Review:- Susanna GREGORY – “The Body in the Thames”

Year Published: - 2011
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 1 84744 253 6
Pages: - 468pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Londond, 1664
How I came across it: - On the new crime books shelf
Rating: - ***** *

One sentence summary:- In the hot summer of 1664 a Dutch delegation is in London to treat for peace with England but when one of their number is murdered the talks look set to falter.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Thomas Chaloner, spy for the Earl of Clarendon, has just returned from abroad in time to get married but he is less than amused when a man is murdered during the wedding service. On the broader stage, the problems of Restoration England might recede into the background if the country were to go to war with the Dutch who are seen by the majority of Londoners as taking much needed trade from the country. When a Dutch delegation comes to sue for continued peace one of their number is murdered. Thomas Chaloner is set the task of finding his killer. For Chaloner it’s not just a job but a personal matter – the dead man was his brother-in-law.

General comments:- I much prefer Susanna Gregory’s Mathew Bartholemew series (set in the mid fourteenth century) to the Thomas Chaloner one.


AUTHOR Notes:- see A Plague on Both your Houses

Review:- Susanna GREGORY – “The Mark of a Murderer”

Year Published: -2005
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0 316 72640 0
Pages: - 465pp
Genre: - Historical crime
Location:- Cambridge, 1350s
How I came across it: - Library
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- Another Matthew Bartholomew tale in which the strange behaviour of our hero physician is as much the talk of the town as is the latest series of murders in which he is involved.

AUTHOR Notes:- See “A plague on both your houses”

Review:- Susanna GREGORY – “A Bone of Contention”

Publ: 1997
Pensby Library
ISBN: 0 7515 2022 5
Genre: Historical Crime
Pages: 506p
Found by Serendipity
Rating: ***** ***

What led you to pick up this book?
I have read some Matthew Bartholomew chronicles before and thoroughly enjoy this sort of cosy historical crime. This is the third book in the series (the ones I have read have asterisks):-

Matthew Bartholomew Series
1. A Plague On Both Your Houses (1996) *
2. An Unholy Alliance (1996)
3. A Bone of Contention (1997) *
4. A Deadly Brew (1998)
5. A Wicked Deed (1999)
6. A Masterly Murder (2000)
7. An Order for Death (2001)
8. A Summer of Discontent (2002)
9. A Killer in Winter (2003)
10. The Hand of Justice (2004)
11. The Mark of a Murderer (2005)
12. The Tarnished Chalice (2006) *
13. To Kill or Cure (2007)
14. The Devil's Disciples (2008) *
15. A Vein of Deceit (2009)
16. A Killer of Pilgrims (2010)

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
In 1352, not long after the Black Death has devastated Cambridge, Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher and doctor at Michaelhouse College gets involved in trying to solve the mysterious murder of a student. Riots between townsfolk and students cause further deaths bit how many of them are simply as a result of rioting and how many are the result of someone with a deeper agenda?


What did you think of the characters and style?
Easy going and whilst it is not madly instructive about the fourteenth century the story does take one back to the atmosphere of the Cambridge of that era.

What did you like most about the book?
Matthew’s character and that of his friend and colleague Michael.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
Poor and hardly relevant to the plot.

Would I recommend it?
Yes – to any cosy historical crime enthusiast.

Susanna Gregory – see A Plague on Both Your Houses

Susanna Gregory – “The Devil's Disciples”

Publ: 2008 ISBN: 9781847440815
Rating: ***


Rumours of plague threaten Cambridge again, ten years after the Black Death had almost laid waste to the town. Neither the church nor its priests had defended people from the disease and now they turn elsewhere for protection, to pagan ritual and magical potions. It is a ripe atmosphere to be exploited by the mysterious 'Sorcerer', an anonymous magician whose increasing influence seems certain to oust both civil and church leaders from power. One murder, another unexplained death, a font filled with blood, a desecrated grave - all bear the hallmarks of the Sorcerer's hand, only the identity of the magician remains a mystery. A mystery which physician Matthew Bartholomew must solve before he loses his reputation ...and his life.

Susanna Gregory – see A Plague on Both Your Houses

Susanna Gregory – “A Plague on Both Your Houses”

 

In the tradition of Ellis Peters, A Plague on Both Your Houses introduces the physician Matthew Bartholomew, whose unorthodox but effective treatment of his patients frequently draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional colleagues. Besides his practice, Bartholomew is teacher of Medicine at Michaelhouse, part of the fledgling University of Cambridge. In 1348, Bartholomew is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated. When three more scholars die in mysterious circumstances, Bartholomew defies the University and begins his own enquiry. And then the Black Death arrives and Bartholomew is dragged deeper and deeper into a quagmire which threatens not only his life, but the continued existence of the University and the future of the town.

SUSANNA GREGORY is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer, born 1958. She writes detective fiction, and is noted for her series of medieval mysteries featuring Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher of medicine and investigator of murders in 14th-century Cambridge. Though the books may have some aspects in common with the Ellis Peters Cadfael series (an amateur and reluctant sleuth sceptical of superstition and somewhat ahead of his time) the tone and subject matter of the Gregory novels is far darker and does not shirk from portraying the harsh realities of life in the Middle Ages.