I'm still 10 weeks behind on posting these reviews, and with nothing more brilliant to say in hand, here's the next review in the can.
My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.
The Confession of Brother Haluin by Ellis Peters A
In this tale we have a brother of the order, Brother Haluin, who on death's doorstep from a fall, confesses that as a brother early in his vocation he did something that he felt caused the death of the woman he loved, but could not have, as well as her unborn child. He ends up living, and though maimed and lame from the fall, he asks leave to make a pilgrimage to ask for forgiveness from her mother, and to pray at her grave. The story recounts his pilgrimage, and reconstructs the events of the incident, 18 years in the past.
The murder in this story doesn't take place until after the halfway point in it. And yes, we haver our young lovers and assorted characters who we meet along the way. I don't think the story will surprise anyone, but I don't think that's Peters' intent. She writes stories that explore characters and the historical time they are set in. In my view, the mystery is simply a way to market her historical fiction stories.
I have yet to be disappointed in any of her Brother Cadfael stories. Some are slightly better than the others, but all are good. But if I haven't sold you on them by now, I ain't going to. So I won't try.
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