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Plague Times Trilogy #1
V5N6 - Tödliches Fieber
Oberflächlich betrachtet hatten die drei Amokläufe in London in diesem heißen Sommer nichts mit den späteren Ereignissen zu tun, aber für Stevie Flint waren sie wie ein Menetekel für das, was noch kommen sollte.
Als ihr Freund sie versetzt und sie ihre Sachen aus seiner Wohnung holen will, findet sie ihn tot in seinem Bett. Kurz danach wird sie krank. Hohes Fieber, Erbrechen, Schüttelfrost. Als sie nach Tagen wieder mühsam auf die Beine kommt, hört sie, dass sich in London ein tödliches Virus verbreitet: Am »Schwitzfieber« sterben die Leute in wenigen Tagen, die Krankenhäuser und Leichenhallen sind bereits überfüllt.
Stevie Flint kümmert das nicht, sie hat eine eigene Mission. Auch wenn es in einer Stadt voller Toter nicht nach einem Mord aussieht: Sie ist überzeugt, dass der Tod ihres Freundes Dr. Simon Sharkey weder auf das Virus noch auf Selbstmord zurückzuführen ist und macht sich auf die Suche nach seinem Mörder. Diese wird für sie zu einem Wettlauf gegen den Tod, der mitten ins Herz einer sterbenden Stadt führt.
Ein Thriller, der uns an die Zerbrechlichkeit unserer Zivilisation erinnert.
Als ihr Freund sie versetzt und sie ihre Sachen aus seiner Wohnung holen will, findet sie ihn tot in seinem Bett. Kurz danach wird sie krank. Hohes Fieber, Erbrechen, Schüttelfrost. Als sie nach Tagen wieder mühsam auf die Beine kommt, hört sie, dass sich in London ein tödliches Virus verbreitet: Am »Schwitzfieber« sterben die Leute in wenigen Tagen, die Krankenhäuser und Leichenhallen sind bereits überfüllt.
Stevie Flint kümmert das nicht, sie hat eine eigene Mission. Auch wenn es in einer Stadt voller Toter nicht nach einem Mord aussieht: Sie ist überzeugt, dass der Tod ihres Freundes Dr. Simon Sharkey weder auf das Virus noch auf Selbstmord zurückzuführen ist und macht sich auf die Suche nach seinem Mörder. Diese wird für sie zu einem Wettlauf gegen den Tod, der mitten ins Herz einer sterbenden Stadt führt.
Ein Thriller, der uns an die Zerbrechlichkeit unserer Zivilisation erinnert.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2014
49 people are currently reading
1593 people want to read
About the author
Louise Welsh
50 books342 followersAfter studying history at Glasgow University, Louise Welsh established a second-hand bookshop, where she worked for many years. Her first novel, The Cutting Room, won several awards, including the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger, and was jointly awarded the 2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Louise was granted a Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award in 2003, a Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in 2004, and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2005.
She is a regular radio broadcaster, has published many short stories, and has contributed articles and reviews to most of the British broadsheets. She has also written for the stage. The Guardian chose her as a 'woman to watch' in 2003.
Her second book, Tamburlaine Must Die, a novelette written around the final three days of the poet Christopher Marlowe's life, was published in 2004. Her third novel, The Bullet Trick (2006), is a present-day murder mystery set in Berlin.
The Cutting Room 2002
Tamburlaine Must Die 2004
The Bullet Trick 2006
Naming The Bones 2010
Prizes and awards
2002 Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger The Cutting Room
2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award (joint winner) The Cutting Room
2003 BBC Underground Award (writer category) The Cutting Room
2003 Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award
2004 Corine Internationaler Buchpreis: Rolf Heyne Debutpreis (Germany) The Cutting Room
2004 Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award
2004 Stonewall Book Award (US) (honor in literature)
She is a regular radio broadcaster, has published many short stories, and has contributed articles and reviews to most of the British broadsheets. She has also written for the stage. The Guardian chose her as a 'woman to watch' in 2003.
Her second book, Tamburlaine Must Die, a novelette written around the final three days of the poet Christopher Marlowe's life, was published in 2004. Her third novel, The Bullet Trick (2006), is a present-day murder mystery set in Berlin.
The Cutting Room 2002
Tamburlaine Must Die 2004
The Bullet Trick 2006
Naming The Bones 2010
Prizes and awards
2002 Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger The Cutting Room
2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award (joint winner) The Cutting Room
2003 BBC Underground Award (writer category) The Cutting Room
2003 Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award
2004 Corine Internationaler Buchpreis: Rolf Heyne Debutpreis (Germany) The Cutting Room
2004 Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award
2004 Stonewall Book Award (US) (honor in literature)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 240 reviews
May 9, 2021
When I first heard about A Lovely Way To Burn, I wasn't sure I would enjoy it. I really liked The Girl on the Stairs, and I've heard a lot of praise for Louise Welsh's other novels from various sources I respect - my apprehension was more to do with the fact that a dystopian crime thriller that's the first of a series (this is the start of a trilogy titled Plague Times) didn't really sound like my sort of thing. More fool me, then, because this was one of the most exciting, original books of the year so far.
I mentioned above that this is a dystopian tale, but you won't immediately identify it as fantasy - it's set in what initially appears to be a very normal version of present-day London. The book's unlikely heroine is Stevie Flint, a former journalist turned presenter on a trashy TV shopping channel. Stevie prefers the gritty reality of journalism, but her good looks and ease in front of the camera have helped to make the presenting job an easy, and lucrative, option. This also helps to explain why she's dating Simon Sharkey, a somewhat flashy doctor with a taste for the more extravagant things in life. That is, until Simon fails to turn up for their latest date. Stevie writes off his no-show as a coward's way of finishing their relationship, but can't help paying one last visit to his flat on the pretext of picking up some of her belongings. There, she makes a discovery that changes everything: Simon is dead.
Stevie is traumatised by this shock, but has little time to dwell on it before she succumbs to a terrible, feverish illness. Holed up in her flat for days, she barely survives, and when she does recover, the world outside is much changed. The virus - nicknamed 'the sweats' by the public and the media - has swept the city, causing so many deaths that it seems miraculous for Stevie to have survived without medical help. Then she's given a letter Simon wrote her before his death, in which he instructs her to deliver a hidden laptop to one of his colleagues - and makes it clear nobody but this particular man can be trusted. The stage is set for the two major threads of the plot: the widespread devastation wreaked by the pandemic, and Stevie's pursuit of her suspicion that Simon was murdered. As London falls into disarray, Stevie is increasingly isolated - the police are in a state of chaos and disinterested in the circumstances of Simon's demise; as the strapline on the cover says, 'it doesn't look like murder in a city full of death'. (For the purposes of this novel, London is the world: we never hear about whether the rest of the country is suffering as badly as the capital, or whether the sweats has spread outside the UK. Perhaps these are questions that will be answered in later installments of the trilogy.)
