THE PLOTS are always pretty poisonous in the 14th century Cambridge so vividly evoked in Gregory’s stories about crime-busting university doctor Matthew Bartholomew.

Her labyrinthine stories feature multiple victims, often multiple murderers and certainly a multitude of suspects with a maze of malevolent motives.

Matthew and his fellow sleuth Brother Michael pick their way through the eyewitness accounts and alibis, suspicions and theories, for several hundred pages until the truth is revealed and the pair invariably fall into deadly danger.

Gregory’s latest paperback really is about poison –why are so many townspeople, clergy and scholars dropping down dead?

Is it the ale from the local brewery? The effluent from a riverside dye works run by Matthew’s sister? Or is a newly-arrived doctor, Nigellus, bumping off his patients for some nefarious purpose?

NIgellus is certainly up to something, but then again so are several other people, and it’s poisoning the already-strained relations between the town and university.

Despite the high body count and nasty machinations, Gregory’s novels remain cosy rather than gritty, absorbing rather than gripping.

That said, you know you’ll get a good read, and this is one of the best Matthew Bartholomew books for a while.

David Knights