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An Order for Death
- The Seventh Matthew Bartholomew Chronicle
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Series: Matthew Bartholomew, Book 7
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
Non-member price: $31.21
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Matthew Bartholomew jumps at the chance to travel to Ely with Brother Michael, as it will give him a unique opportunity to study in the richly stocked library of the Benedictine priory. Michael has been summoned to the city by his bishop, but it isn't until they arrive that they discover the reason - the bishop has been accused of murder. The charge seems ludicrous, but Michael takes the investigation seriously and energetically sets about his task. Almost immediately he discovers that there appears to have been a series of unexplained deaths in the area.
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Cambridge, 1354. Christmas approaches, and the town is gripped by the worst blizzards in living memory. As the physician Matthew Bartholomew struggles to help the poorer citizens cope with freezing temperatures, his colleagues prepare for the festivities. The weather has trapped many travellers in the town, including Matthew's erstwhile love, Philippa. She and her wealthy husband are invited to Michaelhouse for the main feast, and Matthew is horrified that he does not immediately recognise the overweight, sulky woman who once stole his heart.
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Disappointing
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February 1355: Oxford explodes in one of the most serious riots of its history. Fearing for their lives, the scholars flee, and some choose the University at Cambridge as their temporary refuge. But they don't remain safe for long. Within hours of their arrival, the first of their number dies, followed quickly by a second. When Matthew Bartholomew begins to investigate the deaths, he uncovers evidence that the Oxford riot was not a case of random violence, but part of a carefully orchestrated plot.
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Spoiled my Enjoyment
- By Mr Simon Lovell on 06-09-2020
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The Tarnished Chalice
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Matthew Bartholomew, doctor of medicine and fellow of Michaelhouse, Cambridge, is travelling with a party from the college to accept the gift of the living of a parish in Suffolk. One of his companions, Unwin, an unworldly scholar, is to be installed as priest. Their journey is not without incident - they are chased by footpads, pass through an eerie village abandoned after the recent plague and find a man barely alive on a gibbet - so they reach their destination with some relief. But their thoughts of recovering while enjoying the local Pentecostal Fair are soon curtailed.
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Cambridge University is in dire financial straits: the town's landlords are demanding an extortionate rent rise for the students' hostels, and the plague years have left the colleges with scant resources. Tension between town and gown is at boiling point and soon explodes into violence and death. Into this maelstrom comes a charismatic physician whose healing methods owe more to magic than medicine, but his success threatens Matthew Bartholomew's professional reputation - and his life....
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To Kill or Cure
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The fourth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew continues the adventures of the 14th-century Cambridge physician when he is called to attend to two deaths from some poisoned wine. The opening of a new and very well-endowed college has created petty infighting amongst the academics as new appointments are made. The winter and spring have been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague.
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Rumours of plague threaten Cambridge again, 10 years after the Black Death had almost laid waste to the town. Neither the church nor its priests had defended people from the disease, and now they turn elsewhere for protection, to pagan ritual and magical potions. It is a ripe atmosphere to be exploited by the mysterious 'Sorcerer', an anonymous magician whose increasing influence seems certain to oust both civil and church leaders from power.
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A Vein of Deceit
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A Bone of Contention
- The Third Matthew Bartholomew Chronicle
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Cambridge in 1352 is rife with terrible clashes between the fledgling university and the townspeople. Matthew Bartholomew, physician and teacher at Michaelhouse College, is trying to keep the peace when a student is murdered and the town plunges into chaos. At the same time, a skeleton is discovered that is rumoured to belong to a local martyr, and Bartholomew has his hands full investigating both deaths while the rioting intensifies....
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The Killer of Pilgrims
- The Sixteenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
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When a wealthy benefactor is found dead in Michaelhouse, Brother Michael and Matthew Bartholomew must find the culprit before the college is accused of foul play. At the same time, Cambridge is plagued by a mystery thief who is targeting rich pilgrims. Moreover, pranksters are at large in the university, staging a series of practical jokes that are growing increasingly dangerous and that are dividing scholars into bitterly opposed factions.
