The Saturday Morning Post (No. 58)

Another of Peters Ellis' Brother Cadfael mysteries this week.

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. 

An Excellent Mystery by Peters Ellis   A

An excellent mystery, indeed. These books have their set patterns. There's a mystery, usually with a murder to solve. There's some element of the historical setting and/or larger events that are used to frame the story. And then there is always some element of romance between two young people. Brother Cadfael, with the aid of Hugh Beringar, the High Sheriff, eventually shifts through all the veils of actions and motivation to discover the heart of the mystery. Mysteries, but these stories are just as much a historical fiction story and a character study, as they are a mystery, which is why I love them.

This is the eleventh Brother Calfael mystery by Ellis Peters (Edith Mary Pargeter). It is, the third of four tale set in the year of 1141, a year, according to its wikipedia entry, that was known as the "Anarchy" on account of all the events centered around the ongoing civil war in England at the time. As usual, those events - in this case, events happening in the south of England, play a background role in this story.

This story centers on a grievously wounded Crusader turned monk, along with the young monk who has looked after him since joining the order, has arrived at Cadfael's monastery as refugees from the civil war, their monastery having been burned to the ground. Upon his arrival back in England, three years prior, he had sent a faithful soldier of his, to inform the young woman who, as a child, he had arranged to marry when he expected to return from the Crusades - in a decade or so, that he was unable to keep his promise due to his grievous wound. This young soldier now finds him at his refuge at the abbey and seeks his blessing to court the young woman he would no longer marry. He'd met her briefly when he delivered his master's message to her father. The invalid Crusader gives his permission, and so he sets off to find the discarded bride only to discover that she apparently joined a nunnery after hearing the news, and that nunnery that had also been burned to the ground in the ongoing civil war. His quest to find what happened to her, indeed, if she ever made it to the nunnery,  is woven into this story of the slowly dying Crusader and his faithful fellow-monk servant.

I really enjoyed this story. I think it is my favorite so far.

I've crossed the watershed and am now starting on the last half of the series, at least in page count, as there are three omnibuses behind me and three to go.