An argument could be made that A Lovely Way To Burn is a feminist novel - although I have a feeling Stevie herself wouldn't like being called a feminist. She is the protagonist and leads the story and the action, but she is also the only female character who survives longer than a few pages. Once the sweats really hit, all the characters who successfully manage to avoid the virus are men. Stevie constantly comes up against male characters who treat her with suspicion and contempt, whether they're leering at her, dismissing her as weak, or putting on frightening displays of their superior physical strength. She makes a number of alliances throughout the novel, but these - and by 'these', I mean both the alliances and the people - never last long: ultimately, it is very clear that Stevie is on her own and can't trust anyone else to protect her. Her femininity is both her most valuable asset and her biggest liability; in the end she rejects it, mindful of the need to disguise herself and become invisible. She also appears to be the only person in London to have had the sweats and lived - a fact that's tantalisingly dangled in front of the reader a number of times without the narrative properly exploring it, perhaps another hint of things to come in the remainder of the trilogy.
If I had one criticism, it would be that Stevie's commitment to her quest for the truth sometimes seems a bit too convenient. Her relationship with Simon wasn't serious (her recollections frequently make it obvious that it was mainly about sex), so is it really believable that she would keep chasing answers through life-threatening danger, rather than choosing to place herself out of harm's way? It helps here to remember that she's an ex-journalist: I find it more plausible that she'd be determined to tie up the loose ends of an unfinished story, as opposed to avenging a guy who, despite their involvement, she didn't really know very well at all.
The vivid, often surreal quality of the writing here has the feel of a TV series or film - it's so easy to envision on screen, it'll surely be adapted quickly. It's like 28 Days Later meets Black Swan (I can see that quote on the posters already...) Welsh's atmospheric depiction of Berlin was a major strength of The Girl on the Stairs, and her London is similarly lucid - vibrant and repulsive in equal measures (though the latter quality increases somewhat as the story progresses). A Lovely Way To Burn is suitably fast-paced, action-packed and tense, and while there is a conventional thriller-type storyline to give the book wider appeal and hold the attention of even the most casual reader, it's full of strange, intriguing undercurrents. Although this is the start of a series, it's wrapped up properly at the end and doesn't feel unsatisfying; yet there are still enough points of interest to make the second installment a very exciting prospect indeed.
Edited to add my favourite scenes:
I mentioned above that this is a dystopian tale, but you won't immediately identify it as fantasy - it's set in what initially appears to be a very normal version of present-day London. The book's unlikely heroine is Stevie Flint, a former journalist turned presenter on a trashy TV shopping channel. Stevie prefers the gritty reality of journalism, but her good looks and ease in front of the camera have helped to make the presenting job an easy, and lucrative, option. This also helps to explain why she's dating Simon Sharkey, a somewhat flashy doctor with a taste for the more extravagant things in life. That is, until Simon fails to turn up for their latest date. Stevie writes off his no-show as a coward's way of finishing their relationship, but can't help paying one last visit to his flat on the pretext of picking up some of her belongings. There, she makes a discovery that changes everything: Simon is dead.
Stevie is traumatised by this shock, but has little time to dwell on it before she succumbs to a terrible, feverish illness. Holed up in her flat for days, she barely survives, and when she does recover, the world outside is much changed. The virus - nicknamed 'the sweats' by the public and the media - has swept the city, causing so many deaths that it seems miraculous for Stevie to have survived without medical help. Then she's given a letter Simon wrote her before his death, in which he instructs her to deliver a hidden laptop to one of his colleagues - and makes it clear nobody but this particular man can be trusted. The stage is set for the two major threads of the plot: the widespread devastation wreaked by the pandemic, and Stevie's pursuit of her suspicion that Simon was murdered. As London falls into disarray, Stevie is increasingly isolated - the police are in a state of chaos and disinterested in the circumstances of Simon's demise; as the strapline on the cover says, 'it doesn't look like murder in a city full of death'. (For the purposes of this novel, London is the world: we never hear about whether the rest of the country is suffering as badly as the capital, or whether the sweats has spread outside the UK. Perhaps these are questions that will be answered in later installments of the trilogy.)
An argument could be made that A Lovely Way To Burn is a feminist novel - although I have a feeling Stevie herself wouldn't like being called a feminist. She is the protagonist and leads the story and the action, but she is also the only female character who survives longer than a few pages. Once the sweats really hit, all the characters who successfully manage to avoid the virus are men. Stevie constantly comes up against male characters who treat her with suspicion and contempt, whether they're leering at her, dismissing her as weak, or putting on frightening displays of their superior physical strength. She makes a number of alliances throughout the novel, but these - and by 'these', I mean both the alliances and the people - never last long: ultimately, it is very clear that Stevie is on her own and can't trust anyone else to protect her. Her femininity is both her most valuable asset and her biggest liability; in the end she rejects it, mindful of the need to disguise herself and become invisible. She also appears to be the only person in London to have had the sweats and lived - a fact that's tantalisingly dangled in front of the reader a number of times without the narrative properly exploring it, perhaps another hint of things to come in the remainder of the trilogy.
If I had one criticism, it would be that Stevie's commitment to her quest for the truth sometimes seems a bit too convenient. Her relationship with Simon wasn't serious (her recollections frequently make it obvious that it was mainly about sex), so is it really believable that she would keep chasing answers through life-threatening danger, rather than choosing to place herself out of harm's way? It helps here to remember that she's an ex-journalist: I find it more plausible that she'd be determined to tie up the loose ends of an unfinished story, as opposed to avenging a guy who, despite their involvement, she didn't really know very well at all.
