Murder by the Book

The Eighteenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew

Close to the end of Easter Term 1358, the Colleges of the University of Cambridge are at war over the creation of a Common Library. Scholars from the poorer hostels are delighted by the scheme, but others see it as a dangerous precedent, and demand that the project be abandoned. At a meeting of all the masters to discuss the matter, a book flies through the air, striking one of their number and leaving him seriously wounded. Matthew Bartholomew is called upon for his skills as a physician, but his experience is even more in demand when a body is found floating in the pond of the library’s garden on the eve of its opening.

Meanwhile, there have been three murders in the town: these victims have all had their throats cut, and the culprits are rumoured to be a force of dangerous smugglers who lie low in the Fens.

Alongside Sheriff Tulyet and Brother Michael, Bartholomew knows he only has a week to disentangle the threads of violence that link town to gown, academic to tradesman. To fail might mean the destruction of the whole town.