Кембридж, 1348 год. Жизнь города и университета омрачена тревожным ожиданием Черной смерти, чумы, безжалостные удары которой уже опустошили половину Европы. Болезнь еще не вступила в городские пределы, когда мирный университетский быт нарушают страшные и таинственные события. Все началось с того, что на епископской мельнице обнаружен труп сэра Джона Бабингтона, мастера колледжа Святого Михаила. Вскоре в колледже находят очередное мертвое тело – на этот раз престарелого брата Августа, старейшего из монашеской братии. Врач и ученый Мэттью Бартоломью, занимающийся расследованием происшествий, приходит к выводу, что и та и другая смерти не случайны, а каким-то образом связаны с личной секретной печатью, принадлежавшей покойному сэру Джону и исчезнувшей после трагического события…

В Кембридже, едва оправившемся от великой чумы 1350 года, происходит череда преступлений. Первой жертвой становится городская проститутка Исобель Уотсон, затем в закрытом сундуке с университетским архивом находят труп неизвестного монаха. Мэттью Бартоломью, расследующий эти преступления, в ходе эксгумации тела университетского клерка Николоса в могиле вместо него находит еще один труп, снова женский, со страшной козлиной маской на голове. Дело осложняется тем, что в городе действуют две общины дьяволопоклонников, а также шайка преступников под предводительством Джанетты – безжалостной женщины со шрамом на лице. К тому же местный шериф делает все возможное, чтобы Бартоломью не вышел на верный след…

In 1325, the terrible legacy of the Black Death still hangs over Cambridge. Fears of a future outbreak drive people to seek protection in the power of holy relics, while the University is once more the scene for violent clashes between students and townsfolk. Matthew Bartholomew, Michaelhouse teacher and public physician, has a professional interest in order returning to the streets – his enormous practice of paupers means he does not have time to deal with a lot of injuries resulting from riots and mayhem. With rumours spreading about the discovery of a skeleton reputed to belong to a local martyr, a skeleton that even the physician confirms as human, a young student’s brutal murder plunges the town into chaos, and Bartholomew must ask himself if the two corpses – and the rioting – are linked to something deeper than local enmities. When suspicion falls on a respected University Principal and his scholars, Bartholomew’s investigation becomes the source of conflict within the academic community. And there are personal rivalries and painful memories of his own to be exhumed before a chilling conspiracy can emerge, a nightmare of murder and revenge so terrifying that the whole town could be tainted with complicity

The winter of 1353 brings new confusion to the people of Cambridge. Torrential rains spread fever to the poor, and make travelling hazardous along the town’s outlaw-infested roads. Then three members of the University die by drinking poisoned wine. Is this an attack by one College against another, or a new period of hostility between town and gown? The flasks of poisoned wine are circulating through both knowing and innocent hands. Matthew Bartholomew would rather not get involved in the investigation, but when his own life is threatened, he realises he has become a target for people who have more than robbery on their minds. As he is drawn deeper in to his enquiries, he stumbles upon criminal activities that not only implicate his relatives, friends and colleagues, but also mix commercial greed and academic intrigue into a deadly brew of evil intent …

It is spring 1353, and Matthew Bartholomew is a reluctant member of a deputation of scholars, priests and students making its way to the village of Grundisburgh. As fine weather lures hordes of outlaws on to the hazardous roads, riding to Suffolk is a treacherous undertaking. But the lord of the manor has offered to give Grundisburgh’s parish church to the College of Michaelhouse, and the Master has decided that such a princely gift is well worth the danger. But when the benefactor begins to rush the deed that will legalise the transfer of ownership, Bartholomew senses that rural Suffolk is not the idyllic retreat he had been led to imagine. And when a young student-priest from Michaelhouse is found murdered in the church that was to become his living, Bartholomew realises that he and his party are threatened by dark forces abroad in the village. Compelled to investigate, he descends into a nightmarish world of superstition, conflict and heresy from which the tainted find no return…

The Sixth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Cambridge 1353. It is a damp, gloomy November day, and the body by the River Cam is just the beginning of the intrigue in store for Michaelhouse. Physician Matthew Bartholomew recognises the deceased as the book-bearer of the Michaelhouse Fellow John Runham. The death looks like suicide – and Runham’s servant was well known for his black moods – but before Bartholomew can reach a definite conclusion, a second tragic incident occurs. Meanwhile, at Michaelhouse, the Master announces his retirement. Everyone is astonished and dismayed – everyone, that is, except the ruthless Runham. Once he has contrived to have himself elected to the post, he moves to make his mark on the College: sacking the choir, building a courtyard the College cannot afford, and demanding that Bartholomew choose between his teaching and his medical work. But just as Bartholomew is agonising over such an impossible decision, the new Master is discovered dead …

The Seventh Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Cambridge, March 1354, and the cause of murder is once more on the minds of physician Matthew Bartholomew and his colleague Brother Michael. It is a time of division and denomination at the great University. The Carmelites and the Dominicans are at theological loggerheads, so much so that the more fanatical members are willing to swap rational judgement for a deadlier form of debate. And no sooner is Carmelite friar Faricius found stabbed than a Junior Proctor is found hanging from the walls of the Dominican Friary. What was Faricius doing out when he had not been given permission to wander? How are the nuns at the nearby convent of St Radegund involved? And who is brokering trouble between Cambridge and its rival University at Oxford? The longer their enquiries go on, the more Bartholomew and Michael realise that the murders are less to do with high-minded academic principles, and more to do with far baser instincts

The Eighth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Cambridgeshire, August 1354 – and the Bishop of Ely is accused of murder. Tom Glovere was steward to Lady Blanche de Wake, a close relative of the King. A nasty, malicious gossip, his body is discovered by the banks of the River Ouse in Ely, just days after the Bishop had publicly threatened him with such an eventuality. The Bishop, though, protests his innocence and summons Cambridge University Proctor Brother Michael to help him clear his name. After all, Glovere was a man who liked his wine, and it would not be the first time he had collapsed in a drunken stupor after a heavy night in a tavern

The Ninth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Christmas 1354, and in Cambridge the winter is as severe as anyone can remember. But however cold the weather gets, for two individuals it is about to get even colder. A drunken attempt at blackmail by Norbert Tulyet, an errant scholar who has enrolled in the Franciscan Hostel of Ovyng Hall, leaves him dead on that foundation’s doorstep. And in St Michael’s church, a second unidentified body holds an even greater mystery. For Matthew Bartholomew, the murders would be difficult to solve at a normal time of year, but now he has a further serious distraction to deal with. Philippa Abigny, to whom he was once betrothed, has returned to Cambridge with the man she left him for, the merchant Sir Walter Turke. Bartholomew hopes that the couple’s stay will be brief, but he is about to be sorely disappointed…