An Unholy Alliance

Four years ago, I re-read A Plague on Both Your Houses, the first book in Susannah Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew series, as part of an online book group.  The characters (and 14th Century Cambridge) had changed so much in the 15 or so years that had passed for Matt and his friends that I decided to re-read the entire series.  So why did it take four years?  Well, I don't have a To Be Read list, I have a To Be Read library.

Gregory starts An Unholy Alliance with a man trying to steal important university documents.  Unfortunately for him, the lock was a special one with a poisoned prong and the Chancellor finds the man's body.  He gives Matt and Brother Michael (not yet a Proctor, but already plotting his ascension to the highest office in the University) the task of finding out who this man is, how he died, and why he was robbing the University.  Somehow this mystery may (or may not) tie to the cults that have grown up in the wake of the Plague and a series of women (mostly prostitutes) murdered and left with marked feet.  As with my first re-read, I enjoyed the mystery (which Gregory ties together well), but was more interested in the characters.  Brother Michael is now a friend and ally to Matt, but we don't yet have his entire backstory as a courtier or know the depths of both his ambition and his skills.   Matt's book bearer Cynric is still a bit of a cypher, although we see the first hints of his ladies' man persona, and William is an antagonist rather than the Friend Nobody Likes he becomes by the middle of the series.  We meet Sheriff Tulyet for the first time, and I'd forgotten that he (like Michael) was somewhat antagonistic at the start, and Matt's first crop of students, including the rich but hopelessly dim Deynman.  Most importantly, we meet Matilda, leader of the sisterhood, protector of her fellow prostitutes, and Matt's eventual love.  I'd forgotten how casually she'd been introduced, and I wonder if Gregory intended for her to be a minor, or even one-off character.