An enthralling read from start to finish - and I had to finish it in one reading!

A midwife and her servants at the centre of a murder inquiry during the siege of York at the time of the English Civil War of the 1640s. The characters and the city come to life in Thomas' tale of the every day lives of those citizens caught up in the political machinations of events beyond their control.

One gets a true sense of the lot of women of this period and for most their lot is a hard one. The midwife is an exception.

Without going into too much detail - it is the women that feature in this story as both victims and protagonists - they are central to both the story and its telling.

An excellent read - I quite literally had to continue reading once I began. With the reveal so tantalisingly close, how could one put this down for another day!