A Bone of Contention (1997)

Another complicated mystery, with multiple strands that are mixed up together. There's tension between the town and university, with riots in Cambridge. The atmosphere isn't helped by the drainage ditch being dredged. Out of the slime, an ambitious college principle dredges a relic of a local martyr. And that's only the start. You do worry that Bartholomew is far to easily lured from college on a mercy mission and promptly attacked, it seems to have happened in each book so far. But he and Brother Michael are an engaging detectives and not being blessed with amaxing intellect does make him more human than a lot of fictional detectives. Intriguing and, as it's been a while since I've read this one, I had no idea what the solution was! ( )

This book is the third in the series following the adventures of the physician Matthew Bartholomew and his friend, Friar Michael, in Cambridge. Besides practising medicine, Matthew is also a teacher at a Cambridge college and his sometimes unorthodox treatment of his patients draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional, but less skilled colleagues.

This tangled tale begins with the murder of a university student and the discovery of what appear to be the bones of a saint. By the time it is unraveled, a baker's dozen of the local folk have been knived, bludgeoned, etc. The murders pile up, the mystery deepens, red herrings surface and sink till the murderer is finally unveiled 490-odd pages later.

Gregory is not the most skilled author – the writing is loose and at times even sloppy; and the editing is uneven. But, to her credit, few authors are as adept at recreating the sights, sounds and smells of ye olde England. The Bartholomew/Michael friendship is also nicely done; and the fact that physician Matthew is completely clueless about women and receives advise from the friar sworn to a vow of celibacy adds levity to the darkness of the story. These characteristics make these tales easy and engaging reads.

I’m off to open the next one. ( )

Book 3 in series. Better than second. Mystery unfolded continually without constant harking back to "previous" experience of the black death. I had thought I would only read #2 andf #3, but I am now willing to pick up another.

Historical mystery, about the same time as Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries, but in some ways struck me as anti-cadfael - the setting was gritty, grimy, clear sense of the period's stifling attitudes, general unrest and grinding poverty, odd inaccurate medical theories and lack of hygiene. Very different from Peters' nice clean wholesome monastery and helpful herbalist!And yet, it wasn't _grim_. The characters belonged to their times and didn't expect different, and lived their lives as best they could, mostly cheerfully, dealing with the ordinary (to them) stuff without any sense that it made them worse off than a twentieth-century person. Outdated attitudes, but courage and compassion, evil and pettiness, and a real lust for the best parts of living.Too many deaths, though, I felt the actual plot (as opposed to character or setting) was rather getting away from her. ( )