The vivid, often surreal quality of the writing here has the feel of a TV series or film - it's so easy to envision on screen, it'll surely be adapted quickly. It's like 28 Days Later meets Black Swan (I can see that quote on the posters already...) Welsh's atmospheric depiction of Berlin was a major strength of The Girl on the Stairs, and her London is similarly lucid - vibrant and repulsive in equal measures (though the latter quality increases somewhat as the story progresses). A Lovely Way To Burn is suitably fast-paced, action-packed and tense, and while there is a conventional thriller-type storyline to give the book wider appeal and hold the attention of even the most casual reader, it's full of strange, intriguing undercurrents. Although this is the start of a series, it's wrapped up properly at the end and doesn't feel unsatisfying; yet there are still enough points of interest to make the second installment a very exciting prospect indeed.
Edited to add my favourite scenes:
November 25, 2015
This is an interesting mix between a Plague story and a murder mystery. Set in London, people are getting sick with what has been dubbed ‘The Sweats.’ People respond with a mix of paranoia and apathy. You will always have the group that raids the grocery stores for food and water. You will also have the group who stay at work believing the panic to be nothing more than a craze. There is also the set that will camp out at the pub reveling in the fact that maybe the bar owner died but that just means you won’t have to pay your tab. This all happens in ‘A Lovely Way to Burn’ but its a backdrop. Stevie is young, beautiful, and works as a Shopping Network Presenter. She is the person who gets equally wildly excited about selling you Christmas Lights, a cookware set, or jewelry. Her initial desire was to become a journalist but she fell into this job and got really comfortable. When her handsome, materialistic, doctor boyfriend doesn’t return her phone calls she decides he’s moved on. She works herself up to a tizzy, goes to pick up her stuff, and finds him dead in his bed. At first she believes it was ‘The Sweats,’ everyone is getting it, but then his co-workers, and the family she never met, ask if it could be suicide. She’d only been dating him for a few months so she doesn’t really know. Then she finds he left her his computer with strict instructions it can only be given to one person, the only doctor he trusted. With this new info his cause of death becomes questionable.
Amongst people dying of a genuine plague Stevie sets out on the mystery of what happened to her boyfriend. Stevie is immune. She got sick but is one of the few who got better. What does she decide to do with her immunity? Does she help people to find a cure? Does she seek safety to ride this illness out? No. Stevie takes foolish risks driving around London with no thought to finding food, shelter, or rationing gas. This fairly shallow character decides amongst a dying city she is going to find out what happened to her boyfriend. Is it because she loved him and is heartbroken? Is it because she believes in what he was doing? No. Stevie knows very little about the man she was dating. She knew he liked fancy restaurants, nice cars, and they had a good time together. She didn’t know him well enough to care to meet his friends or find out much about what he did. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. I don’t expect utter devotion to someone you’ve only been casually dating, but I also don’t comprehend risking your life, at the end of the world, to find out why they were killed when you just weren’t that invested. Many characters ask her why she is bothering to find out what happened to him when the entire city is dying. I wholeheartedly agree with them.
Stevie and the rest of the characters in the book are shallow and not particularly likable. I had a hard time getting into the book. Towards the end it got better. That said, I could not figure out why we were wasting time on the mystery of Simon’s death when the plague has come to town. I kept looking for what tied the story together. It felt like the book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It is part of a series, however, and I want to see where book two goes. The mystery portion gets completed, so I believe book two must be about the devastation reaped by plague. I haven’t decided if I will read book two, but I do think it must be better. Stevie will have to figure out survival, and she isn't nearly as shallow at the end of the book. So, while not very prudent, she has a chance at developing into a character of substance. Maybe that will be the moral of the series – even the most frivolous have a shot if life challenges them and they choose to rise to the occasion.
Amongst people dying of a genuine plague Stevie sets out on the mystery of what happened to her boyfriend. Stevie is immune. She got sick but is one of the few who got better. What does she decide to do with her immunity? Does she help people to find a cure? Does she seek safety to ride this illness out? No. Stevie takes foolish risks driving around London with no thought to finding food, shelter, or rationing gas. This fairly shallow character decides amongst a dying city she is going to find out what happened to her boyfriend. Is it because she loved him and is heartbroken? Is it because she believes in what he was doing? No. Stevie knows very little about the man she was dating. She knew he liked fancy restaurants, nice cars, and they had a good time together. She didn’t know him well enough to care to meet his friends or find out much about what he did. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. I don’t expect utter devotion to someone you’ve only been casually dating, but I also don’t comprehend risking your life, at the end of the world, to find out why they were killed when you just weren’t that invested. Many characters ask her why she is bothering to find out what happened to him when the entire city is dying. I wholeheartedly agree with them.
Stevie and the rest of the characters in the book are shallow and not particularly likable. I had a hard time getting into the book. Towards the end it got better. That said, I could not figure out why we were wasting time on the mystery of Simon’s death when the plague has come to town. I kept looking for what tied the story together. It felt like the book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It is part of a series, however, and I want to see where book two goes. The mystery portion gets completed, so I believe book two must be about the devastation reaped by plague. I haven’t decided if I will read book two, but I do think it must be better. Stevie will have to figure out survival, and she isn't nearly as shallow at the end of the book. So, while not very prudent, she has a chance at developing into a character of substance. Maybe that will be the moral of the series – even the most frivolous have a shot if life challenges them and they choose to rise to the occasion.
May 17, 2016
Let's start on a positive note - this wasn't awful. The idea of a dystopia crime thriller set in London - WOO. But that's were the positive ends.
I struggled so much with the writing; it was so rigid and disjointed. A lot of the book consisted of paragraphs were 'she did this, then this and then this and this and to finish this.' Over and over. On top of that, the main female character really wasn't very likeable, even at the end I felt nothing for her. She wasn't really bothered whether she saw her boyfriend again apart from to break up and suddenly she's trotting around solving his supposed murder. Blah.
July 14, 2018
Oh Lord above! I tried SO hard to read this book over and over again over a few months, I kept picking it up hoping it was going to be better than the last time but sadly it just wasn't. I ended up not finishing the book and the promise of this book had given my high hopes.
It sounded so great from a plot perspective but the delivery of it was just slow, boring and not very well done at all. It should have grabbed me around the throat but I felt more like I was in sinking-sand, suffering a horrible slow death. Two stars from me and I can see I am not the only reviewer to be disappointed in this one. Shame.
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book via NetGalley.
It sounded so great from a plot perspective but the delivery of it was just slow, boring and not very well done at all. It should have grabbed me around the throat but I felt more like I was in sinking-sand, suffering a horrible slow death. Two stars from me and I can see I am not the only reviewer to be disappointed in this one. Shame.
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book via NetGalley.
April 17, 2014
I've never read any of Louise Welsh's other works before but I've heard great things about her previously, so I was hugely disappointed than I didn't like this one!
