A Grave Concern: The Twenty Second Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew (Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew) Paperback – 1 Jun. 2017

Matt and Michael are back in Susanna Gregory’s twenty-second mystery. “It is a good time for tomb-makers” as a nefarious crowd of 14th century characters wend their way into Cambridge to disrupt both the University and the town, to the degree that Sheriff Tulyet happily coerces Michael with: “’The University and the town working together to thwart criminals. Are you sure you would not rather be a chancellor than a bishop, Brother? Cambridge needs you.’”The Prologue opens in a manner that is slightly different from Gregory’s norm: yes, someone dies – in this case Sir John Dallingridge – but we trot alongside the impending corpse who realises he is being slowly poisoned and is trying to deduce who has done the deed in order to ensure his legacy isn’t bequeathed to them. By his deathbed side is Sir John Moleyns, the latter’s wife, Egidia, and lawyer, Inge along with his medicus Barber Cook and some family members. As he dies, there is also a troubling assessment of those who might create his splendid tomb.Suffice it to say, a few months later this lot have pitched up in Cambridge. Sir Moleyns is there as part of a ‘prison move’ having been found guilty of various upper class crimes against the medieval peasantry of England. Trouble is, he gets off to a bad start:“’Tulyet will be sorry he offended me,’ he said softly. ‘And so will his town.’”It is not a spoiler to reveal the opening scene is one that brings about the death of Chancellor Tynkell. He engages in a satanic struggle above St Mary’s Church (reminiscent of a scene from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”) during a ferocious storm that it witnessed by everyone before being expertly dispatched. No murderer is found and everyone thinks ‘Satan’ flew away towards Barnwell Fields. It is a superstitious belief that confounds and exasperates Michael and Matt as so many of these mysteries have done. Michael has his own good news, thinking he is about to be invested as a bishop but is reined in by the author:“Poor Tynkell. I cannot accept a bishopric as long as his killer is at large, so I hope you will agree to help me. After all, my entire future is at stake here.’ When put like that, Bartholomew saw he would have no choice but to oblige.”Oblige he does.The motley crew of suspects includes Will Kolvyle, Michaelhouse’s newest Fellow, Thomas Hopeman, “an unattractive individual with a low forehead and darkly glittering eyes”, Lyng - the previous three-time Chancellor, Richard de Whittlesey – once master of Peterhouse now the envoy of the Bishop of Rochester, Frisby, the perpetually drunk vicar, and Nicholas, Tulyet’s secretary and lover of Thelnatham…amongst the usual Cambridge crew. In addition there is the feud between the marble tomb effigy sculptors headed by Petit and his team who includes Reames, Peres and Lucas with the tomb brasses memorial makers led by Lakenham. Someone is stealing a lot of funerary embellishments and accusations amongst these grave makers are rife leading to dark deeds,The resulting scramble to replace Tynkell means five candidates come to the fore: Godrich, Lyng, Thelnatham, Hopeman, and Suttone. As Gregory humorously observes: “’I consider brains to be an important quality in a Chancellor.’ They are overrated,’ said William. ‘Most officials manage perfectly well without them.’” Still, the impending election is the catalyst for a string of murders which lead Matt to realise that “We have two killers here, not one.” before unhappily concluding at the barn-storming denouement that he “was aware of a creeping sense of defeat as he recalled all the ‘clues’ that had led him astray.”This is a set of murders with differing motives; an enigma where a clever killer is sowing all kinds of seeds of misinformation, where “’People happily kill where large amounts of money are concerned.’” and the ultimate conclusion is that “Monuments might look pretty in a church, but between you and me, they are more trouble than they are worth.” Chuck in the impending return of Matt’s love, Mathilde – for whom he is now unsure of his feelings – and you’ve got another brilliantly convoluted book from Susanna Gregory.Oh…and one tiny error (seen before in the Kindle version of Gregory) – in the Epilogue we get “just deserts”, rather than desserts. So very nearly made it to the end without a typo. Ho hum.Read this. It’s worth it.

This amazing medieval mystery is the 22nd volume of the excellent "Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles" series from the formidable author, Susanna Gregory.Story-telling is as usual of a superb quality from this author, all figures featuring in this exciting mystery, whether they are great real historical or wonderful fictional, come vividly to life, while the atmosphere and surroundings of Cambridge are beautifully pictured in this story.Once again you'll find at the beginning of the book a well-drawn map of Cambridge, England, in the AD 1350s, the place where this story is situated, while at the end you'll notice a very well documented and explained Historical Note concerning this marvellous mystery.The book starts off with a two-part prologue, one that is set in Nottingham, late summer AD 1359, and the second in Cambridge, October AD 1359, and these two events will form a significant part within the main story.The main story begins in February, AD 1360, with the murder of Chancellor Tynkell, closely followed with the murder of the knight-thief, John Moleyns, who's been replaced from Nottingham to Cambridge, and both men have been similarly murdered.High time for Physician, Matthew Bartholomew, and his friend the Benedictine monk, Brother Michael, to start their investigations into these murders, but when they have just started their investigations there are confronted with serious burglaries as well as another killing, that of Lucas, apprentice mason of Petit, making our formidable pair determined to catch the culprit(s) of the burglaries and the horrible murders as soon as possible.What is to follow is that when a new Chancellor needs to be voted, intrigue and deceit will play an important part during election-time, resulting in backstabbing and deaths along the way, making it much more difficult for Matthew and Michael to solve these cases, but after some twists and turns followed by an ingenious plot they will be able to reveal the culprit(s) of the burglaries as well as especially the perpetrators of the political murders.Very much recommended, for this is another excellent addition to this great series, and what this episode is concerned I like to call it: "A Magnificent Medieval Mystery"!

I've followed this crowd since the beginning and too often I find myself laughing out loud as if I'm party to some of the conversations and ridiculous quotes typically found from these beloved characters.This book is the best yet and without giving any spoilers, authority is challenged to its roots.... And after you get through all that... There is a Cliffhanger. Hurry up August for the next episode!Please can you make this series into a TV series... It would be dramatic, hilarious and would be loved by a generation

I really enjoyed the latest book in the Bartholomew series, slow to start with but as the plots unwound it became harder to put my "kindle" down!. I hope the next one is the final chapter in the Bartholomew series, with Bartholomew's marriage & Micheal becomming a bishop, ideal ending but most unlikely knowing Susana Gregory.

As always a brilliant story that had so many twist and turns which keeps the audience wanting to read on and on. My sure guesses who the murderer was and the many clues which throughout were obvious to me were not... I am not it seems cut out to be a detective!

They get better all the time,some are better than others as is the case with this book,i read mine over and over again.I cant wait for the next one to be published,the ending as always is unexpected,and also leaves you wondering how many more we can expect of this wonderful series,a lot I hope.

As usual there is a long string of murders; not all are inter-related but you can't be sure which is which. There are a wealth of suitable candidates for murderer; the final 'exposed' murderer was a complete surprise - I certainly had no notion of who it was