Cadfael Country


Book Description

By the authors of The Cotswolds, The English Lakes and Shakespeare's Avon this book is a celebration of the world of Ellis Peters and the medieval sleuth she has created, Brother Cadfael. It takes the form of an historical pilgrimage through the wild border county of Shropshire.




The Confession of Brother Haluin


Book Description

A monk’s journey of amends leads to murder in this “thoroughly entertaining medieval mystery” in the Silver Dagger Award–winning series (Publishers Weekly). Winter arrived early in 1142, bringing with it a heavy snowfall. The safety of the guest-hall roof at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul comes into jeopardy, and the brothers are called upon to effect repairs. But the icy and treacherous conditions are to prove near fatal for Brother Haluin. He slips from the roof and crashes to the ground, sustaining terrible injuries—grave enough for him to want to make his deathbed confession. The confession is heard by the abbot and Brother Cadfael; a wicked story, of trespasses hard for God or man to forgive. But Haluin does not die. On his recovery, he determines to make a journey of expiation, with Cadfael as his sole companion. It is an arduous journey, physically and emotionally, and one that leads to some shocking discoveries.




Adapting Detective Fiction


Book Description

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A Rare Benedictine


Book Description

Peters has gained worldwide praise for her meticulous re-creations of 12th-century monastic life. Here, her chronicles continue with a Christmas story, a tale of robbery and attempted murder, and a narrative of Brother Cadfael's early years.




The Virgin in the Ice


Book Description

A monk embarks on a dangerous quest to find a trio of missing travelers in this medieval mystery by an Edgar Award–winning author. The winter of 1139 will disrupt Brother Cadfael’s tranquil life in Shrewsbury with the most disturbing of events. Raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester. Among them are two orphans from a noble family, a boy of thirteen and an eighteen-year-old girl of great beauty, and their companion, a young Benedictine nun. The trio never reaches Shrewsbury, having disappeared somewhere in the wild countryside. Cadfael is afraid for these three lost lambs, but another call for help sends him to the church of Saint Mary. A wounded monk, found naked and bleeding by the roadside, will surely die without Cadfael’s healing arts. Why this holy man has been attacked and what his fevered ravings reveal soon give Brother Cadfael a clue to the fate of the missing travelers. Now Cadfael sets out on a dangerous quest to find them. The road will lead him to a chill and terrible murder and a tale of passion gone awry. And at journey’s end awaits a vision of what is best, and worst, in humankind.




The Benediction of Brother Cadfael


Book Description

An omnibus volume containing the first two chronicles of Brother Cadfael, the remarkable medieval detective, features A Morbid Taste for Bones and One Corpse Too Many, as well as photographs and text from Cadfael Country. 17,500 first printing.




The Holy Thief


Book Description

Strangers seek refuge at the abbey as floodwaters rise, a body falls, and a relic vanishes—in this “top drawer” mystery featuring the twelfth-century monk (Chicago Sun-Times) In the chill, rainy autumn of 1144, two groups of visitors seek the hospitality of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, and Brother Cadfael fears trouble has come in with them. Among the first arrivals is Brother Tutilo, a young Benedictine with a guileless face and—to Brother Cadfael’s shrewd eyes—a mischievous intelligence. The second group, a ribald French troubadour, his servant, and a girl with the voice of an angel, seems to Brother Cadfael a catalyst for disaster. All of Cadfael’s fears become manifest as rising floodwaters endanger the abbey’s most sacred relic, the remains of Saint Winifred. When the bones disappear and a dead body is found, Brother Cadfael knows carnal and spiritual intrigues are afoot. Now, in a world that believes in signs and miracles, Brother Cadfael needs his prayers answered—as well as some heavenly guidance to crucial clues—to catch a killer hell-bent on murder.




Saint Peter's Fair


Book Description

Saint Peter's Fair is a grand festive event, attracting tradesmen from across England and beyond. There is a pause in the civil war racking the country in the summer of 1139, and the fair promises to bring some much needed gaiety to the town of Shrewsbury. Until, that is, the body of a wealthy trader is found in the River Severn. Was Thomas of Bristol the victim of murderous thieves? And if so, why were his valuables abandoned nearby? Brother Cadfael offers to help the merchant's lovely niece Emma. But while he is seaching for the killer, the man's wares are ransacked and two more men are murdered. Emma almost certainly knows more than she is telling, as others will soon realise. Cadfael desperately races to save the young girl, knowing that in a country at war with itself, betrayal can come from any direction, and even good intentions can kill.




The Raven in the Foregate


Book Description

A despised priest is drowned in a pond in this medieval mystery filled with “lively period detail” (Kirkus Reviews). In a mild December in the year of our Lord 1141, a new priest comes to the parishioners of the Foregate outside the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Father Ailnoth brings with him a housekeeper and her nephew—and a disposition that invites murder. Brother Cadfael quickly sees that father Ailnoth is a harsh man who, striding along in his black cassock, looks like a doomsaying raven. The housekeeper’s nephew, Benet, is quite different—a smiling lad, a hard worker in Cadfael’s herb garden, but, as Brother Cadfael soon discovers, an impostor. And when Ailnoth is found drowned, suspicion falls on Benet, though many in the Foregate had cause to want this priest dead. Now Brother Cadfael is gathering clues along with his medicinals to treat a case of unholy passions, tragic politics, and perhaps divine intervention.




Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden


Book Description

More than 140 color illustrations accompany this one-year visit with a fictional twelfth-century monk, following him on his rounds as Shrewsbury's apothecary and healer, and teach readers about hundreds of herbs and their remedial powers.