It is 1348, and in a small English town called Melcombe an unknown man is suffering a painful death. His identity is not important; what does matter is the blue-black spots all over the dying man's face and arms - the sign of the blue death, the pestilence - the plague.
The Spread of the Plague
Meanwhile, a few miles down the road, an elderly trader in holy relics is trying to sell wares at the Midsummer Fair. The peddler's living is "selling hope" - none of the relics are, of course, genuine, but the Camelot has a range of convincing stories, and a missing eye and unsightly facial scars that can be incorporated into any story to lend it weight with credulous customers. The trader's destination is St John Shorne's shrine, where there will be plenty of money to be made; more importantly, it is inland, far away from the ports where rumours of pestilence are rife.
Before too long, the peddler has company. A musician and his apprentice join the trader at the Midummer Fair, the first members of a travelling company that will soon swell in size to include a grumpy conjuror who makes money by performing tricks and exhibiting a dead merbaby, a young girl who can read the future in her runes, a young couple expecting their first child, a midwife, and a storyteller with an unusual arm. The magician - Zophiel - fortunately possesses a wagon, albeit one pulled by a horse as unfriendly as its owner, and the group makes its way across England in an increasingly desperate bid to escape the fast-spreading plague.
Comparisons with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Maitland's Company of Liars has drawn comparisons with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in which a band of pilgrims entertain each other with stories as they journey across the land, and it is easy to see the similarities between the two. Maitland's novel is, however, altogether darker than Chaucer's poem; it soon becomes clear that while the travellers may be just ahead of the deadly plague, something far more evil is moving amongst them. The events that young Narigorm reads in her runes are never positive, and a number of the group suffer gruesome fates that Maitland presents in vividly gory detail.
Despite the odd stomach-churning moment, Company of Liars is never less than an engrossing page-turner, and Maitland excels in recreating the mood of a country living in constant fear and increasing poverty. The final twist is a satisfying one, and will leave the reader simultaneously sad to part company with the charismatic narrator and relieved to escape the claustrophobic England of the fourteenth century.
Elizabeth Gregory - Liz graduated from Manchester University with a BA (Hons) in English Language & Literature, and also holds an MA in Literature from the ...
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