The Last Hours takes us back to the dark world of fourteenth century England. It’s the year of our Lord 1348, and for those souls who live and work on the estate of Develish in Dorset, life is about to change forever. When news of a deadly pestilence reaches the estate, the lady of the manor, Anne Develish, needs to take control of those whose lives are in her care. Lady Anne makes the momentous decision to quarantine the estate in the hope of quelling the speed of the infection. However, her choice to raise one of the serfs to the lofty position of her steward is met with mutterings of discontent amongst the rest of the community. The courageous decision to isolate the estate has far reaching consequences, not just for the two hundred bonded serfs who call Develish their home, but also on the wider community whose fate becomes intermingled with that of Develish.

What then follows is an atmospheric and skilfully told story, which brings to vibrant life the medieval world. The petty jealousies and suspicion shown by the serfs of Develish towards their new steward manifests itself in rumours of doubt and mistrust towards the Lady Anne who only wants to ensure their survival.

The book is quite stark in places and perhaps, at times feels a little bit slow, but I think this only adds to the overall feeling of impending doom. A sensation which is evoked with such realism that I felt like I was a privileged time traveller who was being allowed to sit quietly in the shadows, watching in fascinated horror as the drama unfolded. So convincing is the narrative that you really can see, feel, and hear everything that goes on and never for one moment do you doubt that you are witnessing at first hand the horror of a plague ridden land.

Beautifully recreating the medieval world with all its dark and dangerous corners, The Last Hours, is a story which, if the ending is anything to go by, is by no means finished, and I look forward, with great excitement, to the next instalment.

Whilst I'm not usually usually a fan of historical fiction, I am a fan of Minette Walters so felt I'd enjoy this book. And I'm happy to say that I was correct. It was an excellent read. She's such a great storyteller and the subject matter was extremely interesting. The characters are well developed and relatable though thankfully, the circumstances (plague) are not! An engaging and gripping read of love and hate, strength and weakness!

So I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. To read something different. Something which I wouldn't have chosen a year ago. And when I stumbled upon The Last Hours on Netgalley, I saw the opportunity and I requested the book. It was definitely not my usual kind of read: a histfic novel but set in the Middle Ages. However, it still piqued my interest.

I'm going to be completely honest here. Despite my issue with its length, I think The Last Hours is a really good book. I expected it would take me longer to catch my attention, but I was hooked from the very first pages. The writing was good and Lady Anne was undoubtedly a fascinating character. She was a woman living in the 1300s and she was smart, fierce, educated and I deeply admired her determination, as she surely had a lot of people against her. There were some characters like Thaddeus Thurkell and Gyles who were also great and multi-layered and others that you couldn't help but hate with a passion (I'm looking at you, Eleanor).

The best part of reading this book is that it allowed me to learn about an era that I honestly knew nothing about. It was almost educational. I learnt that religion was basically their only reason to live and they did everything in life in order to avoid going to hell. I can't possibly imagine living like that but I nevertheless thought it was fascinating because of how everything has changed after so many years. When the pestilence came, most people thought it was God's punishment and they didn't think Lady Anne was being helpful when she ordered to keep the sick separated from the healthy. And people not getting sick meant that they had experienced a miracle, not that they were simply stronger than others.

What prevented me from enjoying The Last Hours more was simply its length. I think I would've loved it if the book had been 200 pages shorter. Unfortunately, I had to skip some chapters because I really wanted to finish it. And there were some boring parts where I felt it dragged. I was sad because I had started really enjoying the novel and I just wished that feeling had lasted during all its pages.

Still, I recommend this book because I truly believe there's a great story here. If you're not like me and you usually read longer novels, you shouldn't have a problem. And I'm sure you'll find Lady Anne a fascinating character to read about.

This book captured my attention from the start, and I couldn't put it down.

I've always been fascinated by The Black Death, and the way in which people in some places chose to isolate themselves (having worked out that the disease would not spread if they did so), whilst others carried on regardless.

There are some very well-drawn characters in the book, and I particularly liked Gyles, Lady Anne and Thaddeus - some good baddies in there too!

The author also provides a fascinating insight into the way things worked at that time. Few ordinary people were able to travel, and had no knowledge of the country outside their immediate environs! It's clear how hard life would have been for most serfs, and that the lives of noblewomen were not always pleasant - but we can't apply today's standards to how people were treated then.

