Customer Reviews

The Devil's Disciples (Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another good one in the Matthew Bartholomew series. The time is summer of 1357 when Cambridge is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave in June. Strange things appear to be happening and a Sorcerer is gathering many townspeople as followers. There is a lot about witches and warlocks and of course the superstitions of the people of this age. The atmosphere in these books is great, and Ms. Gregory captures the period so well. Her characters are very well-drawn. This particular book isn't as bloody as these books can get. Matthew and Michael are trying to solve a whole bunch of little mysteries as well as one or two murders. I highly recommend this series for anyone who loves medieval who-dunits.

Matthew Bartholomew is once again called upon to reduce the tension between town and gown in medieval Cambridge. If you think student unrest and violence is new, this series will quickly change your mind. And the animosity between the different monastic orders rings true through the centuries.

I don't usually read murder mysteries, but the historical setting and characters in this book appealed to me, so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did.

Even though this is the fourteenth book in a series, it reads like a stand-alone novel (which was excellent for me, as this was the first one I've read!). What particularly impressed me was the way in which the characters were so easy to relate to. There was no forced Old English to read, no artificial highlighting of the mediaeval conditions, no dwelling on issues that are politically incorrect today (e.g. sexism and the portrayal of women as helpless slaves in a patriarchy) - it was all written very naturally and matter-of-factly. All the characters were very fleshed-out and believable.

As for the story itself, I found it very unpredictable. I never knew where it was going to go next, and I liked the fact that answers were revealed at the same pace as when the characters made the discoveries. Some stories are too predictable, where you end up waiting in impatience for the characters to realise the obvious. I liked not being able to predict the outcome.

Great book! I find myself wanting to read more historical mysteries now, and certainly the others in this series. It's definitely worth your time.

I am a fan of this series and chose this as the next to read. The service was fast and the book in good condition. I would use this seller again.

Susanna Gregory does it again with The Devil's Disciples! I was chuckling at her humor, which is what I like most about her writing style, from the get-go. Father William is a hoot as always, poor Matthew is the straight man, and Michael--well what can you say about Michael? Highly, highly recommended!

This fourteenth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew, The Devil's Disciples, seems to be the most disappointing in the series! Maybe it is getting harder and harder for the author, Susanna Gregory, to find good plots within the same environment and with the same characters... This novel mostly suffers from a poor plot, as most of the action is unbelievable and anachronistic, while the final resolution is anticlimactic and disappointing. I have found the recent chronicles less credible from an historical viewpoint and some of the exchanges in The Devil's Disciples are anachronistic. From a global perspective, the book deals (once again) with witchcraft and the fight between Church and the followers of Satanic rites. While I accept the core idea that the Black Death of 1347 had had a strong psychological impact on the beliefs of the survivors and that this could have driven people away from the Church into anti-Christian sects, the openess of their move is not plausible. At that time, witchery was both heresy and a major crime, the inquisition had already been instituted by the Pope, and thus the idea of someone declaring his or her support of a sorcerer/witch or openly attending a sorcery meeting does not make sense to me. The relativity of beliefs expressed in the quote `It is a battle between two belief systems, each with its own merits and failings. The Sorcerer will not see himself as wicked but as one who offers a viable alternative to the Church' does not belong to the 14th Century! The same comment applies to the handling of a book of curses by half the characters in the novel.
At the individual level, I find the main characters fairly shallow, Bartholomew spending most of the book running from one point of Cambridge to another one and not doing much else for being so exhausted by the marathonian training! The changes in a well-established character like Father William are difficult to believe and the final uncovering of the two main culprits is both predictable and implausible to the extreme! Both Brother Michael and Matthew Bartholomew are missing the obvious clues and it takes the providential return of Clippesby to uncover the Sorcerer's plot (whose point remains obscure to me).So both parts that constitute the appeal of an historical whodunnit are mostly lost in The Devil's Disciples. I hope the next chronicle, A Vein of Deceit, succeeds better!

Not as sinister as some of her first books in the series. I like that period of time and find them enjoyable. She and Alys Clare remind me of Elis Peters.