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An Unholy Alliance
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In 1350 the people of Cambridge are struggling to overcome the effects of the Black Death - and with a high mortality rate among priests and monks, the townsfolk are vulnerable to sinister cults that have sprung up. At Michaelhouse, Matthew Bartholomew is training new physicians when the body of a friar is found in the massive chest that the university uses to store precious documents. While investigating, Bartholomew stumbles across a derelict church being used as a meeting place for the mysterious sect he believes is at the heart of a web of blackmail.
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Hard to follow
- By Anonymous User on 23-03-2020
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Murder by the Book
- The Eighteenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
- By: Susanna Gregory
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
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It is drawing near to the end of term, and the University at Cambridge is in turmoil over the opening of a new common library. There is an attack on one of the masters at a meeting to discuss the matter, and a body is found floating in the pond in the library's garden on the eve of its opening. Meanwhile, there are rumours of a large force of dangerous smugglers lurking in the Fens. Aided by their friend Sheriff Tulyet, Bartholomew and Michael must thwart the invaders before the Feast of Corpus Christi the following week.
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Mystery in the Minster
- The Seventeenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
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In 1358 the fledging college of Michaelhouse in Cambridge is in need of extra funds. A legacy from the Archbishop of York of a parish close to that city promises a welcome source of income. However, there has been another claim to its ownership, and it seems the only way to settle the dispute is for a deputation from Michaelhouse to travel north. Matthew Bartholomew is among the small party which arrives in the bustling city, where the increasing wealth of the merchants is unsettling the established order....
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The Lost Abbot
- The Nineteenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
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Matthew Bartholomew doesn't want to travel to Peterborough in the summer of 1358, but his friendship with the lovely Julitta Holm has caused a scandal in Cambridge, so he has no choice. He is one of a party of Bishop's Commissioners, charged to discover what happened to Peterborough's abbot, who went for a ride one day and has not been seen since. When the Commissioners arrive, they find the town in turmoil.
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A Plague on Both Your Houses
- The First Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
- By: Susanna Gregory
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Matthew Bartholomew, unorthodox but effective physician to Michaelhouse college in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated.
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Hard work to keep going
- By Chris on 07-12-2019
Publisher's Summary
Believers in the theory of nominalism have set some Cambridge colleges at the throats of those who believe them to be heretics, and Michael, the senior proctor, has his work cut out to keep the peace. When a nominalist is murdered during a riot, Michael is certain he will easily find the killer amongst the Dominicans, but before he can get any sense out of them his junior proctor, Walcote, is found hanged, and he discovers that his trusted ally had arranged secret meetings at the St Ragelund Convent between men who would not normally be seen together - and the nuns of St Ragelund are renowned for behaviour entirely inappropriate to their calling.
Meanwhile Matthew Bartholomew learns that Michael, his lifelong friend, is in all probability the thief who relieved one of the antinominalist colleges of some of their most precious papers. If that charge were proved, it would put paid to Michael's long-term plans to become master of Michaelhouse - but would he kill to protect himself? Unable to believe his colleague would be capable of such acts, Bartholomew knows the only way he can quiet his own conscience is to solve the murders himself.
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What listeners say about An Order for Death
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-02-2019
Carry on in the Cloisters
I have loved all of these books and this one is possibly my favourite so far, probably in the same way the best Morse episodes were set in the arcane world of Oxford university so this, for me, was enjoyable for being firmly set within the university life of Cambridge. I enjoy the setting and the time period as it is also leading me to learn a little more about the period and in this case the background of the philosophical idea of nominalism. However you don't have to be interested in anything else to enjoy the novel. The book is great fun despite the murders because of a thread of humour. The various orders of monks all brawling in the church at the end was straight out of a carry on film. The regular characters become like friends as you get to know them over the books and David Thorpe's narration brings them too life in great style. My only gripe would be the character of Matilde who seems totally unrealistic and too vapid in character but fortunately she is not in much and the real joy is the relationship between Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael as they bicker and blunder their way through to save Cambridge university yet again. Long may it continue.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sarah
- 08-11-2018
Brilliant
i love these books, David Thorpe is a genius, he brings life to Susanna Gregory's richly imagined characters and intriguing stories. This one is my favourite so far.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-11-2020
A little More Care...