I haven't read any of Minette Walters' other books (but now plan to do so), but am already looking forward to the next exciting chapter of this saga! When will it be published? Soon I hope!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

Minette Walters is best known as the author of crime novels, but her new book strikes out into fresh territory: historical fiction. She introduces us to the 14th-century village of Develish in Dorset: a prosperous, contented place despite the depredations of its arrogant lord, Sir Richard. His more thoughtful wife Lady Anne has quietly worked behind the scenes to improve the quality of life for their serfs, and received their love and loyalty in return. As Sir Richard rides out to deliver their daughter Eleanor's dowry to her intended husband, Lady Anne's abilities are about to be tested to the full. For it is 1348 and the countryside is troubled by rumours of a great pestilence, which kills with no respect for rank, age or piety. As Lady Anne and her serfs gather behind the manor's defensive moat, the certainties of an entire age are about to be turned upside down.



This is a slow-burning book rather than a pacy thriller, but Walters captures the growing fear of the unseen, incomprehensible sickness that crosses the country so rapidly. By bringing her people within the protective cordons of the manor, Lady Anne hopes to keep them safe from the pestilence; but her decision causes new problems. Crammed into a tiny space, old feuds flare up, tempers run thin and the petulant Eleanor seethes at being forced to share living space with serfs. She is especially incensed when her newly independent mother appoints a new steward: not a proper man of Norman blood, but a bastard serf, Thaddeus Thurkell. Never mind that Thaddeus is sensible, bright and ambitious: Eleanor sees his appointment as a sign that her father's values are being traduced, and she sets out to challenge her mother's plans.

While I found this book very readable, there were several things about it that jarred with me. For a start, I couldn't help feeling that several of the characters were modern men and women wearing medieval costume. Lady Anne, our heroine, has entirely modern values. She teaches the villagers to read; she introduces the concept of designated latrines and the importance of bathing; she even encourages her serfs to think of shrugging off their bonds and making new lives for themselves as freedmen. Naturally we sympathise with her views, but only because they speak much more of 21st-century attitudes than they do of those from six hundred years ago.

If Lady Anne is philosophically ahead of her time, the pernicious Eleanor is an absolute brat, pure and simple. There are reasons for her difficult nature, as we discover, but she behaves so viciously that I can't believe even the saintly Lady Anne would treat her with so much forbearance. Eleanor needed a slap on about page 4 and, not having received one, went on to poison the rest of the book. Rarely have I so longed for a character to die horribly of the plague. In fact, Walters gives most of her nobility short shrift: all but Lady Anne are avaricious, cruel or pusillanimous, perhaps because she's also the one one of Saxon rather than Norman blood. (The Normans do not come out of this well.)

Thaddeus is considerably more interesting, and fulfils the standard 'tall, dark and handsome' formula for a historical-fiction hero with aplomb. He is a bit too good to be true, and I couldn't help noticing that we're specifically told he isn't all that confident with a sword or a bow, as if to say that he may be tall and olive skinned with long jet-black hair and an air of natural leadership, but - honestly - he has his flaws. There's clearly some kind of exciting backstory about his birth that'll come out at some point, but don't hold your breath. As I said, the book is slow-burning; it's 560 pages long in the hardback version; and, sorry to break it to you, but it ends very abruptly with a 'to be continued'. This annoyed me. There had been no warning that it was the first in a series and, having loyally read several hundred pages, I was on the point of seeing it all come to a nice, neat conclusion - and then it stopped. Just another chapter could have tied up some of the loose ends, surely, and given us a much more satisfying conclusion? (It also begs the question: what will the sequel be called? The Really-The-Last Hours?)

Having said all this, it's a novel which never shies from the horror of the Black Death and the very grim things that had to be done to contain it. There are some clever twists and turns in the plot, but I must confess that its characterisation wasn't quite strong enough for my liking and that I was distracted by what I perceived as anachronisms. I'm outnumbered, of course, and you should go to read some of the enthusiastic reviews on Amazon to help you decide whether or not this is something you might like. Walters has an enthusiastic fanbase and I hope her new venture will encourage more readers to dip their toes into historical fiction. For my own part, I probably won't be seeking out the next volume in the story, although I'd like to know what is eventually revealed about the brooding Thaddeus. If his father turns out to have been a dashing Saracen pirate, you heard it here first. 

