Magnus McFall was a comic on the brink of his big break when the world came to an end. Now, like other survivors of "the Sweats," the mysterious plague that has decimated the planet, he is a man on the run.
Thrown into unwilling partnership with an escaped convict named Jeb, Magnus flees the eerie desolation of de-populated London to make the long journey north, clinging to hope that the sickness has not reached his family in Scotland. Traveling through a familiar landscape now fraught with danger, Magnus finds himself a stranger in a world ruled by men like Jeb--hard-hearted, practical men quick to make life-or-death decisions.
In a world re-written with a harsh code of justice, and a new set of rules where people barter for their existence with food and weapons, survival is the bottom line. But when Magnus and Jeb stumble across a murder during their journey, they will have to decide whether finding the truth about a single death can weigh in the balance against the need to survive.
Industry Reviews
"Magnus and Job ride out of the city and deep in the countryside discover a murder has occurred - straight from the pages of Agatha Christie, for the setting is an isolated group in a manor house . . . The plot gallops along while the writing crackles with the sights and smells of a sharply imagined world . . . this book, the second in [Welsh's] "Plague Times" trilogy, left me hungry for volume three" ""Independent""" "[Louise Welsh] is indeed a canny writer and knows when a theme or story line is about to outstay its welcome in our imaginations. Before that happens the tale shifts a gear and the excitement builds to a higher pitch . . . As for the Sweats, well, we are about to enter a drug resistant era and the last Black Death episode in the UK was only in 1900. Food for thought while we await Book 3 with anticipation, fear and gleeful foreboding" ""Bookbag""" "The second of Louise Welsh's Plague Times "trilogy, set in a dystopian England ravaged by the Sweats pandemic, is as grippingly intelligent and atmospheric as the first, which is saying a great deal . . . But the novel is far more than a modern-day plague-ridden whodunnit. The theme of justice and belief amid chaos is accompanied by superb dialogue and an overpowering mood of moral and medical decay" "The Times""" "Death is a Welcome Guest" is a bleak, no holds barred look at a rapidly-disintegrating society, slipping inexorably back into the sort of devastation last seen in the 14th century when the Black Death cut a swathe across Europe, leaving millions dead. Like the first in the trilogy, this book poses the question as to whether one more death amongst a host of others has any meaning . . . With the threat of the ebola virus a constant companion these days in the media, the book makes uncomfortable but always wholly engrossing reading. This is post-apocalyptic story-telling at its very best" "Crimereview""" "Magnus and Jeb ride out of the city, and deep in the countryside discover a murder has occurred--straight from the pages of Agatha Christie . . . The plot gallops along while the writing crackles with the sights and smells of a sharply imagined world . . . Left me hungry for volume three." ""Independent""" "The second of Louise Welsh's "Plague Times "trilogy, set in a dystopian England ravaged by the Sweats pandemic, is as grippingly intelligent and atmospheric as the first . . . But the novel is far more than a modern-day, plague-ridden whodunnit. The theme of justice and belief amid chaos is accompanied by superb dialogue and an overpowering mood of moral and medical decay." ""The Times""" """A bleak, no-holds-barred look at a rapidly disintegrating society, slipping inexorably back into the sort of devastation last seen in the 14th century, when the Black Death cut a swathe across Europe, leaving millions dead. Like the first in the trilogy, this book poses the question as to whether one more death amongst a host of others has any meaning . . . This is post-apocalyptic storytelling at its very best." ""Crimereview""" Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award! "Magnus and Jeb ride out of the city, and deep in the countryside discover a murder has occurred--straight from the pages of Agatha Christie . . . The plot gallops along while the writing crackles with the sights and smells of a sharply imagined world . . . Left me hungry for volume three."--Independent "Welsh has produced a thriller with shades of an adult Lord of the Flies a dark and all too vivid picture of how survivors will go to any lengths to go on surviving . . . Appallingly realistic."--Promoting Crime "A bleak, no-holds-barred look at a rapidly disintegrating society, slipping inexorably back into the sort of devastation last seen in the 14th century, when the Black Death cut a swathe across Europe, leaving millions dead. Like the first in the trilogy, this book poses the question as to whether one more death amongst a host of others has any meaning . . . This is post-apocalyptic storytelling at its very best."--Crimereview "Almost everything about this scenario is familiar, from the abandoned luxury hotels to the looped news bulletins on TV . . . But Welsh's writing is so effective that it was as if I were encountering these tropes again for the first time . . . Richly imagined and, in Welsh's hands, horribly plausible."--Guardian "The second of Louise Welsh's Plague Times trilogy, set in a dystopian England ravaged by the Sweats pandemic, is as grippingly intelligent and atmospheric as the first . . . But the novel is far more than a modern-day, plague-ridden whodunnit. The theme of justice and belief amid chaos is accompanied by superb dialogue and an overpowering mood of moral and medical decay."--The Times "[Louise Welsh] is indeed a canny writer . . . As for the Sweats, well, we are about to enter a drug-resistant era and the last Black Death episode in the United Kingdom was only in 1900. Food for thought while we await book three with anticipation, fear and gleeful foreboding."--Bookbag Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award! "Magnus and Jeb ride out of the city, and deep in the countryside discover a murder has occurred--straight from the pages of Agatha Christie . . . The plot gallops along while the writing crackles with the sights and smells of a sharply imagined world . . . Left me hungry for volume three." ""Independent"""
