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, the inhabitants of Cambridge live under the shadow of a terrible pestilence that has ravaged Europe and is travelling relentlessly eastward towards England. Bartholomew, however, 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. His pursuit for the truth leads him into a complex tangle of lies and intrigue that causes him to question the innocence of his closest friends, and even his family. And then the Black Death finally 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.
An Unholy Alliance
Two years after the Black Death has decimated the population of England, a new killer is stalking the streets of Cambridge: a serial murderer preying on the women of the small town. Matthew Bartholomew, a physician with ideas ahead of his time and his companion, the portly monk Brother Michael, must uncover the identity of the killer before he strikes again. Meanwhile, bands of homeless peasants roam the land, shunning lives of virtual slavery in the fields, and turning instead to robbery and violence. The high death rate among priests and monks has left the people vulnerable to sinister cults that have grown up in the wake of the plague. During the course of their investigation, Bartholomew and Brother Michael are compelled to undertake the exhumation of a clerk, eavesdrop on a sinister meeting in an abandoned church, and engage in a hair-raising chase on horseback to save their lives as they close in on an evil coven taking advantage of the despair caused by the plague.