Yes, another Cadfael mystery for this week. What can I say? I'm lazy, and this is the second story in the omnibus version I read these stories out of, and well, it was on hand. I didn't have to scour my brain, or the library ebook collection to find something to read next. It was the course of least resistance. And well, why deny myself a good book?
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 Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters A (#14 in the Brother Chadfael Series)
Yes, once again, a wonderfully written story. If you've read all of my reviews, and haven't gone off to the library to pick one of her Cadfael stories up, this one won't likely push you over the edge. Clearly, you're just not interested. Fine. Be that way.
As I have said in the past, what bugs me most about mysteries, is that they almost always involve murder, as if that's the only mystery that warrants a book. And I've admitted that, for the most part, death, often murder, is a feature of these stories as well. However, one of her tricks is to postpones that death for several chapters as she introduces the new characters. This builds tension in the reader, since you don't know who's going to get it in the neck, much less why. Another thing she does is to sometimes give the reader a wider view of things than our "detective" monk Cadfael knows. As a result, we might know more than he does - usually about the innocent party suspected of the crime - so we, the readers, are on tender hooks, waiting to see just how Cadfael pulls the innocents out of the fire.
Also, as I have noted in the past, Peters often ties the death, or deaths, involved in the story to the greater events of the time - the English Civil War of 1140's - so that you don't have the villager murdering villager other every other week, like you might in some mystery series.
However, in this case, while there is some hints of this more far reaching threads, most of mystery involves a grandmother intent on marrying her 10 year old grandson - a ward of the Abbey - in an arranged marriage upon the death of his father, in order to add several estates to her grandson's holding, as well as bring him back to his estate, so that she can keep him under her thumb, and rule the roost through him. The story is very much in the mold of all the others, with your innocents, the romance, and Cadfael helping the good sheriff Hugh solve the mystery, and turn a blind eye to some things for the sake of justice.
All these stories fallow one after the other in chronological order - several each year - but can be read out of order without too many spoilers, though there are references in some of them to previous incidents. That said, I am really enjoying reading them in order. I recommend it if you can swing it.
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