Mark of the Plague by Kevin Sands

from goodreads

4 stars

Christmas time is coming. And that means that the library is closed on more often. That means I had to do a stock up to make sure I had enough to get me through. For me nothing is worse than when you finish a book and don't have the next one waiting there to get started. I like to have at least two by my nightstand so I know I will not have in reading gap. When there are so many books you want to read you cannot have reading lulls. It is finish one, get on to the next. (Yes, I know I have a bit of a reading problem. My husband can tell you all about it.)

Last Christmas I went on a bit of a nordic crime spree reading all of Asa Larsson's Rebecka Martinsson series. This year it is a bit of a mix, yet I just noticed that three off them are either set in Scandinavia or talk about Scandinavian culture. Weird, as that was totally not planned.

What do you like to read during the holidays? Do you go for a mix or is there a particular theme?

Synopsis

This is the second installment in the Blackthorn Series. Christopher is waiting for a new master, but that is going to take awhile as the Apothecary guild as left London because of the plague outbreak. With the plague has come a prophet stating who will be the next afflicted. Then a man shows up with a supposed cure for the plague. Is this too good to be true?

My Thoughts

This was an excellent sequel. It has definitely insured success for the rest of the series.

Once again we had a fast paced story filled with riddles and codes. There was danger, friendship and sacrifice. You will laugh, gasp and cry. Your emotions will be in constant flux.

What I really like about Sands is his ability to expose kids some dark aspects of the world in which we live, without making them feel scared or making things seem hopeless. Through his characters we see people who are out for themselves, who are willing to kill in order to get what they want, we see people abuse others, we see people who are hungry an scared. Yet through his characters we see tenacity, we see people still willing to make a change and have things be better, we see people who stand by one another, we see people picking themselves up and dusting themselves off and persevering. What great lessons. Yes, life isn't perfect and there are people who do some pretty bad things but we can stay true to ourselves and do what we can do for a better world.

All in all this was a fantastic thrill ride. A strong addition to a very promising series. I would recommend this for a mature 10 year old and up.