I am warmly committed to this series, and I have several more chronicles in my library. Positives: Cambridge setting; the main repeating characters; complex plotting; great humour, and easy to listen/read and wanting to listen-on/read-on; clarity of diction in David Thorpe's performance - Mathew and Michael's voice characterisations are mainstays. Less Positives: stock words over the novels (glower/glowering); Mathew and his hand through his hair - basically a want of greater editing in book and audio e.g. clarity on how long Lincolne had been in Cambridge (child, student or Prior); 1838 not 1338 in the audio. There are many, many characters in each chronicle and it must be hard to find voices for all. Greater attention to voicing lesser characters and sometimes straight reading might benefit (once a character's voice switches mid-speech.) Longing: For Matilde to figure more significantly and Mathew to get on with things.
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- Janicef
- 07-07-2020
Predictable by its unpredictability
As usual in this series the hero is dumb, the monk is the brains (but not always a nice person) and the most unlikely person did the deed, This version has the extra unpredictability of and even more obscure character coming out of the woodwork to claim he's the brains behind it all. But, also, as usual, its listenable in an easy-going "background while your working" way and the history and characterisations are always good, Minor people from earlier books develop into mains and some older ones disappear which is good and keeps the series fresh in at least one way even if the detective process consists of going down the wrong road until the bad guy suddenly puts his hand up seemingly for no other reason than he wants to get hanged. But I'm addicted now so roll on book 8
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- Lucie Graham-Cumming
- 22-04-2020
Yet again
Yet again Susanna Gregory has done a fantastic job with this book, and David Thorpe brought our favourite characters to life!!
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- Sandy
- 08-03-2019
Another enthralling tale
With its many twist and turns one is kept guessing who did what. Well read as ever.
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- Andrew Foulds
- 10-06-2018
Nominalism
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have however enjoyed all the books in the series. I like the characters , the time period and the setting. I also enjoy the narration. It is hard to make all the characters sound different and I think the narrator does a good job here. Yes it follows a set formula but personally I like that.
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- Jennifer Chennell
- 26-12-2017
more enjoyable than last
wasnt as keen on book 5 but decided to give this one a go. Glad i did.
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- Hathor
- 29-06-2017
Good story but terrible narration
If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more? The book is well plotted and has good characterisation but it is the narration that really lets it down with uneven and sometimes damn strange interpretations of the main characters. If you enjoy murder mysteries with nice historical touches then I would recommend reading the book rather than listening to it. What other book might you compare An Order for Death to, and why? Sorry, didn't know how to answer this one. How could the performance have been better? Thorpes interpretation of some of the monks can be strange and in this particular case embarrassing. When voicing one of the adult monks, described in the book as the size of a child, Thorpe produces a high pitched whiney voice similar to a truculent two year old, making for a truly cringeworthy listen. I do like how he gives voice to Mathew Bartholomew, one of the main protagonists but remain unsure about the other, Brother Michael. What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment? In between the moments of cringing the story was interesting but I am returning the book as I can't bear to listen to the narrator anymore. For me this is one book I will stick to reading rather than listening. Any additional comments? The stories are getting better as they go along but the narrator killed this one for me I am afraid. I can only hope that somebody has a discreet word with Thorpe and suggests that he changes his narration style otherwise I may be returning a lot of audio books back to Audible.
1 person found this helpful
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- Alison Marshall
- 13-10-2017
Too quiet
It was a good if overly complicated plot, very well read as always but the production values meant that it was too quiet. I often listen to books while driving but this was too low in volume out put to hear even with everything turned up to full volume. I'm now loathe to by another in the series in case it is the same
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