A Lovely Way to Burn: Plague Times Trilogy 1 (Plague Times Trilogy, #1)

by Louise Welsh

As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime

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 Lovely Way to Burn is the first outbreak in the Plague Times trilogy. Chilling, tense and completely compelling, it's Louise Welsh writing at the height of her powers.

• ISBN10: 1529386853
• ISBN13: 9781529386851
• Publish Date: 10 January 2019 (first published 20 March 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: John Murray Press
• Imprint: John Murray Publishers Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cameron Trost]

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.