To be honest it read almost like a TV episode or a movie rather than book. It seemed like it was rushing from one action scene to another, and just didn't flow properly.
The were two aspects of this book, one was a murder mystery and the other was a survivalist thriller. Both seemed completely separate, and they didn't work as one cohesive plot to seamlessly take me from start to finish. It just felt awkward, disjointed and almost like two different books.
I didn't really gel with the main character Stevie, and found her actions/ reactions quite annoying, not to mention the cringe worthy "romance" half way through that was just unnecessary and stuck out like a sore thumb.
Honestly, A Lovely Way to Burn is rather forgettable. There were no redeeming qualities that stick out in my mind, and if you were to ask me questions about it in a few months, all I'll be able to say it that I expected more from it and I won't be picking up the next two books.
To be honest it read almost like a TV episode or a movie rather than book. It seemed like it was rushing from one action scene to another, and just didn't flow properly.
The were two aspects of this book, one was a murder mystery and the other was a survivalist thriller. Both seemed completely separate, and they didn't work as one cohesive plot to seamlessly take me from start to finish. It just felt awkward, disjointed and almost like two different books.
I didn't really gel with the main character Stevie, and found her actions/ reactions quite annoying, not to mention the cringe worthy "romance" half way through that was just unnecessary and stuck out like a sore thumb.
Honestly, A Lovely Way to Burn is rather forgettable. There were no redeeming qualities that stick out in my mind, and if you were to ask me questions about it in a few months, all I'll be able to say it that I expected more from it and I won't be picking up the next two books.
September 24, 2020
Random pick off the book shelf - "oh it's about a pandemic, what could be cheerier in these ends of days? I hope it's good."
Spoiler: It's not good.
Pairing a murder mystery with a side-plot of plague might have seemed like a fine idea at the time, but it absolutely doesn't work. The lead character Stevie (who is name checked a million times where "she" would have sufficed) is both bland and unlikeable, neither heroic nor particularly interesting, and prone to thinking in hackneyed similes. When she finds her - not really loved very much anyway - boyfriend dead in bed, she sets off to find out why he died instead of doing what any normal person would do which is get the hell out of London and hunker down with a brew till it all blows over. Oh god, it's so boring and ridiculous, and NO ONE CARES who killed the boyfriend because literally everyone is dying and the side plot of medical malpractice is tedious in the extreme, and no one in real life talks in full expositional paragraphs, and the only things Welsh could come up with in terms of the rapid demise of civilisation is a few fires and some looting and vigilantism and traffic jams. No one is stock piling bog roll, pasta doesn't seem to be running out, there's no anti-vax protests, no security at the hospitals, no anti-mask protests, no NHS clapping, no level 3 PPE shortages, and at no point does Boris Johnson appear on screen sweating and obviously ill and telling everyone to continue to shake hands.
All things considered, given the current climate, this probably wasn't the best random pick. But it wouldn't have been a good pick even if we weren't entering our second covid lockdown of the year because it's simply not a good book. Avoid. Like the plague.
Spoiler: It's not good.
Pairing a murder mystery with a side-plot of plague might have seemed like a fine idea at the time, but it absolutely doesn't work. The lead character Stevie (who is name checked a million times where "she" would have sufficed) is both bland and unlikeable, neither heroic nor particularly interesting, and prone to thinking in hackneyed similes. When she finds her - not really loved very much anyway - boyfriend dead in bed, she sets off to find out why he died instead of doing what any normal person would do which is get the hell out of London and hunker down with a brew till it all blows over. Oh god, it's so boring and ridiculous, and NO ONE CARES who killed the boyfriend because literally everyone is dying and the side plot of medical malpractice is tedious in the extreme, and no one in real life talks in full expositional paragraphs, and the only things Welsh could come up with in terms of the rapid demise of civilisation is a few fires and some looting and vigilantism and traffic jams. No one is stock piling bog roll, pasta doesn't seem to be running out, there's no anti-vax protests, no security at the hospitals, no anti-mask protests, no NHS clapping, no level 3 PPE shortages, and at no point does Boris Johnson appear on screen sweating and obviously ill and telling everyone to continue to shake hands.
All things considered, given the current climate, this probably wasn't the best random pick. But it wouldn't have been a good pick even if we weren't entering our second covid lockdown of the year because it's simply not a good book. Avoid. Like the plague.
March 2, 2014
Stephanie (Stevie) Flint lives in London, where she works for a TV shopping channel and has recently started dating Dr Simon Sharkey. When he stands her up she is not particularly upset, but, after a few days, decides to visit his flat and remove the few things she has left there. What she finds is his dead body and, although it seems that he died naturally, she is not convinced. However, then Stevie suddenly becomes ill and spends several days in her flat before she recovers. Once she is able to rejoin the world, she finds it has changed forever – a pandemic is sweeping the globe and panic is everywhere. In London, the illness is known as “the Sweats” and it seems that Stevie has both caught, and recovered, from it. She is then visited by Simon’s cousin, and finds that he has left something for her which may have got him killed and put her in danger.
This entertaining novel is part a mystery, concerning Stevie’s investigation into Simon’s death and part thriller, which is the story of the pandemic. The author builds the tension well - the sickness begins with Stevie sitting next to someone ill on the tube and ends with a major crisis; curfews, unrest on the streets, abandoned cars and people dying all around her. In fact, there is so much death that even the police are not interested in the possible murder of Simon. What secrets has he left behind and will they get Stevie killed, even if the Sweats failed to end her life? Her investigation will take her through her boyfriend’s childhood, personal life and scandals in medical research, in a bid to discover the truth.
The pandemic storyline worked for me slightly better than Stevie’s desire to find out why Simon had been killed. Her feelings for him seemed tenuous at best and, towards the end of the novel, the storyline seemed to veer into the unbelievable. However, the parts of the book which dealt with London, and the world, in crisis was certainly well explored and written. I was interested enough in the plot, and with the main character of Stevie, to want to read on.
Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
This entertaining novel is part a mystery, concerning Stevie’s investigation into Simon’s death and part thriller, which is the story of the pandemic. The author builds the tension well - the sickness begins with Stevie sitting next to someone ill on the tube and ends with a major crisis; curfews, unrest on the streets, abandoned cars and people dying all around her. In fact, there is so much death that even the police are not interested in the possible murder of Simon. What secrets has he left behind and will they get Stevie killed, even if the Sweats failed to end her life? Her investigation will take her through her boyfriend’s childhood, personal life and scandals in medical research, in a bid to discover the truth.
