’re all nasty and unsympathetic men with vices and secrets that make them into suspects, but all of them seemed to be exonerated one way or another. I really had no idea who was guilty until the end.

There was more than enough suspense and it was well spaced out over various events and people. With a disease like the plague, you’re not sure all and who of them will survive and during this epidemic, they must find a delusional medic who kills and tortures the dying. The beginning was a slow build-up but once the train was in motion, there was no more stopping it. Despite the gruesome theme, I enjoyed this book.

I was surprised to learn that this book is a standalone or possibly the first in a series. I felt as if the author assumed that we had prior knowledge of the affair between Symon and Elizabeth and of the events that brought Nell, Jack and the sexton to the rector. It would make a good first in a series about Penelope, as she is the most engaging character in the series and I would like to find out how she’ll go about getting her birthrights back. Maybe a second book can be written about the great fire that ended the plague?

I can’t get around mentioning the similarities between this current Covid pandemic and the plague. Others have already said most of the things that I have in mind. Many of the measures we undergo today aren’t much different from the ones they took back then but luckily, no-one thinks about putting down our cats and down nowadays.

I thank Netgalley and Serpent’s Tail for the free ARC they provided; this is my honest and unbiased review of it.