The Tarnished Chalice: The Twelfth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew

If you like medieval mysteries that are well researched, you will love this book. Susanna Gregory's books are filled with detail and characters-- they are not fast or superficial reads. This is a great edition to the series. If you have never read any of the Matthew Bartholomew series, you might be a little lost, but you could go back to volume one and start from the beginning.

Susanna Gregory writes wonderful, well researched books. She manages to bring medieval Cambridge to life and paints a fascinating picture in her books. On top of that, the mysteries are great and well devised. Truly one of the most enjoyable series I have ever read.

Once again, an economy of words is something that this author has a difficult time dealing with. You keep going because you want to know what will happen in the good doctors life.

In the world of medieval mysteries, Ms. Gregory is right up there with the revered Ellis Peters and the prolific Mr. Doherty. Ms. Gregory's research that she puts into each book is remarkable, and each book is based on actual historical happenings as well as real historical people and places in England. This book is the 12 the Matthew Bartholomew series and is set in the town of Lincoln in December of 1356. As with most Ms. Gregory novels, this one is long (although it doesn't seem that way when you're reading), and there are a lot of murders and dead bodies scattered throughout. The mystery is gripping and the characters are real and vibrant. Matt and Brother Michael find themselves in the town of Lincoln in the middle of a bitterly cold winter. They are there because Michael is going to be canonized in the Lincoln Minster, and Bartholomew is there with him to try to find Mathilde who left Cambridge mysteriously 18 months before. They find the town of Lincoln is an unholy place. Not only is there a heartless serial killer on the loose, but there is a lot of civic unrest between the two merchant factions of the town that could erupt into a deadly civil war. Michael and Matt find themselves the target of an assassin or a group of assassins. The tension builds, and the book is a page-turner. I look forward to these books very much, and now can't wait for the next one.

Susanna Gregory is not as prolific a writer as many of the authors who write this style of book and the anticipation of waiting for a new title can be quite frustrating for the reader. However the wait is always worthwhile. Her choice of Cambridge as the main backdrop to her books is inspired. It seems to lull the reader into a world of spires and colleges inhabited by the students and academics who teach there. There is also always the underground rumblings of the inhabitants of the city who are constantly at loggerheads with the colleges and hate the students intensley, thinking of them as nothing more than thugs and bully boys. Now to a little background from the book, which of course to make a complete liar of me takes place in Lincoln. It is a cold and blustery evening in the year of our Lord 1356, Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael have journeyed to Lincoln. The cathedral are to honour Brother Michael and Bartholomew is determined to look for and find the woman he loves and is determined to marry. Both men soon find out that the religious lodgings in which they are staying is not the safe place it is depicted to be. It is revealed that a guest has already been murdered under mysterious circumstances. It emerges that when the victim was found he was holding a chalice, a well known relic of Lincoln and one that had a bloody past. Why? what significance does it have to the death of the man . . . Matthew and Brother Michael are soon drawn into the web of murder and deceit, but they are far from home, this is not Cambridge and neither man is sure who can be trusted and who cannot. I have never hidden my admiration for Susanna Gregory's writing and this one is a joy to read.