Goodreads Ireland discussion

I read this when it came out so a reread is in order. I did read the sequel , Fire , earlier this year.
While I preferred Vlad and Place Called Armageddon by Humphreys, I love how well he shows London in this book and it should be a really good read combining historical fiction and crime mystery, two things which should work well for the members of the group

Oh looks good i must order this

Good Morning campers and welcome to Plague, our October read. Bubonic Plague and murder sounds just about right for a Halloween read I think. I haven't read this book before but hope to get started today. For those of you who haven't decided whether to read this or not and even for those of you who have; here is a bit of info on the author in his own words. An interesting guy..... https://cchumphreys.com/about-me/

It's only €3.99 on kindle at the mo, picked it up the other day

Oh that's handy. It's a 2014 release so it should be fairly easy to get your hands on.

Loads of second hand copies on Abe and Amazon anyway

It looks very good but I have to sit this one out. I hope everyone enjoys it. :-)

I downloaded the audio for an an extra £3.99 so I'm good to go :-)

Brilliant :-)

I'm going to download this book onto my Kindle this evening. It sounds really interesting - I love the C.J. Sansom novels. Anyone who has read these - is there any comparison between the two authors / novels? I would love to hear opinions!

I've read Humphreys books but not CJ Sanson yet so no help here sadly

Thanks, Paul. I may just have to wait until I have read this book to decide which writer I prefer! As I have read all of Sansom's Shardlake novels, I am always looking for another writer of historical crime novels to feed my addiction!

I think you'd enjoy Sansom Paul. This is my first Humphey too Bookworm.

Only a few pages in but Humphreys paints a vivid picture. Not overly descriptive but sets the scene well and the book is off to a quick pace

I have one of Sansoms books on the shelves here somewhere anyway :-).
I think the only crime books Humphreys has done is this series of two.
Hos other historical stuff is very good but not crime mystery.

So, my enterprising other half, i.e Paul, has been in contact with CC Humphreys and he has kindly agreed to contribute to our monthly read where possible. So, in order not to put too much strain on his time we might wait til a few of us have completed the read and see if we have any questions he may be able to answer!!

Sounds good to me

Cool. He's a nice guy and is delighted we chose his book.

We have done it two ways depending on the authors time and preference. We' ve had authors start a thread in the group to which members post questions and comments and the author responds when they get a chance. These can be great but its a big ask and both times we did this it was the authors suggestion. More commonly we pull a list of questions together submitted from the group in a thread , send it on and the author sends the responses which we post. Oddly half the fun is in picking the questions.

I can never thing of questions to ask that don't sound cheesey. "Which authors inspire you? " Boring ;-p

That sounds good Emma :-).

Margo , he's a stage actor who's a skilled sword fighter and great researcher. Lots of questions right there ;-)

Margo you never know what will occur to you as you read the book.

Wow, Paul, that's fantastic! It would be great to hear the author's take on some of the things that occur to people as they read the book. Sometimes I wonder if the idea or impression I get is actually the one that the author intended. It's not often you get to ask the author what they meant or felt as they were writing the passage.

How exciting!

He came back and is happy to field any questions we have and loves helping bookgroups . I think the idea of setting up a thread to pick the questions , then Emma or Trelawn can pull the list together and I'll send on.

Trelawn wrote: "Margo you never know what will occur to you as you read the book."

Ok, I bags the question "do you have any unusual hobbies?" LOL

Love it Margo :-)

Brill :-)

Interesting background Trelawn. Thanks for providing the link.

He is certainly an interesting guy Patrick. Author, actor, playwright and handy with a sword - that's a decent CV. His theatrical background is evident in his writing, he is a very visual writer. He creates a great sense of place from what I have read so far.

CC Humphreys is quite chuffed with our BOTM choice for next month judging by his twitter feed -
"Jig or impale? Vlad, after 145k in sales worldwide is finally paying royalties +Plague is Irish Goodreads Book Club choice this month."

Bookworm with Kids wrote: "I'm going to download this book onto my Kindle this evening. It sounds really interesting - I love the C.J. Sansom novels. Anyone who has read these - is there any comparison between the two author..."

I love CJ Sansom and am so sorry he has pancreatic cancer. It is selfish but I want more Shardlake books.

Paul, Sansom would be great as you say you like historical fiction.

Are you going to give this one a go Susan? Crime and historical fiction combined, it sounds right up your street

I'm really going to have to hunt this done. Not in our library system and the cheapest copy on Amazon is $25.00. I will try the Irish bookstores.

Trelawn wrote: "Are you going to give this one a go Susan? Crime and historical fiction combined, it sounds right up your street"

I am trying to find a copy. I loved Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks which was about the plague. It was the first time I ever thought the plague would be interesting.

Susan, I have Dominion by Sansom on my shelf here so I will definitely try at some point

Dominion is not part of the Shardlake series. Allan liked it very much though.

Emma wrote: "How much is it on Kindle Susan? It was cheap enough on kindle in the Irish/UK store."

Not offered on Kindle.

5 dollars at this link for Kindle US for any of our American memebers . I hope the link works.
https://www.amazon.com/Plague-C-Humph...

Susan, that's awful! I didn't know that C.J. Sansom had cancer. Like you, I was hoping for another Shardlake soon, especially as he had started to introduce Elizabeth I as a character. I will be hoping for his recovery (very selfishly).

Paul wrote: "Susan, I have Dominion by Sansom on my shelf here so I will definitely try at some point"
Paul, Sansom's Shardlake series starts with Dissolution and then continues with Dark Fire. I have to say that Dark Fire and Heartstone (5th book) weren't my favourites.
Interestingly, both Plague and the Shardlake series have a character called Rich in them and both are influential people in society.

Well it looks like we have an interesting group read ahead. Hopefully the book works for most and it'll be intresting to see if the CJ Sansom comparisons are accurate.
I'll be curious to see what people think of how Humphreys represents London at the time. I have a lot of respect for his level of research as well.

Susan wrote: "I'm really going to have to hunt this done. Not in our library system and the cheapest copy on Amazon is $25.00. I will try the Irish bookstores."

That's my problem too Susan. I have to sit this one out. The book looks good too.

Book depository do it for about eight quid to the us and the us kindle is 5 dollars

Paul wrote: "5 dollars at this link for Kindle US for any of our American memebers . I hope the link works.
https://www.amazon.com/Plague-C-Humph......"

It didn't work. No kindle availability using this link.

Susan, that's very strange - when I clicked the link, there was a Kindle version on Amazon.com for $5.18. I wonder why it is only working for people in Ireland? Correct me if I am wrong but I think Paul is in Ireland to?

Yes, Paul is in Ireland too. Maybe it's an anti American thing. :)

The American Amazon and the Irish one are completely different.

Odd one . At least book depository will deliver there :-)

I ordered it from them.