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I enjoyed the book very much, particularly the 14th century sections, which I found very convincing. (Though I don't have any expert knowledge about the period to say how authentic the depiction was.) The final scenes in the 14th century were devastating and gave a real feeling of the horror of the Black Death. The tension built towards the end very well.
Some of the 21st century characters were pretty two-dimensional, but they were there to be irritating and difficult and succeeded in that. And I can well imagine that in a great crisis there would always be some people who cared only about their own concerns and complained constantly about unimportant matters. But even with the shortage of staff, I can't imagine the hospital letting the appalling Mrs Gaddson loose on the patients.
I wasn't really bothered about the lack of mobile phones and internet: I just accepted that communications would get jammed in such a situation and add to the characters' difficulties.
Not great literature but I enjoyed it. Four stars from me.
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