An Unholy Alliance

Susanna Gregory certainly researches her books well. Following on from the first Matthew Bartholomew story, An Unholy Alliance picks up the story a few months later. The Black Death has left Cambridge and the town and surrounding areas are trying to recover. Gregory paints a picture of confusion and violence where people feel God has abandoned them and they question their faith, cults (or Guilds) spring up and some are covens for devil worship.

This forms the basis for a series of interwoven plots involving the murder of a couple of friars, a few townsmen and several prostitutes. Throw in a kidnapped baby, a bit of cross-dressing and various parts of goats and the scene is set.

Yes, it's confusing but it's also enjoyable, interesting and show more a good way to while away a few hours. show less

Bartholomew, a medical scholar in Medieval Cambridge, investigates a slew of murders. A convoluted plot, the enjoyment for me is in the incidental historical details. The plague has wreaked havoc, and some are looking outside of religion for meaning, while it has opened up opportunities for others. And Bartholomew's modern ideas are looked on with suspicion.

Very enjoyable historical mystery. Cambridge is struggling like the rest of England after the Plague has killed half its inhabitants. Great change is about, through all levels of society. What starts out as one mystery ends up being three — with everyone but Matthew keeping secrets.

A couple of years have passed since the plague outbreak in Cambridge. Matthew Bartholomew is busy teaching a new cohort of students to relieve the desperate scarcity of doctors when he's asked to investigate an unexpected death. But there are more strange deaths and it's tricky to how they all relate to each other, and the final resolution wasn't one I expected.

Realised I haven't read the latest few of these, so am working my way through to them in order. Book 2. Poor Matthew Bartholomew, all he wants to do is get on with teaching his students his slightly unorthodox methods of treating patients and he gets dragged off to solve two mysteries. They appear to be related, but in fact it is two, and that only becomes apparent right at the end (which I wont give away). As previously, the largeer than life Brother michael is also tasked with solving the mystery of how a friar broke into the University stong box and got himself killed and then locked in the chect. oops. the second concerns a series of prostitute murders, but also the murder of a young woman who came to Bartholomew for help, only to show more find herself dead the next night. Via a series of poisioned locks, a miserable clerk and some cloth wagon stealing, our two slightly inept detectives do actually sort it all out. They really ought to work out who to trust, rather than discussin the case with all and sundry, including the clerk, who's up to his armpits in it! show less

2nd in the Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles. Reminiscent of Humberto Ecco's Name of the Rose, I think, but not as good. I found the book an easy, fast read, but was getting pretty bored with it by the end. Like much historical fiction, I found it an easy entry into the period (of which I know virtually nothing).

The first two thirds of the book dragged and then the last third imroved greatly. I wasn't wild about the first Bartholomew book and this one wasn't all that much better. I'm still undecided as to whether to continue the series.