I loved the way The Plague Tales alternated between two time periods: the fourteenth century and a near-police state in the early twenty-first century.I wrote a research paper on the black death and found this book to be very accurate in it's descriptions of the disease and the time period. I also liked that Ms. Benson was able to weave these two plots together so seamlessly and create a believable future London.Her characters are very strong and I liked how Benson was able to show cause and effect relationships not just in one time period but between the centuries.It reminded me very much of my favorite book The Eight by Katherine Neville. Ms. Benson was really able to capture the feeling of both a historical novel and a medical thriller without alienating fans of either genre.This was a great read.