Death of a Scholar

The Twentieth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew

By: Susanna Gregory

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

In the summer of 1358 the physician Matthew Bartholomew returns to Cambridge to learn that his beloved sister is in mourning after the unexpected death of her husband, Oswald Stanmore. Aware that his son has no interest in the cloth trade that made his fortune and reputation, Oswald has left the business to his widow, but a spate of burglaries in the town distracts Matthew from supporting Edith in her grief and attempting to keep the peace between her and her wayward son.

As well as the theft of irreplaceable items from Michaelhouse, which threatens its very survival, a new foundation, Winwick Hall, is causing consternation amongst Matthew's colleagues. The founder is an impatient man determined that his name will grace the University's most prestigious college. He has used his wealth to rush the construction of the hall, and his appointed Fellows have infiltrated the charitable Guild founded by Stanmore, in order to gain the support of Cambridge's most influential citizens on Winwick's behalf.

A perfect storm between the older establishments and the brash newcomers is brewing when the murder of a leading member of the Guild is soon followed by the death of one of Winwick's senior Fellows. Assisting Brother Michael in investigating these fatalities leads Matthew into a web of suspicion, where conspiracy theories are rife but facts are scarce and where the pressure from the problems of his college and his family sets him on a path that could endanger his own future ...

©2014 Susanna Gregory (P)2014 Soundings

good. historical mystery in English monasteries

I love the series. It's been awhile but I believe the detective is a hunchback and a Catholic in the days of Cromwell. Can you tell I learned a lot? that's my brain, no reflection on the books.

I read the whole series and can't recall the specifics of this one.

narrator was good and fit the book.

Good job by David Thorpe but voices have changed!

This is a great series with excellent voice characterisations but for some strange reason the characters voices have changed. Much less interesting voices and accents and annoying! Can’t imagine why they changed. Hope the characters voices go back to “normal” next book!

Why has the narrated changed his characters

It took awhile to get used to the narrator, and now he’s changed his characters voices so it’s back to being dreadful. Returning the audio and going back to print.

Voices changed in this book

Although the narrator is the same he changed the voices of some of the characters. I miss Cinricks (spelt wrong I am sure) Welsh accent. William and Michael seem different too- less individuality and character. I myself don’t like the changes.
The plot however was really great, one of the best in the series, I thought.

My only issue is that there aren't more of these..

Susanna Gregory is the only mystery writer who has had me simultaneously trying to suss out the bad guy while trying not to pee my pants with laughter. I don't think anyone but David Thorpe could narrate Gregory's books in quite the way he does, but his deep, slightly haughty resonance lends itself as much to intrigue as to hilarity, and at this point I only have to see the name of the author and narrator together on an audio file to lay down the cash, only there are precious few from which to choose. Pity. Get on that, Audible!! Anyway, if you like mysteries and anything medieval, get this book. Get them all, there isn't a bad one in the Matthew Bartholomew series. I particularly like how Gregory offhandedly describes what a item of clothing or food item is in the context of the time without being all education-y about it - she just says "this is what they did/ate/wore back then," gives a brief description that doesn't get in the way of the story, and gets on with it. After the book is over is when the reader (listener) learns the depth of research Gregory actually does in the weaving of her tales - many of the characters and situations in her books were real with the documentation to prove it, but have been fictionalized for maximum intrigue and entertainment. And intriguing they are. While her stories are set in medieval days, we see that human nature itself has changed very, very little since then: we are still ridiculous, hilarious, utterly foolish, and damn lucky. Many of the foibles and shenanigans that are described in this book (with hilarious detail) could just as easily have happened last week as six hundred years ago. Get this book - you'll love it. There is mystery, shenanigans, and plenty of finger-poking fun. You won't regret it.

Changed character voices, loved the story though

Ugh it took a while but Michael’s voice started to come through. Syndrick (sp) didn’t sound Welsh anymore. Please leave William gruff, Michael slightly high as fits his fastidious nature. Oh yeah, some of the character voices sound like David is holding his nose.
Still I love these books and am happy when I see David’s name as narrator.

All the Voices Have Changed

This book was a great disappointment because all of the main characters' voices, which I have grown to love, are different from the 19 books in the series that precede this one (with the exception of the 3 with a different narrator altogether). It is still David Thorpe narrating, but Michael, Cynrick, William, Clippersby and Langelee are all different voices. I have listened to this series solely because I have grown so attached to Michael's voice, so having that voice change so much was terribly off-putting. I've noticed that the later novels, #19-23 were actually recorded before the earlier ones, so in these later recordings, we are getting Thorpe's first rendition of the characters. Unfortunately for the listener, the switch in voices from #18 to #20 feels like a betrayal. Audible should bite the bullet and have Thorpe re-record books #19-23.

As always, the plot of the novel is overly convoluted. It's as if Susanna Gregory worries that her readers/listeners might not feel they are getting their money's worth, so she throws in ever more dead bodies. It is impossible to keep track of them all, so I don't try. I just wait for Michael and Matt to do one of their occasional plot summaries. Although at about a dozen corpses a book, by book 20 it's amazing anyone in small-town Cambridge c. 1358 is left. The period detail is fascinating, especially learning how paltry and downright dangerous food and water were in the middle ages. Of course, the dialog is purely 20th century English, so period authenticity only goes so far.

What happened to the voices

I agree with those reviews that say the change in voices, especially Michael’s, greatly disappointed me. Why now? I actually skipped those novels
that were narrated by another narrator other than Thorpe, because it was so odd to hear the characters in radically different voices. I will try the next in the series to see if the producers and narrator came to their senses and went back to original voices. If not, I’m done with this series.