Plague by Julie Anderson

"Plague. Ciuma. Pest. Plaga. In any language, a word of power and fear."

Alas, I selected this to read because when I skimmed the synopsis, I thought this was actually about a plague in London. The "plague" in this mystery thriller is about proximity to power and control of money markets, government, and media.

Cassandra Fortune, drummed out of her former job as investigator at GCHQ, has a chance at redemption when she's asked to work with the police after several bodies are found that appear to be linked and discovered in unusual places in the subterranean areas surrounding Westminster. While the press has a field day with reports of plague pits and corruption, Cassandra and DI Andrew Rowlands track down a shadowy organization that is connected to the highest levels of government. NO SPOILERS.

This turned out very different to what I was expecting and that has led to me being disappointed in the overall story. I was not anticipating the protagonist to be such a hot mess nor was I ready for the romantic entanglements that would ensue. I did find the descriptions of the underground and subterranean tunnels and river to be quite interesting and there was a lot of that. I understand that this is the first in a planned trilogy featuring this character and I may or may not be reading those. I was not particularly thrilled by the last third of the book or the conclusion. The writing style was interesting though it got annoying when Cassandra's thoughts would be interspersed with her interactions and printed in italics. The reader learns very little about the other characters and it was easy to guess the bad guy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Claret Press for this E-book ARC to read and review.

 

This is the first in a planned trilogy. 

Genre - mystery thriller, corruption, government, UK