The pandemic storyline worked for me slightly better than Stevie’s desire to find out why Simon had been killed. Her feelings for him seemed tenuous at best and, towards the end of the novel, the storyline seemed to veer into the unbelievable. However, the parts of the book which dealt with London, and the world, in crisis was certainly well explored and written. I was interested enough in the plot, and with the main character of Stevie, to want to read on.
Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
May 6, 2014
I quite liked the idea of London in meltdown the populace dying with the dreaded "Sweats" It seems more than reasonable to assume that a virus might just wipe out the human race and an apocalyptic London is a great place to start. I also think that Mz Welsh created a great feeling of a city that was doomed and may not recover "It was as if a hum, that had been part of the city for so long no one noticed it anymore, had suddenly been switched off, leaving an unnerving, white silence in its place" But having said all that the story of Stevie Flint trying to find out what caused the sudden death of her boyfriend Dr Simon Sharkey created a very mediocre detective story that had lost my interest by the mid way point.I remember reading some 10 years ago The Cutting Room and marveling at its bitter, twisted and gruesome imagery which is sadly lacking here...the characters are present but the story never seems to happen or maintain any excitement or originality and I hold out little hope for parts 2 and 3 in the trilogy :( I was reading this book whilst on a small holiday to the seaside resort of Blackpool and here is a pic of me with daughter no 2 Becs outside the pleasure beach before we spent the day riding roller coaster after roller coaster.......I'm just a big kid at heart :))
April 15, 2014
Why do people keep writing novels they clearly wish were action films? Why do I keep reading them? Ridiculous and tedious and badly-written (but big thanks to Gary for taking the trouble to post it to me). This is not a novel, it's a boring friend telling you a long story about a dream they had, a dream which was very vivid to them but sounds to you vague and dull. I'm sure someone is planning/hoping to make it into a film with lots of shots of looted London and extras in plaguey make-up. It would probably make quite a good film (though nothing like as good as Threads, which the author claims inspired her), but it is not a good book.
April 28, 2015
Abandoned at page 86. I simply cannot be bothered to read this anymore. I do not care one iota for Stevie (short for Stephanie) or her dead - supposedly murdered - boyfriend Simon. Not even the package Simon left Stevie is enough to keep my interest. The premise is good, the momentum is lacking. Completely. Good luck Stevie, may you not be murdered too.
June 28, 2014
yet another fantastic book that kept me riveted to my seat as I read the whole thing in one sitting. sort of part crime novel/part dystopian with an excellent heroine. and this is just book one of a trilogy. I can't wait for the next one. highly recommended.
August 27, 2015
I struggled to finish this book and won't be reading the next ones in the trilogy. Sorry to say that the cover description was more exciting than the book. There were moments of depth and tension...but not many. What I found so jarring was the protagonist/heroine's ability to continuing functioning (coherently) while having a gazillion awful things happen to her. It just didn't ring true. In the middle of (what were supposed to be) deeply tense situations, banal statements pop up like "Stevie took deep breaths, remembering her yoga classes, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth."
August 4, 2016
I liked this enough that I would read the next in the series whenever it comes out and try some of the author's other work, but I don't think this was a great or very original mystery. There were some high points: I love the London setting, the protagonist Stevie, and the little details that Welsh adds to this setting and character. Unfortunately, the two overriding aspects of the plot, the virus that is taking thousands of lives and the mystery surrounding the death of Stevie's boyfriend, both fell flat for me.
The epidemic seemed way to remote at times and Stevie a little too disinterested in the supposed disaster that was gripping the capital. I get it, she is "immune", but I don't think that means she's not in danger or would not have any concern for what was going on. I thought I should be a lot more horrified about the "sweats" than I was, but Welsh descriptions of the virus seemed almost tame, meaning I found this strand of the novel pretty underwhelming.
The mystery murder felt contrived and way too obvious, and unlike the virus I found Stevie too interested in it. Many of the characters pointed this out to her, that really with the city on the edge of collapse finding the culprit of the murder should not be her most pressing priority right now. I have to say I agree with them. There are two possible explanations given for Stevie's over-interest. Firstly, she is an ex-journalist and so has a constant urge to find truth and justice. This just doesn't ring true for me, as if this were the case I feel like she would have been more interested in the virus as well. Secondly, that she was deeply in love with Simon. Again this just doesn't work: for one she only knew Simon for 3 months and made it quite clear that the relationship wasn't all that serious (it was mainly about the sex, she didn't really know Simon at all and she couldn't see that much of a future for the relationship). I'm not saying that she wouldn't care at all about Simon's death, but it just seemed unnatural that Stevie would be so obsessed with solving the murder mystery immediately with everything else that was going on, which makes me think that as there are basically two disjointed "plots", Welsh would have been better off keeping them separate and writing two different books.
I'm also confused about how both the title and the prologue (which I really liked and was waiting to be explained) fit in with the novel. Maybe this will become clearer later in the trilogy?
The epidemic seemed way to remote at times and Stevie a little too disinterested in the supposed disaster that was gripping the capital. I get it, she is "immune", but I don't think that means she's not in danger or would not have any concern for what was going on. I thought I should be a lot more horrified about the "sweats" than I was, but Welsh descriptions of the virus seemed almost tame, meaning I found this strand of the novel pretty underwhelming.
The mystery murder felt contrived and way too obvious, and unlike the virus I found Stevie too interested in it. Many of the characters pointed this out to her, that really with the city on the edge of collapse finding the culprit of the murder should not be her most pressing priority right now. I have to say I agree with them. There are two possible explanations given for Stevie's over-interest. Firstly, she is an ex-journalist and so has a constant urge to find truth and justice. This just doesn't ring true for me, as if this were the case I feel like she would have been more interested in the virus as well. Secondly, that she was deeply in love with Simon. Again this just doesn't work: for one she only knew Simon for 3 months and made it quite clear that the relationship wasn't all that serious (it was mainly about the sex, she didn't really know Simon at all and she couldn't see that much of a future for the relationship). I'm not saying that she wouldn't care at all about Simon's death, but it just seemed unnatural that Stevie would be so obsessed with solving the murder mystery immediately with everything else that was going on, which makes me think that as there are basically two disjointed "plots", Welsh would have been better off keeping them separate and writing two different books.
