Set in 1321, this book really exemplifies the old adage about life being "nasty, brutish and short" (I just looked it up and it was coined by Thomas Hobbes in 1651 who apparently wrote how, without central government, there would be no culture or society and people would be at war with each other). The village of Ulewic on the east coast of England is beset by crop failures compounded by serious flooding, cattle disease, pig disease, sicknesses affecting the human population, inbreeding - anyone who really "belongs" has webbed fingers - child abuse, the impossibility of paying the tithe (a tenth of a household's supposed wealth in either coin or goods) to the Church and also the burden of having to pay the tyrannical local lord. On top of all that, there is a nasty protection racket run by men who call themselves the Owl Masters. Their identities are unknown as they dress up in owl masks, but they are able to publicly murder anyone who steps out of line - even for having sex outside marriage, for example - and get away with it. Meanwhile the local priest is too scared to do anything and more worried about his feud with the bishop, which stems from his being caught having illicit sex when he was stationed in Norwich: he has been sent to this benighted coastal village as a punishment.

Into this environment has come a group of women who draw the ire and jealousy of the whole community. The women are beguines, a Medieval lay order which was extensive on the continent but never found a footing in what later became the United Kingdom. The women live a life of useful labour, and use their self-generated wealth to nurse the sick and feed the local poor. Unfortunately, this breeds resentment rather than gratitude, and unfounded accusations that they are whores or witches; ironic in view of the beguines' oath of chastity and their Christian beliefs. Their being 'foreigners' into the bargain makes matters even worse. But at that time women who were living a self supporting communal life without having to depend on men were the target of suspicion and even violence. And so it proves here, especially when the leader of the community, Servant Martha, feels compelled to intercede for a couple of unfortunate local girls.

This was an interesting although very dark read with an extremely brutal peasant lifestyle being vividly invoked. I did know about the beguines, though had not heard before that there was slight evidence that they might have tried to found a community in England. The vicious retalliation unleashed against them is all too convincing. I did wonder though if people at that time really did not know that a stroke was a natural ailment and not something inflicted by devils. It was also a bit sad that what seemed to be survivals of pagan beliefs had been retained only in the negative view of the Church - so that the mother goddess had been translated into Black Anu, a witch figure that lived in water and dragged men down to their deaths, for example. The original pagan beliefs would not have had such a negative view of women or treated them so badly as this distorted medieval notion, so ironically the pagan men in this novel seem to treat women even worse than the Church.

The story switches viewpoint between a number of characters. One in particular changes from initially sympathetic to out and out deranged. I did find the ending rather abrupt and disconnected as if a section might have been missing, though I more or less gathered what had occurred off stage. I did wonder why, given the tolerance of the beguines, the leper character had been abandoned. The twist about the identity of the person who attacked the young girl in the woods and what he had done to her previously was extremely nasty, but given his portrayal earlier I wasn't sure this man was physically fit enough to have managed to run round in woods at night. The story is also rather ambiguous, given that several characters seem to see apparently supernatural entities, as to who really did attack her. Partly for these reasons and partly because the unrelenting descriptions of diarrhoea, rot and filth were pretty wearing at times, I would rate this at 3 stars. ( )

Set in the mid-14th century, this is of an isolated village in England, where the old religion hasnt quite been usurped by Christianity. The obligatory witch lives on the edge of town, the gargoyles on the church are still a little too paganistic for some and the "outlanders" are still to be suspected.

These outlanders include the Squire and his family, who is still despised after generations living there.

The Beguines - a group of women who are near nun-like in their vows to the Church, but work in the community - are also outsiders, and are to be suspected even more when their crops dont fail and their livestock dont succumb to a local disease.

The priest has been sent down from Norwich to serve penance for doing more than breaking his vow of chastity.

Told in various different voices this is a page turning read and only took a few days to finish. There were a couple of characters who you did wonder what they were there for apart from showing what life was like back then (e.g. the leper, the two children who lost their mother in a flood). I also thought that the battling against the owl master by the Servant Martha at the end was just a little too.....simple? easy? I dont know... ( )

Great, mysterious, suspenseful novel. One of the best of her works, in my opinion. As always, great characterization and enough little unpredictable plot turns to keep one guessing. ( )

After reading and enjoying Maitland’s Company of Liars I was excited to read her next book the Owl Killers, and I was not disappointed. In fact I think this book was even more of a compelling read than the first.

Set in the 1320’s in England, a group of Christian women known as beguines come to the small (fictional) village of Ulewic from Burges to establish a beguinage (a self-sustaining community of women). They are met with suspicion and are immediately targeted as the root of all evil (floods, famine, sickness and death) by the Owl Men, a group of men who rule the village through paganism and fear.

The story is told through 5 different voices which I did not have a problem following. In fact I thought it added to the story showing different points of view and enhanced character development. I know other reviewers did not like this technique but I did not have a problem with it.

Maitland is a master of this era and it is fascinating to learn so much about everyday life at this time (the Church’s power, what people ate, what types of herbs were used for medicinal purposes etc). She does not let her historical knowledge of this time period overwhelm her overall story though and does an excellent job of keeping the reader engaged and wondering what will happen next. There are a couple of loose ends she leaves dangling (what happened to Servant Martha, the leader of the beguines, and Father Ulfrid, although we can guess he where is fate will lay), but these few details do not deter from the enjoyment of the story.

I also liked the touch towards the end of the book when she refers to the main character in the Company of Liars (set 20 years later) who will come along and find a book left by one of beguines.
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(another stay up to midnight to finish book!). There was a sense of dread threaded throughout this story. I was worried this novel would be just one long, hopeless tragedy. I'm very happy that was not to be the case.

It's hard to tell which I like better, The Company of Liars or this (I'm leaning towards this one). They are both five starers, but each brings something different to the table.

I think this is more of an atmospheric novel, and it certainly delivers on that account. I felt completely immersed into the fourteenth-century East-Anglian fenlands. The action doesn't really get going until you're about 60% into the book. That's something I don't mind - when it's well written - and that's certainly the case here. But I know some people may be put off by that. Even though things didn't get hopping until later, the story still held me in a strong grip of suspense. I just knew something horrible and sinister was brewing up.

This book also has a few more elements of fantasy/mysticism. While I usually don't like that in my historical fiction, the way it's written here, it just works. I think it really complements and ads something to the whole story, rather than being a distraction or seeming to be tacked on as an afterthought. Of course a big party of this novel is about examining the conflict between Christianity and the early pagan beliefs of the people. So it makes sense that we are experiencing what the people themselves see and experience.

This book addresses a fascinating moment in the history of the middle ages. Not that the town, people and events described actually happened, but the environmental and resulting social upheaval going on at that time was certainly real enough. And it was fascinating to learn of the lady-religious, female-collective movement of the Beguinage Communities during these times.

I'm starting to think the most moving historical fiction novels are those about fictional people living thru real times/events, rather than those about real people.

(p.s. - quite an excellent chapter of historical notes, and glossary!) ( )