Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. Her series of mediaeval mysteries have gained a formidable following. This omnibus contains the first two books (‘A Plague on Both your Houses’ and ‘An Unholy Alliance’) in the series and introduces the physician Matthew Bartholomew to the reader.

Besides practising medicine, Matthew Bartholomew is also a teacher at a Cambridge University. His sometimes unorthodox treatment of his patients draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional, but less skilled colleagues.

The year is 1348 and the inhabitants of Cambridge live under the shadow of a terrible pestilence that has swept through northern Europe, crossed the channel and moved voraciously through southern England. As if Matthew had not enough to contend with, he is distracted by the death of the Master of the university. When three more scholars died in unexplained circumstances, Bartholomew decides enough is enough and begins his own enquiry into the death, but his pursuit of the truth leads him into a complex tangle of lies and deceit that causes him to question the innocence or otherwise of close friends and even his family. On top of all this the Black Death has finally arrived in Cambridge.

In book 2, the year is 1350 and we have moved on two years. The people of Cambridge are struggling to overcome the effect of the Black Death. The countryside is overrun with bands of outlaws and the high death rate of the plague has taken many of the priests and monks and left their parishioners vulnerable to the many cults that are circulating in the wake of the plague.

At Michaelhouse Matthew Bartholomew has got the urgent job of training new physicians to replace those lost to the Black Death, but when the body of a friar is found in massive chest that houses the university's store of precious documents Matthew is called away from his teaching duties to investigate the strange death.

Along the lines of Shadforth or Cadfael – and certainly engaging enough to pique my interest. ( )

This is the first in the series, and I've collected them all, and have spells of reading them all through.I just love the character of Matthew Bartholomew, and the relationship between the main characters,and the gentle humour ,as well as guess the murderer. ( )