BOOKS
Company of Liars
Midsummer's Day, 1348
On this day of ill omen, plague makes its entrance. In a world ruled by faith and fear, nine desperate strangers, brought together by chance, attempt to outrun the certain death that is spreading inexorably toward them.
Each member of this motley company has a story to tell. From Camelot, the relic-seller who will become the group's leader, to Cygnus, the one-armed storyteller... from the strange, silent child called Narigorm to a painter and his pregnant wife, each has a secret. None is what they seem. And one among them conceals the darkest secret of all, propelling these liars to a destiny they never saw coming.
A Waterstone's 'Book of the Year'
Look out in Waterstone's bookshops for a special trade paperback edition of Company of Liars (the same size as the hardback, but in soft covers). It has been chosen as one of their 'Books of the Year' and will be included in promotional offers.
Now also available in an unabridged audio edition.
"Irresistible" - (Sunday Telegraph) "Engrossing" - (Daily Mail) "A page-turner" - (Daily Express)
The Owl Killers
Karen Maitland introduces her next medieval mystery:
My love of all things Medieval began with frequent 'escape' trips to the medieval cities of Belgium following in the footsteps of my hero, Stephen Fry. It was in Bruges that I first came across beguinages, the Cities of Women which flourished right across Europe in the Middle Ages. My curiosity was aroused when the city guide said the beguines were nuns, whilst the cathedral guide, with a disapproving snort, told me beguinages were brothels. I knew at once that I had found an intriguing story.
I then discovered that attempts were made to set up beguinages in Britain. So why did the beguinages disappear within a few years of being founded in England, when everywhere else they survived for centuries?
For my novel The Owl Killers, I combined this beguinage mystery with another strange tale, the legend of the Owlman. The Owlman was an ancient medieval monster, but a beast which some people in Cornwall claim to have seen as recently as 1995. Does the medieval monster live on?
