Everything about Susanna Gregory totally explained
Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a
Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. 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 doesn't shirk from portraying the harsh realities of life in the
Middle Ages. The first in the series,
A Plague on both your Houses is set against the ravages of the
Black Death and subsequent novels take much of their subject matter from the attempts of society to recover from this disaster.
These novels bear the marks of much detailed research into medieval conditions - one feels that many of the supporting characters have names taken from the documentation of the time - and well evoke the squalor of the Middle Ages; the struggle between traditional leechcraft and the dawning of
evidence-based medicine is a common bone of contention between Matthew and the students he teaches at Michaelhouse College (now part of
Trinity College, Cambridge), whilst the conflict between the students of
Cambridge and the townsfolk is always ready to erupt into violence.
Another series of books titled "Chaloner", set just after the Restoration of
Charles II and featuring Thomas Chaloner, detective and former spy, began with
A Conspiracy of Violence published in January 2006, and continues with
Blood on the Strand, published in January 2007.
Matthew Bartholomew
- A Plague on Both Your Houses
- An Unholy Alliance
- A Bone of Contention
- A Deadly Brew
- A Wicked Deed
- A Masterly Murder
- An Order for Death
- A Summer of Discontent
- A Killer in Winter
- The Hand of Justice
- The Mark of a Murderer
- The Tarnished Chalice
- To Kill or Cure
- The Devil's Disciples (due June 2008)
Chaloner
A Conspiracy of Violence: Chaloner's First Exploit in Restoration London (2006)
Blood On the Strand: Chaloner's Second Exploit in Restoration London (2006)
The Butcher of Smithfield: Chaloner's Third Exploit in Restoration London (2008)Further Information
Get more info on 'Susanna Gregory'.
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