I'm also confused about how both the title and the prologue (which I really liked and was waiting to be explained) fit in with the novel. Maybe this will become clearer later in the trilogy?
June 12, 2014
Started reasonably well, and at only £1.97 on kindle I bought it....big mistake....badly written, terrible dialogue (the characters told the story through long, long chunks of speech - no one talks like that....) the main character Stevie was totally unlikeable and her actions were incredible and often too stupid for words....far too many metaphors and smilies, many of them very poor and most pointless, also too many pointless descriptions - how to make a pot of tea, anyone? Well don't forget to warm the pot....but this was meant to be a dystopian thriller! so she has a plague of rats....perhaps her research was that James Herbert novel....but there should have been far more stuff like this, far less about selling toasters.
March 25, 2014
Normally I'm avoiding post-apocalyptic scenarios like the plague they are often employing. There is, however, absolutely no way in this world that I'm going to miss anything written by Louise Welsh no matter how leery of the subject matter I may find myself. So could one of my favourite authors make me accept the whole pandemic thing? To save you wading through the rest of this. Yes.
At the centre of A LOVELY WAY TO BURN there is the mystery of how surgeon Simon Sharkey died. Given the pandemic raging it seems likely that his girlfriend Stevie Flint is the only person that cares. Which is kind of understandable. As 'the Sweats' starts to take grip, the city of London is in chaos. There are riots, gridlocked traffic, emergency services struggling with personnel going down with the same virus, hospitals filling with sick people and the bodies of the dead.
Stevie has had her own battle with the virus and somehow she's now one of the survivors. She should be of great interest to authorities, if they weren't preoccupied, or compromised. Whilst she battles against the city and population gone mad to find out what happened to Simon, friends, colleagues and support systems crumble.
It's a real testament to how good a writer Welsh is that the whole pandemic, riot, madhouse thing works despite there not really being a lot of new ground to be mined in there. The interweaving of the murders does add a strikingly "normal" aspect to life - and you can almost feel the pointless of Stevie's quest. It's also a testament to Welsh's writing that makes you care about what happened to Simon, even when the details of his involvements are eventually revealed. The pace of this book is terrific, and the plot, in the main solid. Stevie, however, is a real standout - determined and fair, she's driven initially by a desire for the truth for Simon, despite the unravelling of his solid reputation.
A LOVELY WAY TO BURN is the first book in Louise Welsh's 'Plague Times' trilogy, which means that for a while to come, I'm going to be pointing out I don't like post-apocalyptic scenarios.. except when Louise Welsh is writing them.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
At the centre of A LOVELY WAY TO BURN there is the mystery of how surgeon Simon Sharkey died. Given the pandemic raging it seems likely that his girlfriend Stevie Flint is the only person that cares. Which is kind of understandable. As 'the Sweats' starts to take grip, the city of London is in chaos. There are riots, gridlocked traffic, emergency services struggling with personnel going down with the same virus, hospitals filling with sick people and the bodies of the dead.
Stevie has had her own battle with the virus and somehow she's now one of the survivors. She should be of great interest to authorities, if they weren't preoccupied, or compromised. Whilst she battles against the city and population gone mad to find out what happened to Simon, friends, colleagues and support systems crumble.
It's a real testament to how good a writer Welsh is that the whole pandemic, riot, madhouse thing works despite there not really being a lot of new ground to be mined in there. The interweaving of the murders does add a strikingly "normal" aspect to life - and you can almost feel the pointless of Stevie's quest. It's also a testament to Welsh's writing that makes you care about what happened to Simon, even when the details of his involvements are eventually revealed. The pace of this book is terrific, and the plot, in the main solid. Stevie, however, is a real standout - determined and fair, she's driven initially by a desire for the truth for Simon, despite the unravelling of his solid reputation.
A LOVELY WAY TO BURN is the first book in Louise Welsh's 'Plague Times' trilogy, which means that for a while to come, I'm going to be pointing out I don't like post-apocalyptic scenarios.. except when Louise Welsh is writing them.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
May 10, 2014
The basis for this apocalyptic tale: London is threatened by a deadly virus. The desperate population is in a state of panic and evacuation is underway. The virus is unimaginatively called 'The Sweats' (thought that's what affected women of a 'certain age') and the whole narrative is clunky and awkward. Characterisation is unconvincing and dialogue like: 'Any more crap and I'll shoot you', and 'she said, 'Get out of my way', makes for little or no narrative tension. Was expecting a 'good read' but it was awful!
June 23, 2016
Anfangs hat es mir gut gefallen, die letzten 70 Seiten haben sich jedoch sehr gezogen. Das Ende hätte ich mir auch anders und besser vorgestellt
June 30, 2025
5⭐️ Meryl Bookclub 2026 ✅
August 9, 2025
Pity this wasn’t set in Scotland! 🏴
March 16, 2015
A Lovely Way To Burn – An Interesting Take on a Crime Thriller
A Lovely Way To Burn by Louise Welsh is the first book in what she has dubbed The Plague Times and is an excellent dystopian crime thriller. This has been one of the most absorbing, reads of the year, that could easily become one of the most popular series written in a long time. Throughout the book the pace never relents and at times it is quite heart thumping and will our heroine survive through to the end? This dystopian crime novel is a journey in what could easily happen if we do not take care of our planet, which is intriguing and terrifying in equal measure.
Stephanie “Stevie” Flint is a presenter on the shopping channel in love and lust with her new boyfriend Simon a surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, who has arranged to meet him in an über trendy bar in Soho. When he stands her up and is not answering her calls she goes round to his apartment and discovered he was dead, later finding out he was murdered. Stevie decides to find out the truth about his death but at the same time London is under attack.
London and the whole of the country is under attack from an unknown virus that people are referring too as the “sweets” that is claiming many lives. Stevie comes down with the virus herself but somehow survives and is one of the only known survivors of this plague like virus. Simon’s sister visits Stevie with a letter telling her about a laptop that needs to be delivered to a colleague at St Thomas’ and so the thriller begins.
With the warning of trust nobody but Dr Reah who she is informed has also died she returns to work at the shopping channel, where leaving at night she is attacked, and left shaken. So begins her investigation begins in to what happened to Simon, while London is collapsing under the strain of the virus. Looting and rioting is going on about the Police are dropping like flies and the Army are called in to keep order.