This review is posted on my blog at:
https://theidlewoman.net/2017/11/01/the-last-hours-minette-walters/

The Last Hours

I've long been a fan of Minette Walters and was keen to read her first novel for some years particularly as it departs from the crime genre. The Last Hours is a stunning work of historical fiction, set in mid 1300s England, when the Black Death was ravaging the population. I was engrossed from start to finish, immediately transported to a totally different world. Her attention to period detail makes this a very convincing story and each character plays a key role in a compelling plot.

There are echoes of the community in Derbyshire which cut itself off in an attempt to avoid the Black Death. Lady Anne, well educated and visionary, decides to isolate her small estate when she hears that the illness is incurable, highly contagious and very painful. There are some graphic descriptions of those affected and how they spend their last hours. It's interesting to read a story depicting a powerful woman; it was unusual for a female to be well read and educated and the same is not true of her vacuous daughter and boorish husband. There are those for and against her and this story is rich in conflict, secrets and connivance. Class differences are explored convincingly and Walters captures nuances of language and behaviours to perfection. And best of all, there's to be a sequel, due to be published late in 2018.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. It's convincing and well written and my thanks to the publisher for an early review copy via Netgalley.

I have never read a Minette Walters book prior to this. But I love historical fiction so couldn’t resist trying this one. It did not disappoint. Engaging characters and plot, I was drawn in at the outset. Please write more historical novels Minette .

This is the first book I’ve read by Minette Walters and I came to it with high expectations knowing her reputation as a storyteller and because the period setting and subject matter intrigued me.

The author does a good job of conveying the panic of the villagers as the plague takes hold and their ignorance of its source and method of transmission. Given the paucity of medical knowledge at the time, it’s easy to understand why many of them believe it to be a punishment sent by God. However Lady Anne’s religious beliefs and humanitarian instincts lead her to reject the idea of a merciless God raining down pain and suffering indiscriminately. Luckily for the villagers, she also possesses some quite modern notions of hygiene practices. That and her decision to have the villagers seek refuge behind the moat and walls of the manor house, cutting themselves off from the outside world, offer them the possibility of survival.

Eventually the need for food and news of the outside world means some of them must venture outside the safety of the manor house. Their experiences take up a large proportion of the second half of the book.

The book is clearly the product of extensive research and there were many things I found interesting. For instance, appreciating how little ordinary people travelled in those days and their lack of knowledge of what lay beyond even their own demesne. I hadn’t realised either that, at that time, cats were rare, unfamiliar creatures and forbidden by the Church as instruments of the Devil.

Most interestingly, the author explores the social impact of the plague. Not only that it was no respecter of position in society, targeting serf and noble alike, but that it created a situation where, in its aftermath, lords would be dependent on their serfs to restore the wealth of their lands. If you like, the law of supply in demand would come into effect, with the few serfs left alive able to bargain with landowners for their freedom in return for their valuable labour. Furthermore, the needs of survival thrust ordinary people into positions of unaccustomed authority or forced them to take responsibility for decision-making and organisation where they would previously have been used to taking direction.

I found a lot to enjoy in this book and I know many reviewers have been fulsome in their praise. However, I have to say that I did find it over long and rather slow, especially the second half which dragged for me. I was also taken by surprise and felt slightly let down by the nature of the ending (3.5 stars).

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers Allen & Unwin UK in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I enjoyed this book, particularly the relationships between the characters and the well researched social history of a period I knew very little about. The author mainly managed to keep my interest, although I did feel the book was overlong and then felt only able to give it three stars when I got to those dreadful words " to be continued"

I was sent a copy of The Last Hours by Minette Walters to read and review by NetGalley.
This is a very different book from Minette Walters compared to her ‘classics’ The Ice House and The Sculptress. This novel is set in 1348 during the onset of The Black Death and centres around a Demesne/Estate in Dorsetshire and how the plague affects the inhabitants. There is, of course, more than one thread to the story and we get to know a number of the characters quite well.
While the book is well written and gives a good insight into what times may have been like at this period in history, I didn’t find it gripping in the same way as the author’s previous work. I would still recommend it as quite a good read but don’t be expecting an historical take on the contemporary psychological thriller or crime novel, rather this definitely has the feel of a saga.

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Loved this book with its detailed historical setting and engrossing characters. I have read "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks which is based on true events at the time of the Great Plague. Of course this was 300 years later than the Black Death so people had a little bit more knowledge about epidemics and how they spread.
The historical details brought the whole story to life and it is great to "see" history from the viewpoint of the lower classes as most novels tend to focus on royalty and the upper classes. It was also interesting to have the corruption of the church and its representatives highlighted.
My main gripe with this book was the way it ended as there was nothing in the "blurb" to indicate that this was to be the first of a series - roll on volume 2.

