FINISHED READING - A Bone of Contention by Susanna Gregory

The story opens with a brief retelling of the supposed martyrdom of Simon D'Ambrey. Twenty five years later bits of bones start to be found in the Kings'Ditch near the Hall of Valance Marie. Though Matthew Bartholemew can see instantly that these are not what people claim them to be, he is powerless to stop the college claiming them as the relics of  D'Ambrey. This discovery is quickly followed by the murder of a young student, who was recently involved in a town brawl. 

The division between town and gown, whether the relics are fake or real, quickly becomes a potential powder keg. This eventually explodes into widespread rioting in the streets of Cambridge. Matthew suspects that the finding of these so called 'relics' and the murder of the student are somehow linked. That even the riots themselves seem to be co-ordinated. A complex web of past and present misdeeds, rapes and murder unfolds, which once again Matthew finds himself in the middle of trying to unravel.

This third novel in the Matthew Bartholemew Chronicles begins in classic whodunit manner with 'the significant flashback.' Again the almost interminable college rivalries gets mixed into the dramatic soup, along with the perpetual tension between town and gown in Cambridge, that exists to this day. This novel certainly begins with a great deal of energy, demonstrating how easily people are drawn into and duped by the ardent pursuit of religious relics. 

The narrative develops a degree of complexity as Matthew and his monk friend Micheal, are trying to understand what is going on. So they develop a number of potential hypotheses to explain what is happening. Nothing comprehensively adds up at all. The portrait Susanna Gregory paints of medieval Cambridge is expertly researched in detail. Its both colourful and richly rendered. The riots, murders and attacks are evocatively and skillfully described. A Bone of Contention, hence maintains a high degree of narrative thrust throughout its five hundred pages. Yep, its a page turner, no doubt. 

However, having generated and conjectured so many possible explanations and individual motivations  to explain certain events, it does find itself completely and oppressively weighed down by them by the end. In its final chapter Matthew and Micheal sit down together, going though all their previous hypotheses tying up all the loose ends. Composing before your very eyes how all these strands of story line fit together. 

Then they are attacked and held captive by the mastermind of the whole thing. Playing for time till the Sherriff arrives to rescue them, they ask him leading questions. Such as -  Cecily told us that Dominica killed Radbeche. Is that true? - But why wait twenty four years? Each time he provides them with a lengthy and fulsome explanation.  Both of these devices are a somewhat clunky way of resolving things, which for most of its fifty pages dragged the whole narrative to a screaming halt. 

So finishing a novel satisfactorily. with fluidity, style and panache, still appears fitfully to elude her. As she persists in wanting to cross every one of her own T's. Nevertheless, this novel, as a whole, is a vast improvement on the first two parts of this Chronicle series.

CARROT REVIEW - 5/8