It is through this chaos that somehow Stevie has to survive and investigate to get to the truth, and at the same time stop herself becoming a victim of the murderer. She is not sure who she can trust with information where to she can go as the Police cannot help and nobody is interested as others are dying around the city. While searching for the truth she is also aware that she could be the cure to the virus, but she does not have the time to be the cure as she tries to solve the crime. We are left with a great hook at the end to draw us in to the next book in the series and quite honestly cannot wait.
This is a stylish well written dystopian crime thriller that keeps you on edge all the way through the book and you strive in hoping that Stevie can solve the crime but there is no justice in London and whether she will find it keeps you turning the pages. What really makes this book tick is where Louise Welsh plays on the readers fears and turns the knife on them to heighten the intensity of the story. A complete winner!
A Lovely Way To Burn by Louise Welsh is the first book in what she has dubbed The Plague Times and is an excellent dystopian crime thriller. This has been one of the most absorbing, reads of the year, that could easily become one of the most popular series written in a long time. Throughout the book the pace never relents and at times it is quite heart thumping and will our heroine survive through to the end? This dystopian crime novel is a journey in what could easily happen if we do not take care of our planet, which is intriguing and terrifying in equal measure.
Stephanie “Stevie” Flint is a presenter on the shopping channel in love and lust with her new boyfriend Simon a surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, who has arranged to meet him in an über trendy bar in Soho. When he stands her up and is not answering her calls she goes round to his apartment and discovered he was dead, later finding out he was murdered. Stevie decides to find out the truth about his death but at the same time London is under attack.
London and the whole of the country is under attack from an unknown virus that people are referring too as the “sweets” that is claiming many lives. Stevie comes down with the virus herself but somehow survives and is one of the only known survivors of this plague like virus. Simon’s sister visits Stevie with a letter telling her about a laptop that needs to be delivered to a colleague at St Thomas’ and so the thriller begins.
With the warning of trust nobody but Dr Reah who she is informed has also died she returns to work at the shopping channel, where leaving at night she is attacked, and left shaken. So begins her investigation begins in to what happened to Simon, while London is collapsing under the strain of the virus. Looting and rioting is going on about the Police are dropping like flies and the Army are called in to keep order.
It is through this chaos that somehow Stevie has to survive and investigate to get to the truth, and at the same time stop herself becoming a victim of the murderer. She is not sure who she can trust with information where to she can go as the Police cannot help and nobody is interested as others are dying around the city. While searching for the truth she is also aware that she could be the cure to the virus, but she does not have the time to be the cure as she tries to solve the crime. We are left with a great hook at the end to draw us in to the next book in the series and quite honestly cannot wait.
This is a stylish well written dystopian crime thriller that keeps you on edge all the way through the book and you strive in hoping that Stevie can solve the crime but there is no justice in London and whether she will find it keeps you turning the pages. What really makes this book tick is where Louise Welsh plays on the readers fears and turns the knife on them to heighten the intensity of the story. A complete winner!
March 8, 2014
Book One of the Plague Times Trilogy.
Publication Date: March 20th 2014 from Hodder and Staughton/John Murray
Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy.
It doesn’t look like murder in a city full of death. A pandemic called ‘The Sweats’ is sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis. Hospitals begin to fill with the dead and dying, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend Dr Simon Sharkey was not from natural causes. As roads out of London become gridlocked with people fleeing infection, Stevie’s search for Simon’s killers takes her in the opposite direction, into the depths of the dying city and a race with death.
A brilliantly imaginative mix of mystery and apocalypse this was heart stopping addictive reading that kept me up into the early hours (AGAIN, sigh) with its perfect pacing and wonderfully compelling main protagonist – one Stevie Flint. Add to that some absolutely top notch descriptive prose that keeps you right in the moment, a city that is turning on itself and its occupants and an almost dystopian feel to the ongoing Pandemic and I almost guarantee that this one will leave you with haunted dreams and a slight sense of imbalance.
When Stevie discovers a cryptic note with a set of instructions that lead her to believe Simon was holding on to a secret, she becomes convinced that his death was not from natural causes. And despite the absolutely terrifying situation she is in, with the city dying around her and most people trying desperately to escape, she undertakes a dangerous and uncompromising journey into the heart of Simon’s world determined to track down the truth.
Here is the best thing – Stevie herself is one of those characters that you live with, breathe with and sleep with while you are engrossed in the novel – as real as the person standing next to you, she drags you along in her wake through the dark places and shadowy streets of London, tracking a murderer, discovering that which is hidden and never holding back. She makes impulsive decisions, good decisions,bad decisions,ends up in trouble but doesnt give in. You will be with her every frightening step of the way.
Here is the next best thing – the backdrop to her journey is brilliantly written, superbly described, you will see it all in your head. The supporting characters are well drawn, elusive in their intentions and you won’t know who to trust and may often be surprised by random acts of kindness. Society may fall but there will still be people who care…
And here is the last great thing. It is a trilogy. There are two more novels to come and I for one cannot wait!
Highly Recommended.
Publication Date: March 20th 2014 from Hodder and Staughton/John Murray
Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy.
It doesn’t look like murder in a city full of death. A pandemic called ‘The Sweats’ is sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis. Hospitals begin to fill with the dead and dying, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend Dr Simon Sharkey was not from natural causes. As roads out of London become gridlocked with people fleeing infection, Stevie’s search for Simon’s killers takes her in the opposite direction, into the depths of the dying city and a race with death.
A brilliantly imaginative mix of mystery and apocalypse this was heart stopping addictive reading that kept me up into the early hours (AGAIN, sigh) with its perfect pacing and wonderfully compelling main protagonist – one Stevie Flint. Add to that some absolutely top notch descriptive prose that keeps you right in the moment, a city that is turning on itself and its occupants and an almost dystopian feel to the ongoing Pandemic and I almost guarantee that this one will leave you with haunted dreams and a slight sense of imbalance.
When Stevie discovers a cryptic note with a set of instructions that lead her to believe Simon was holding on to a secret, she becomes convinced that his death was not from natural causes. And despite the absolutely terrifying situation she is in, with the city dying around her and most people trying desperately to escape, she undertakes a dangerous and uncompromising journey into the heart of Simon’s world determined to track down the truth.
Here is the best thing – Stevie herself is one of those characters that you live with, breathe with and sleep with while you are engrossed in the novel – as real as the person standing next to you, she drags you along in her wake through the dark places and shadowy streets of London, tracking a murderer, discovering that which is hidden and never holding back. She makes impulsive decisions, good decisions,bad decisions,ends up in trouble but doesnt give in. You will be with her every frightening step of the way.