It is 1348, and the summer heat is 'sucking the life' from Develish. Sir Richard leaves his demesne to visit a neighbouring lord, hoping to find a husband for his spoilt fourteen year old daughter. But he's having far too much fun drinking and whoring to notice his host might have something to hide - that his people are rapidly dropping dead from some mysterious new illness.

Left in charge of Develish is the new steward, who is about to find out that Sir Richard's wife, Lady Anne, has been secretly running his estate for years. She's made changes to improve the health and welfare of the 200 serfs, and even taught them to read. Consequently, Develish is far more profitable than its neighbours. It's Lady Anne who realises the only way to survive this plague is to bring all the villagers inside the castle walls and close the gates on the world - including her husband. With everyone forced to work together for survival, regardless of status, this soon causes resentment, jealousy - and murder. And then the food store begins to run low.

The Last Hours is like one of those apocalypse stories where the few survivors are constantly at risk from attack or starvation. I know very little about this period in history and hadn't appreciated that most serfs never left their village. So when a small group of serfs are forced to go in search of food and news of the outside world, they have no idea how to find their way in what is now dangerous and hostile territory.

I loved The Last Hours and thought it was absolutely brilliant. I really cared about the characters and became completely engrossed in their lives. I loved Lady Anne and the way she used cool logic to outsmart her enemies. Another favourite was Thaddeus, a serf who was determined to get more out of life than a lifetime of slavery. I even loved the villain, who I won't mention because I don't want to spoil it for you! My only niggle is that although the story doesn't end on a cliffhanger, I will have to wait until autumn 2018 to read the next instalment. Argh!


Thank you to Minette Walters, Allen & Unwin (Atlantic Books), and Netgalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Minette Walters has written a compelling page turner with The Last Hours - her first historical novel.
Set in 1300s Dorset, it centres around the small demesne of Develish when news of a terrible plague reaches the village. Sir Richard is the lord and master but it is his wife, Lady Anne, who in reality runs the estate. She is a modern woman with revolutionary ideas of hygiene and husbandry and subsequently has the loyalty of her husband's serfs. Quarantining the whole village within the confines of the castle after her husband has left on a visit, Lady Anne struggles to protect them all from the threat of the plague, maurading soldiers and a murderer at loose in the castle.
There is not a huge cast of characters and their personalities develop in a satisfactory manner as you read. The action centres on the castle and the lands directly around it. The sense of place and isolation echo the fears and superstition of the serfs and the attitudes of the clergy and ruling class of the time.
Minette Walters has done an excellent job and it is with a jolt and sense of disappointment that you reach the end of the novel and realise that the many loose ends have not been neatly tied up and have been left to dangle tantalisingly ready for the next instalment.

I've never read anything by Minette Walters before, and historical fiction isn't something I normally choose, but this book is very well written, and full of information about that period of history, which explains so much more about the Black Death, rather than it just being 'something that happened in England in the 1300s' The fact they had no real form of communication, so it was guesswork as to how far it had spread, who had survived, how to avoid it, what was causing it. These days, things are handed to us in such detail, but back then, it was a huge guessing game. The characters are described in great detail, and the twists towards the end added to the never ending dynamics, and loyalties of all those affected. I loved the book, I learnt a lot, and I would happily read Book Two when its available!

The quality of this book stands out from the start. The story is set in medieval times, with a totally enthralling storyline surrounding the black death and the lives of a small hamlet. One of the things that make this stand out is the level of detail that the author pays - the villagers being totally unknowing about the area outside their immediate village, and tackling with empathy the fear that this causes when the leave home to forage. Classic Minute Walters - brilliant, clever, deeply enthralling and totally unique.

Oh what a triumph!

I loved this story. I know no more than primary school learning about this first great plague to sweep through Europe and Walters truly brings the scale of devastation to life and the utter horror it must have brought to a society who truly believed in God's omnipotence, not to mention His desire to punish.

She does do quite gently and one step at a time. The place of the serf in society is something I also knew little of, or the still clear divisions between those of Norman and Saxon heritage, even centuries on. Understanding this is key to the story, even before the word plague can enter play.

I find the attitude and role played by the lady of the manor to be highly unlikely, but as this is necessary to the story - to allow for survival of the people we are following - it's forgivable. And after all, how much do we really know of a time when all history was controlled by those few who had education and could read and write?

