Death is a Welcome Guest

Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year

Magnus McFall was a comic on the brink of his big break when the world came to an end. Now, he is a man on the run and there is nothing to laugh about.

Thrown into unwilling partnership with an escaped convict, Magnus flees the desolation of London to make the long journey north, clinging to his hope that the sickness has not reached his family on their remote Scottish island.

He finds himself in a landscape fraught with danger, fighting for his place in a world ruled by men, like his fellow traveller Jeb - practical men who do not let pain or emotions interfere with getting the job done.

This is a world with its own justice, and new rules.

Where people, guns and food are currency.

Where survival is everything.

Death is a Welcome Guest defies you to put it down, and leaves you with questions that linger in the mind long after you read the last page.

Short-listed for Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award 2015 (UK)
Long-listed for Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2016 (UK)

“Welsh's fast-moving tale switches from a terrifically choreographed prison break to a road-trip through a post-plague landscape . . . Welsh imbues what could have been a simple narrative with more profound meaning and resonance . . . After the thrilling climax, readers will be desperate to find out what happens next in what, Welsh assures us, will be the final entry in this fascinating, unsettling and all-too-plausible trilogy-- Sunday Herald”

Welsh is a leading figure in a group of female novelists who've written recently about the end of days. What unites them is that they haven't presented a world blasted by bombs and radiation. Their literary vision is of a more gradual, and far more terrifying, devastation - National

Magnus and Job ride out of the city and deep in the countryside discover a murder has occurred - straight from the pages of Agatha Christie, for the setting is an isolated group in a manor house . . . The plot gallops along while the writing crackles with the sights and smells of a sharply imagined world . . . this book, the second in [Welsh's] Plague Trilogy, left me hungry for volume three - Independent

It is the sheer plausibility of this vision of a hellishly distorted world that makes this book so enthralling and scary . . . utterly contagious - Sunday Mirror

I wasn't sure what to expect from the ending given the fast pace of the last few chapters, but I absolutely loved it and now can't wait for the final instalment in the trilogy - Welsh Librarian

Thought provoking and engaging . . . an intelligently crafted book that plays with the mind . . . What gripped me more than anything were the little touches found throughout the book. With owners falling prey to the sweats who's left to feed their pets? The pets become wild and will attack for food. It's all very Stephen King! . . . A wonderful and very quick read, Death is a Welcome Guest is certainly welcome on my bookshelf. It will leave you with questions long after you turn the final pages - Milo Rambles

A cracking good story - Scotsman

[Louise Welsh] is indeed a canny writer and knows when a theme or story line is about to outstay its welcome in our imaginations. Before that happens the tale shifts a gear and the excitement builds to a higher pitch . . . As for the Sweats, well, we are about to enter a drug resistant era and the last Black Death episode in the UK was only in 1900. Food for thought while we await Book 3 with anticipation, fear and gleeful foreboding - Bookbag

Welsh brilliantly summons up a tough world of terror, desperation and dog-eat-dog survival - Metro

Louise Welsh is the author of six highly acclaimed novels including The Cutting Room and, most recently, A Lovely Way to Burn. She has been the recipient of several awards. Death is a Welcome Guest is the second novel in the Plague Times trilogy.

Visit Louise's website for more information:

Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Magnus McFall was a comic on the brink of his big break when the world came to an end. Now, he is a man on the run and there is nothing to laugh about.Thrown into unwilling partnership with an escaped convict, Magnus flees the desolation of London to make the long journey north, clinging to his hope that the sickness has not reached his family on their remote Scottish island.He finds himself in a landscape fraught with danger, fighting for his place in a world ruled by men, like his fellow traveller Jeb - practical men who do not let pain or emotions interfere with getting the job done.This is a world with its own justice, and new rules.Where people, guns and food are currency.Where survival is everything. Death is a Welcome Guest defies you to put it down, and leaves you with questions that linger in the mind long after you read the last page.

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