A Plague On Both Your Houses 2 - The End (Pages 23 - end)

 RATING: GOOD

SPOILERS!!!

I finished reading while I was away. This is an intriguing book which mixes the reality of the plague in Cambridge with the murders that take place in the college. When Matthew starts to look into the murders of his fellow scholars, he is told that there is a plot coming from Oxford to destroy the competition with Cambridge, and there are spies around. That is why John Babington was killed as well as Augustus and Brother Paul.

The pestilence or the plage starts ravaging the town and many contract the disease with just a few surviving. Matthew finds himself treating the sick with just the other physician Gregory Cote. When he becomes sick and recovers, he discovers that Cote has lost his mind and acts crazy as all this chaos has affected him.

Matthew has to deal with Philippa, the woman she loves, goes missing and her brother, the doctor of philosophy, Giles Abigny, fleeing the house where he had been pretending to be Philippa. Matthew doesn't know who to trust, especially as an unknown woman tells him that he should spy on the scholars of a college at a meeting, and he sees that his brother-in-law is there. When he confronts him and his nephwe, Howard says that he has been taking part in this group of men because he wants to defend Cambridge from the Oxford plot.

Things are not so easy, and Matthew is almost killed when he discovers that there is no plot from Oxford, but a group of men, including Stephen, his brother-in-law's brother, have got together under the new master Swynford for financial gain. Swyinford wants to become a bishop and becoming a master was the first step. And what Matthew is shocked to discover is that Cote has been pretending all the time, and he is the one who killed John and Paul.

Brother Michael also discovered the plot and he and Matthew are locked together, but thankfully, they are rescued by Giles after a woman who Matthew helped told him where he was. Matthew returns to the college, but then Cote and Swynford appear with the intention of killing him, but thankfully, Michael arrives, and Cote and Swinford are killed.

I enjoyed this historical book with all the details about the plague. What I found a bit confusing is the plot in itself.