An Unholy Alliance

In 1350, Cambridge lies ravaged by the Black Death. Plague victims fill its graveyards, hunger haunts its filthy alleys, and superstitious folk blame the Church. Crime flourishes, too: three harlots are found with slit throats and branded feet, a friar dies rifling a strongbox full of college chronicles, and the vice chancellor of the university vanishes from his sick chamber along with all its furnishings.

Now the chancellor calls on the deductive skill of Matthew Bartholomew, Master of Medicine. Busy enough already with the teaching and practice of controversial new techniques learned from an Arabian physician, Bartholomew welcomes the investigative help of portly Brother Michael--a shrewd and merry monk, not unduly shocked by sins of the flesh. And soon they are on a tangled and murderous trail of conspiracy and obsession--from an exotic poison to a surge of devil worship, from a grisly exhumation to a sweetheart's dying words.