'Chris Womersley's work is, happily, always unpredictable, but City of Crows is a particular surprise. The year is 1673, and Charlotte Picot finds herself doing things that would have been unimaginable when she was living in deep rural France. The plague came to her village, taking almost everyone, including her husband. Charlotte’s other children died of illness years earlier; her focus now was to protect her one remaining child, nine-year-old Nicolas. Charlotte heard Lyon was plague-free, so she and Nicolas began a journey there. (Introduction)