Here is the next best thing – the backdrop to her journey is brilliantly written, superbly described, you will see it all in your head. The supporting characters are well drawn, elusive in their intentions and you won’t know who to trust and may often be surprised by random acts of kindness. Society may fall but there will still be people who care…
And here is the last great thing. It is a trilogy. There are two more novels to come and I for one cannot wait!
Highly Recommended.
May 1, 2020
Stevie Flint is a presenter on a Home Shopping Channel who has been dating Simon, a surgeon, for four months. When Simon fails to show up for a date and then fails to return her calls, she assumes that she's been dumped. However when she visits his apartment to drop off her keys and collect her belongings, she discovers that he's dead. Initial assumptions are that he's killed himself, until Stevie receives a letter that Simon wrote to her before he died and she realises that there were things going on in Simon's life that she didn't know about.
This mystery novel is set against the background of a world that is succumbing to a major pandemic. A new and unidentified virus, known as "the sweats", is rife and there are few survivors. As society crumbles around her, Stevie is determined to unearth the truth about what happened to Simon.
I am the kind of person who fixates on news stories about bird flu and ebola and I have to say that the way that Louise Welsh conveys society unravelling is nothing short of brilliant. It starts with a few people coughing on the Underground, a weary GP commenting that she's admitted a few patients to hospital, more and more people calling in sick at work. Then within a matter of days there are riots at supermarkets, gridlocked traffic leaving the city, police stations closed down, streets on lockdown, radio stations going off air. It all has a surreal, nightmarish feel to it and it is the perfect backdrop for Stevie's determined quest to uncover the truth.
This is an extremely readable book. The central mystery is intriguing although it gets a little bit silly by the end. However the setting is truly memorable. Apparently this is the first book in a new "Plague Trilogy" and I look forward to reading the others.
I received an advance copy for review from Net Galley.
This mystery novel is set against the background of a world that is succumbing to a major pandemic. A new and unidentified virus, known as "the sweats", is rife and there are few survivors. As society crumbles around her, Stevie is determined to unearth the truth about what happened to Simon.
I am the kind of person who fixates on news stories about bird flu and ebola and I have to say that the way that Louise Welsh conveys society unravelling is nothing short of brilliant. It starts with a few people coughing on the Underground, a weary GP commenting that she's admitted a few patients to hospital, more and more people calling in sick at work. Then within a matter of days there are riots at supermarkets, gridlocked traffic leaving the city, police stations closed down, streets on lockdown, radio stations going off air. It all has a surreal, nightmarish feel to it and it is the perfect backdrop for Stevie's determined quest to uncover the truth.
This is an extremely readable book. The central mystery is intriguing although it gets a little bit silly by the end. However the setting is truly memorable. Apparently this is the first book in a new "Plague Trilogy" and I look forward to reading the others.
I received an advance copy for review from Net Galley.
January 26, 2015
Not as satisfying as I was expecting. I think I have been spoilt this year already, with both Golden Son blowing my mind and Station Eleven being such a perfect bit of apocalyterature. However this seems to be the first in a potential series and I can see that the premise may well develop nicely. I found it slightly odd that so little mind was taken to explain why a virus was suddenly wiping out the population, and equally odd that the situation was so much a secondary focus to the story. Hopefully book two in the series will explain some more.
August 19, 2014
Stevie Flint is no Lisbeth Salander, but Louise Welsh does an honorable job of trying to fill the void. London in the middle of pandemic is at least as bleak as Stockholm in winter and infinitely creepier. I don't know that I'll continue on with the series, but this was heaps of fun. In sort of a fever-and-chills, bodily-fluids-pouring-from-every-orifice sort of way.
March 30, 2014
Quick and dirty review:
Now that was bloody good. I read it in practically two sittings and it was one of those books where you get to the end of a chapter (they aren't very long) and think to yourself, 'Just one more.' I'm really hoping that Louise Welsh is a faster writer than George R. R. Martin because this book has me definitely wanting more.
4½ stars
Now that was bloody good. I read it in practically two sittings and it was one of those books where you get to the end of a chapter (they aren't very long) and think to yourself, 'Just one more.' I'm really hoping that Louise Welsh is a faster writer than George R. R. Martin because this book has me definitely wanting more.
4½ stars
January 6, 2015
I'm not sure about this book. Sure, I read it quickly enough, and I liked Stevie and the two stories, of the plague and Simon. But something seems unfinished, and not just because it is the first in a trilogy. Maybe as I think more on it, I'll be better able to add to this.
July 30, 2019
2.5 stars, really.
Started out really well, but didn't know whether it wanted to be a murder mystery or a dystopian novel. By halfway through, I was skim reading.
Started out really well, but didn't know whether it wanted to be a murder mystery or a dystopian novel. By halfway through, I was skim reading.
July 13, 2018
The premise and setting of this dystopian thriller were good. We're thrust into London in the midst of a plague. Unfortunately, there were a number of factors that prevented it from reaching its full potential. In some parts, the plot moves quickly, even erratically, while in others, there is too much detail and constant repetition. I find most novels over two hundred or so pages to be too long, and this one is no exception. The story could have been told more effectively with fewer words and more sophisticated writing. The constant alternation between "she" and "Stevie" when there was nobody else in the scene is one example of this. OK, her name's Stevie, I get it. The other big problem for me is the importance of the main character, which comes out later in the story. It just wasn't credible. 2.5 stars.
March 27, 2021
I wonder if when Louise wrote this book in 2014, she could have ever have imagined that something like this would happen just 6 years later. Thankfully Covid has not had the same horrific effect that the plague does in this book, and I don't just mean the virus itself but the way people reacted to the outbreak. Though maybe our reactions would have been similar if people were dying on the streets.
Although the plague is a big part of the book, it is also a background for the main story which is a thriller at heart. Stevie's boyfriend has died, supposedly of natural causes but he leaves her an odd note and a laptop which makes her think otherwise.
I really liked this book, the story kept me gripped. I would like to read the others in the story, from what I understand, they are set in the same timeframe during the plague but with completely different characters.
Although the plague is a big part of the book, it is also a background for the main story which is a thriller at heart. Stevie's boyfriend has died, supposedly of natural causes but he leaves her an odd note and a laptop which makes her think otherwise.
I really liked this book, the story kept me gripped. I would like to read the others in the story, from what I understand, they are set in the same timeframe during the plague but with completely different characters.
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