The story meanders along a little, but sucks you in page by page until you need to turn page after page into the small hours. I am so looking forward to the next in the series!

Unlike many people who will be picking up this book, I've not read any of Minette Walters' thrillers, although I may have seen adaptations on the telly. Neither am I a fan of historical fiction of this period but I was drawn to The Last Hours by the plague aspect and the local connection.

The year is 1348 and a pestilence is spreading through Dorsetshire. In the demesne of Develish, the Lord is a horrid piece of work and his daughter isn't much better. Lady Anne on the other hand is a thoroughly modern woman for the time, having learnt about quarantine from her time in a convent. Thaddeus is a bastard serf, despised by his family for falling far from the tree in both looks and temperament. He has learnt a great deal from Lady Anne, including how to read and write.

There is a bit of an infodump at the start to establish these characters and I felt they were a bit flat throughout, with the writing having a formal and impersonal feel to it. The daughter, Eleanor, was hard to take seriously. She hates her mother, and when her rotten father succumbs to the plague (huzzah) she is in complete denial about the dangers and the fact everyone needs to pull together to survive. She has repeated strops, she should deserve some sympathy by the end but she doesn't seem to realise anything. The whole plot with her makes you think worse of Lady Anne too, maybe she is neglecting her daughter in favour of the serfs.

There's not a huge amount about the plague really. Considering it is from the perspective of the time as well as a community that goes into quarantine this is understandable. It's more like a survival story, a bit of historical post-apocalyptic fiction. However it generally was lacking tension, with small bursts of drama but I ended up skimming a lot in the final quarter.

What there is a lot of, however, is an explanation of the feudal system and how everyone had their place in society, and for most that place was a slave. Eleanor represents the old system but others in the demesne soon come to realise that titles mean very little in the face of such a plague. I did wonder if some of it was a little too modern. Lady Anne is quite socialist in her views compared to what would be normal at the time. I would be interested in reading how the plague changed social structures in England if this was the case.

Religion plays a bit part in their lives but it is quite damning over the Church of the time. The priest of Develish is a bit of a stereotype; drunk, corrupt and pervy. I had trouble not imagining him as Father Jack. There is apparently a sequel and I don't think I would have picked it up knowing that it wasn't a standalone.

Warning, rape is talked about quite casually by some of the characters. It would be naive to think it didn't happen during this period but it did make it a bit hard to empathise with them.

I was very keen to read this as I was a fan of Minette Walters' thrillers. I was interested to see how she'd take that style and apply it to hist-fic. Unfortunately, she didn't. Perhaps that's because hist-fic is a completely different genre and has a very particular audience. Whatever the reason, the book has a strangely formal quality. It certainly comes across as fascinating and well researched, but so much of the story is told, rather than shown, that I felt I was reading the transcript of a documentary, or maybe a school text book. There was very little to pull me inside the story and make me feel that I was experiencing actual scenes. For the same reason, I didn't feel any emotions for the characters. As a piece of fiction, it was just a little too flat and unengaging for me. But the idea, setting and details were great, so it does deserve a few stars for authenticity.

This is the first Minette Walters book I have read. I love how descriptive it is; set in the 1300s at the start of what I think was the first time the plague came to England. Over the next five years, it would kill off almost a third of the population of Europe. The main female character is Lady Anne, the wife of a minor lord, convent raised and educated, with one child. You alternately dislike then feel sorry for Anne's fourteen year old daughter, Eleanor. No love at all for Anne's pig of a husband, Richard. He is not untypical of men in that era; privileged, but ignorant and brutish. His wife is largely responsible for the success his estate enjoys. She often overlooks the prejudices of the time with regard to class and gender, and her education, charity and hard work, combined with an understanding of human nature, means people are loyal to her. A fact that comes in handy when the chips are down later. Women, although little more than second class citizens at that time, more often than not were the brains behind the estates, farms and villages throughout England then. I wondered while reading this just how many Lady Annes there were in those days.

As the plague takes over the country, Anne', with the help of the estates bondsmen, is able to lock down the Manor House and keep the disease away from its inhabitants, which included the serfs and freemen of the estate. I was surprised at the little twists in the storyline, especially with regard to Eleanor. I won't say what the bombshell is towards the end of the book as I don't want to spoil it for other readers. I didn't know there is a second instalment to this story, so I got to the end and was like ....hey! what's going on? I'm looking forward to next Autumn when part two of The Last Hours is available.