A Poisonous Plot

The Twenty First Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew

By: Susanna Gregory

Narrated by: David Thorpe

In 1358, over a century after its foundation in Cambridge, the college of Michael House is facing a serious shortfall of funds and competition from upstarts rivals such as Zachary Hostel. Their problems are made no easier by the hostility of the town's inhabitants, who favour the university moving away to the Fens.

This simmering tension threatens to break into violence when a well-known tradesman is found dead in one of the colleges. Matthew Bartholomew knows he was poisoned but cannot identify the actual substance, never mind the killer. He also worries that other illnesses and deaths may have been caused by the effluent from his sister's dye works.

Torn between loyalties to his kin and to his college, he fears the truth may destroy both his personal and professional lives, but he knows he must use his skills as a physician to discover the truth before many more lose their lives entirely.

©2015 Susanna Gregory (P)2015 Isis Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Susanna Gregory writes with fluency and energy, avoids archaic vocabulary, despite her 14th-century setting and, having had a career as an academic, bases the stories in this enjoyable series on careful research." ( Literary Review)

The development of Dillon.

There are so many characters in the story that o need a diagram to keep the storyline straight.

Glad the right voices are back!

Love the voices being back to their “normal” as I simply adore David Thorpe’s take on them, especially Brother Michael and Master Langelee and Clippersby as well as the townsfolk. He just brings Susanna Gregory’s characters to life and Brother Michael is my favourite character thanks to him (and her, of course!). I wish he could do all the books in the series.

I love Susanna Gregory 's characters the are so vivid and funny

The narrator does not give Michael's voice the strength it needs which is disappointing. For that reason I was unhappy with the performance.

Characterizations back to this best!

David Thorpe’s characterizations are back to his earlier work. Don’t know what went wrong with previous chronicle, but it’s all good again now!

Narration is off?

Again, a compelling story line that kept me guessing to the end. I greatly enjoyed traveling along with Brother Michael and Doctor Bartholomew on another adventure.

I have been going through the series via Audible. I was excited to have David Thorpe back for narration, but his voicing for characters has changed from previous books. This was most notable in characters Cynric and Clippersby. I didn't appreciate the change as I had also enjoyed the thick Welsh brogue of Cynric and the playful intonation of our animal loving friend Clippersby. Both were dramatacized into deep masculine tones in this book, that frankly sounded alike. Brother Michael was also presented with a deeper voice, and just not quite the same.