Rating: 78% | C+ | ★★
Synopsis (from Netgalley): 1665. It is five years since King Charles II returned from exile, the scars of the English Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. Alethea Hawthorne is safe inside the walls of the Calverton household as a companion to their daughter. She waits in anticipation of her brother William's pardon for killing a man in a duel before they can both return to their ancestral home in Measham Hall. But when Alethea suddenly finds herself cast out on the streets of London, a long road to Derbyshire lies ahead of her. Militias have closed their boroughs off to outsiders for fear of contamination. Fortune smiles on her when Jack appears, an unlikely travelling companion who helps this determined country girl to navigate a perilous new world of religious dissenters, charlatans and a pestilence that afflicts peasants and lords alike. Spoiler-Free Review: Used to reading about royal court intrigues, I was pleasantly surprised by The Master of Measham Hall. Abney creates a complex story with rich historical details and characters, drawing on a lesser-known period of English history and a lesser-known group of English individuals. Alethea, the protagonist, feels keenly and humanly. However, the pace is slow and I felt that there was little climax in the novel. Nevertheless, it was a solid debut showcasing an impressive breadth of historical knowledge. Thank you to NetGalley and Duckworth Books for providing me with an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
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