The Saturday Morning Post (No. 30)

 

This Saturday I have several mystery stories to talk about. They are, I believe, rereads. At least some of them. However if I read any of these three books, and I think I must have, I read them about 30 years ago and remembered nothing of their stories. All I recall is that I enjoyed them. So without further ado...

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.

These Books are a 2023 Read

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters  A

This book was available as a library ebook, and by pure chance, it was the first of the two of the two I had placed a hold onto show up. That was a bit of luck, since it happens to be the first book in the Cadfael Chronicles. Thus, I began my reread at the beginning. The Cadfael Chronicles is a long series of historical murder mysteries set in the 12th century; twenty books in all, written between 1977 to 1994 by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter. Her writting career stretched from the late 1930's to the early 1990's totaling some 80 books in all; both fiction and non-fiction, plus many short stories under a series of different pen names. I first read these stories from the library sometime in the 1990's. I don't recall how many I read, only that I enjoyed every one of them. The other similar series by Margaret Frazer's (and Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld) which featured Dame Frevisse, a 15th century Benedictine nun, I read and enjoyed as well. The thing about history is that if it is knowledgably and colorfully invoked, it can be as strange and wonderful as any imaginary world. As I have mentioned, I'm not much of a lad for murder mysteries - but when they are skillfully set in a strange and well realized historical period with appealing characters, and I'm all in.

Anyway, back to the book at hand. The "detective" in these mysteries is Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk of the 12th century. The stories are set in and around English city of Shrewsbury on the borders of Wales. Unlike many of his brother monks, Cadfael had seen much of the world - having gone on a Crusade, as a soldier and a sailor, and during that period had a series of lovers - before he returned  home to "retire" to the monastery. Thus he is well equipped to decipher and deal with matters that most cloistered monks would be out of their depths dealing with. In this case, it is the murder of a minor Welsh nobleman who opposed the plan of the monks of the Shrewsbury Abbey to dig up the bones of a local saint and transport them back to the abbey in England. In those days, holy relics of all sorts were used to entice the pilgrim/tourists to visit churches and monasteries bring gifts that increased the wealth of church or monastery. So the prior if the Shrewsbury Abbey was looking around for a saint to add to the Abbey's attractions. A somewhat suspect vision of one of the monks lead the monks to a remote locale in Wales to dig up the bones of a rather neglected saint. The natives, however oppose this plan to remove their saint, and when the leading figure opposing them is murdered, Cadfael sets out to find out who did it, especially since he feels that the prime suspect had been framed. Enough said.

The story is very well written. The scene well set, the key characters vivid, if the minor ones are mostly mostly just names, they are there to dress the set or act as suspects. I've graded this book as an A. Books get an A grade when I can find a book both entertaining without finding anything to complain about. As any regular reader of these posts knows, it is not hard for me to find things to complain about. I both really enjoyed this book, and could find nothing to complain about, so they earned their A. 

I highly recommend this series. It is, however, a series that is best read in order, since it is set chronologically in the years 1137 to 1145 and the stories deal with the turbulent historical events of that time, a time when King Stephen and Empress Matilda (aka Empress Maud) were fighting over the crown of England. I seem to recall that while Cadfael is a minor monk in this story, his fame grows throughout the series, and he plays parts in the historical drama raging in England at this time.

I should also add that there was a TV series of 13 episodes made from these books, each one based somewhat loosely on one of the books which were aired as a PBS Mystery! series. I don't believe I've seen them, so I can't speak to their quality. 

One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters   A

After reading the first volume, I decided to read the first three books in the series, so I ordered a paper copy of this title from the library as I was waiting on the ebook version of the third book to become available.

This story is set a year latter than the first one, during one of England's civil wars when the cousins, King Stephen and Empress Maud contended for the throne of England. The army of King Stephen has arrived in Shrewsbury and is besieging the castle, held by followers of Maud. In the ever shifting political landscape, King Stephen is told that his leniency in past actions looks like weakness and he is urged to set an grim example by hanging all the surviving defenders of the Castle after it is taken. This he does, hanging 94 of them. The monks of the abbey take it upon themselves to bury the dead, with Cadfael - the old crusader - in charge, but he finds that there are 95 bodies under the gallows the next morning. An extra body - a body that wasn't hung, but strangled, i.e. someone who was murdered and then thrown in with the rest to cover the deed. Cadfael, and the King want to see the murder brought to justice, so Cadfael investigates... But he has other concerns as well..

Prior to that Cadfael is given charge of a young person to help in with his garden and medical herb work; a person who has been placed in the abbey to escape capture. A person with a secret who is someone who has a clever man looking for them on the order of the King to hold them for ransom. In short, someone who needs to be protected.

What can I say? Once again we have a book with many engaging characters, a mystery, and a sense of history, without, as far as I can see, a flaw to remark upon. In short, an A book, once again.

Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters   B+

I rated this book slightly less then the first two books only because it was a bit more of a conventional whodunnit than the first two, though once again the characters were superbly and vividly drawn, and the setting evocative of another place and time.

This time around a guest of the Abbey has been poisoned and an innocent stepson suspected of his murder. The poison came from Brother Cadfael's supply of monk's hood which was used to ease pain by rubbing into the skin, but if ingested, kills. Cadfael must discover the true murder to save the son of the girl he loved in his long ago youth.

After reading these first three books, I decided that I want to keep on reading these stories. I'm sure that I haven't read all 16 of them, but even if I have, I don't remember any of them. And rather than rely on the library for every book in order, I went on Abe Books and ordered all of the Cadfael stories in seven omnibus editions, and thus, I can promise you that you'll be seeing more Cadfael reviews over the course of 2024.