Susanna Gregory Books in Order (Matthew Bartholomew, Thomas Chaloner, The Medieval Murderers)
Susanna Gregory is a pseudonym for Elizabeth Cruwys, writer of medieval murder mysteries, Restoration whodunits, and other historical crime fiction. She worked for a short time as a police officer in Yorkshire before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge and becoming a Research Fellow at the Scott Polar Research Institute.
She published her first novel, A Plague on Both Your Houses, also the first in the Matthew Bartholomew series in 1996 and has never stopped since. Aside from this series, she is also known for her historical mysteries featuring Thomas Chaloner and being a member of the Medieval Murderers – a group of writers who gave talks and presentations at literary festivals and wrote books together.
How to read Susanna Gregory’s Books in Order?
Read Matthew Bartholomew Series in Order
Matthew Bartholomew is an unorthodox physician living in fourteenth-century Cambridge. He is a master at the College of Michaelhouse at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches medicine when he is not busy investigating murders. For more details, you can check out our article dedicated to the Matthew Bartholomew series.
- A Plague On Both Your Houses (1996)
- An Unholy Alliance (1996)
- A Bone of Contention (1997)
- A Deadly Brew (1998)
- A Wicked Deed (1999)
- A Masterly Murder (2000)
- An Order for Death (2001)
- A Summer of Discontent (2002)
- A Killer in Winter (2003)
- The Hand of Justice (2004)
- The Mark of a Murderer (2006)
- The Tarnished Chalice (2006)
- To Kill or Cure (2007)
- The Devil’s Disciples (2008)
- A Vein of Deceit (2009)
- The Killer of Pilgrims (2010)
- Murder in the Minster (2011)
- Murder by the Book (2012)
- The Lost Abbot (2013)
- Death of a Scholar (2014)
- A Poisonous Plot (2015)
- A Grave Concern (2016)
- The Habit of Murder (2017)
- The Sanctuary Murders (2019)
- The Chancellor’s Secret (2021)
Thomas Chaloner Series in Order
Thomas Chaloner was a spy for Spymaster General John Thurloe in Cromwell’s England. Now, he works for the Earl of Clarendon in the England of Stuart King Charles II and continues his role as a spy while trying to stay safe. For more information, visit our article dedicated to the Thomas Chaloner series.
- A Conspiracy of Violence (2006)
- Blood On the Strand (2008)
- The Butcher of Smithfield (2010)
- The Westminster Poisoner (2010)
- A Murder on London Bridge (2011)
- The Body in the Thames (2011)
- The Piccadilly Plot (2012)
- Death in St. James’s Park (2013)
- Murder on High Holborn (2014)
- The Cheapside Corpse (2015)
- The Chelsea Strangler (2016)
- The Executioner of St Paul’s (2017)
- Intrigue in Covent Garden (2018)
- The Clerkenwell Affair (2020)
- The Pudding Lane Plot (2022)
Read The Medieval Murderers Series in Order
The Medieval Murderers are a group of authors available for speaking events. They also write together compilations of interwoven historical mysteries. The original Medieval Murderers are CJ Sansom, Bernard Knight, Susanna Gregory, Philip Gooden, and Michael Jecks.
- The Tainted Relic (2005) – It was July 1100. Jerusalem lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end. Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer, robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury…
- Sword of Shame (2006) – The Sword of Shame was lovingly crafted by a Saxon swordsmith shortly before the Norman invasion, and its constant companions are treachery and deceit. From the Norman Conquest of 1066 to an election-rigging scandal in 13th-century Venice, to the bloody battlefield of Poitiers in 1356-at the heart of every treasonous plot, every murder and betrayal, is the malign influence of the cursed sword. And as it passes from owner to owner, ill-fortune and disgrace befall all who wield the deadly blade.
- House of Shadows (2007) – Bermondsey Priory, 1114. A young chaplain succumbs to the temptations of the flesh – and suffers a gruesome punishment. From that moment, the monastery is cursed, and over the next 500 years, murder and treachery abound within its hallowed walls.
- The Lost Prophecies (2008) – A mysterious book of prophecies written by a 6th-century Irish monk has puzzled scholars through the ages. Foretelling wars, plagues, and rebellions, the Black Book of Bran is said to have predicted the Black Death and the Gunpowder Plot. But is it the result of divine inspiration or the ravings of a madman?
- King Arthur’s Bones (2009) – 1191. During excavation work at Glastonbury Abbey, an ancient leaden cross is discovered buried several feet below ground. Inscribed on the cross are the words: Hic iacet sepultus inclitus rex arturius… Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur. Beneath the cross are skeletal remains. Could these really be the remains of the legendary King Arthur and his queen, Guinevere?
- The Sacred Stone (2010) – 1067. In the desolate wastes of Greenland, a band of hunters discovers a strangely-shaped meteor that has fallen from the sky. And over the next six hundred years, the Sky-Stone falls into the hands of crusading knights, the wicked Sheriff of Devon, a group of radical young kabbalists, the dying King Henry III, and a band of traveling players. Each time, the stone brings treachery, discord, and violent death to those who seek to possess it.
- Hill of Bones (2011) – When Baradoc dies fighting with King Arthur in an ambush of the Saxons on Solsbury Hill, his brother Cerdic, a young boy who has the ability to see into the future, buries a dagger (a miniature knife with an ivory bear hilt) in the side of the hill as a personal tribute to his brother. Throughout history, Solsbury Hill continues to be the scene of murder, theft, and the search for buried treasure. Religion, politics and the spirit of King Arthur reign over the region, wreaking havoc and leaving a trail of corpses and treasure buried in the hill as an indication of its turbulent past.
- The First Murder (2012) – 1154, Oseney Priory, Oxford. When the first performance of The Play of Adamends in tragedy, the author is compelled to pen a grim warning for the generations that follow. But his words are not heeded, and as the play is performed in many guises throughout the ages, bad luck seems to follow after those involved in its production.
- The False Virgin (2013) – Throughout the ages, St Bernwyn comes to be regarded as the patron saint of those suffering from skin diseases, and many are drawn on pilgrimage to her shrines. But from a priory in Wales to the Greek island of Sifnos, it seems that anywhere that St Bernwyn is venerated, bitter rivalry breaks out. So when a famous poet is inspired to tell the story of the saint, perhaps it is little wonder that he finds himself writing a satirical piece on the credulity of man.
- The Deadliest Sin (2014) – When a group of pilgrims is forced to seek shelter at an inn, their host suggests that the guests should tell their tales. He dares them to tell their stories of sin so that it might emerge which one is the best. That is, the worst …
Short Stories
- Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime (1998) – Contains “To Dispose of an Abbot“.
- Royal Whodunnits (1999) – Contains “The White Ship murders“.
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