A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael [UNABRIDGED]

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Summary: A Journey Through a Decade
Review: A Morbid Taste For Bones is the start of a 20-book series about Brother Cadfael. The Cadfael books are absorbing reads, as others here have stated. I would like to add that you will enjoy the series so much more if you read the books in order. They chronicle the decade of civil war in England, between the factions of King Stephen and the Empress Maud. The books always have the ongoing story of this, in a little history lesson, usually at the beginning of the book. It can be complicated history for those coming to it, as I did, uninformed. But we are taken through the war years with these stories, and in chronological order, they tell the story of the civil war, along with the mystery of each book.

Also, the characters and their relationships develop along the way. Hugh Beringer comes into the picture early in the series and eventually becomes deputy to the sheriff, who is loyal to King Stephen. Hugh and Brother Cadfael begin their relationship with suspicion, but they come to respect each other for the intelligence and integrity each has. Hugh meets and marries Aileen, has a baby boy, and, around the ninth book, becomes the sheriff of Shrewsbury. By this time Cadfael and Hugh are fast friends.

Cadfael has his own secrets, little episodes of his life in the Crusades, that catch up with him during the series...but not right away. Later in the series, Cadfael confides in his dear friend Hugh, also relating the secret of this first book, Morbid Taste For Bones, which Hugh had not been privy to before.

I just loved this series, and I tend to think of it as one *really big* book! So do read all 20, and read them in order. They are all available, and all except one (The Hermit of Eyton Forest, no. 14) tell which number it is in the order, right on the front cover. Brother Cadfael is one of the most endearing characters ever created. Lose yourself with him in 12th century England when you need a break from the 20th or 21st century.

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Summary: Great introduction to the Cadfael series
Review: An English monastery's plan to bring back the bones of a Welsh saint runs into a deadly complication in this undemanding mystery. The setting, medieval England and Wales in the early 12th Century, is no obstacle to enjoying the stroy since the author provides all the historical background and the reader need only supply a little imagination. I found "Bones" worth my while largely because of the vivid characterizations and the way it brings the Middle Ages to life. One detail I especially liked was that Brother Cadfael had no regrets about his former life as a soldier in the Crusades. Quick take: While it keeps your attention, "Bones" won't make you stay up half the night to finish it.

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Summary: BONES OF CONTENTION
Review: Any Brother Cadfael mystery is a treat--even a privilege to read. This medieval monk solves murders, thefts, and resolves deceptions and missing persons cases--using his wits, his wordly experience, plus his vast knowledge of medicinal herbs and human nature. The tales are set in late 12th century Enlgand not far from the Welsh border. Sturdy Welshman himself, our cowled protagonist is a former Crusader who discovered "in the middle of the road of life" his calling to the monastic community; that he could best serve his fellow man by seriving God first. In this case in the Benedictine order, at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury (a real place).

In this debut novel (read in my case after # 6-21) we find a somewhat secular Cadfael, which jars my conception of him as revealed in Peters' subsequent works. (I understand that she did not originally envision an entire series.) He indulges freely in the cameraderie of the wine jug, recalls w! ith fondness a long list of satisfied women, and openly admires an attractive Welsh girl. Fortunately his secular tendencies mellow out during the six months that pass (murderless, we assume) between novels. (I wonder if he ever noticed that fatal pattern...)

This story concerns the long-interred bones of a maiden saint named Winifrid of Gwytherin, Wales. The message may be: Let Sleeping Saints Lie, but the vaulting ambition of Prior Robert ruthlessly tramples common courtesy and decency. Aided by his staunch toady, Brother Jerome, and an ardent young novice, Brother Columbanus who experiences episodes of religious zeal and ecstacy, Robert insists that Winifrid's remains be transported to England--a country and tongue alien to her in life--to serve as a beacon for pilgrims. For the renown and coffers of the Abbey of course... although he will gladly accept any reflected glory for his humble efforts, which just might advance his career.

But what is the will of the peo! ple of Gwytherin, this peaceful hamlet in Wales--until the ! Benedictines laid seige to the bones of their patroness? And more to the point, what is the will of the saint herself: will she choose a champion to speak for her? Cadfael is caught in the middle of these delicate negociations--brought along as interpreter of his native, Welsh tongue. He must outwardly support the efforts to remove the saint from her people, yet he privately believes that the martyred girl deserves to rest in her native land. Can mere mortals manipulate miracles for their own--selfish or benevolent--ends? Cadfael takes a hand in balancing the scales of spiritual justice. An excellent premier novel for a fabulous series!

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Summary: My First Taste of the Series
Review: As with many books or stories that we get involve with, the characters and their relationships to others in the environment is an important as the mystery. Ellis Peters strikes a balance between the characters, history and the mystery. Sprinkled throughout is faith, and a chance that thy (the monks) may be correct in the explanation of saints and how the world works.
The external environment is the ongoing struggle between Empress Maude and King Stephen. We also have references to the different societies as they travel to Wales. These become more relevant as the series progresses. The inward struggle between faith and power is depicted as an individual monk is persuaded or wants to be persuaded to go on a mission to retrieve a neglected saint.
If you saw the movie you will immediately see the differences between it and he book. One main point is the fact that the monk was cured before the trip. The best difference is reviled with the detection and solution to the mystery.

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Summary: Good start to an epic pilgramage
Review: Ellis Peter's first Cadfael murder mystery takes as its setting the events surrounding the translation of the holy relics of Saint Winifred from the remote Welsh village of Gwytherin to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury in 1138. Taking this real event as her starting point, Peters weaves an enchanting if rather overly romanticised tale of mediaeval rural and monastic life. Naturally, the practical common sense and basic human decency of her very worldy central character, Brother Cadfael, win out in the end. Here, he neatly side-steps all of many power-struggles - secular, political and ecclesiastical - going on around him, to provide everyone with their heart's desire and solve the inevitable murder mystery into the bargain! Ellis Peters' writing style is so wonderfully erudite that one can always forgive her the occasional lapse into stereotypical characterisation or silliness of plot which tend to pepper her novels. "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is no exception in this regard, and whilst the story's central murder mystery is not at all hard for the reader to solve, the telling of it is so captivating that the book is hard to put down until it's finished!

Incidentally, I would recommend reading this book before any others in the series, because otherwise you will know which of the main suspects can be eliminated immediately! Of course, if you've seen the TV dramatisation, you'll know the main outcome already, but even then, the book is sufficiently different to still make it well worth reading. Recommended.

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Summary: I may get hooked, but not yet
Review: I decided to start with this first Brother Cadfael novel after being intrigued by some comments I read about the series on the Internet. It does have its good points. Cadfael seems an interesting character and I hope to gain a clearer picture of him as I read the successive novels. The setting is serene by day and somewhat mysterious by night. The fear that a corpse would bleed when touched by its murderer was a good point, but not completely accurate. It was indeed believed that a body would bleed in the presence of the murderer, but touching wasn't necessary and bleeding need not happen when the murderer touched the corpse-it only happened sometimes. Hence, Peredur's reaction is a bit much. But just to have this little known point in the book, although inaccurately described, made this historian smile. I hope the other novels feature other interesting historical tidbits that may interest the lay reader.

The bone I have with the novel (pun somewhat intended) is with the character Sioned. I could not find myself cheering for her as the author clearly intends the reader to do. We see her mainly as a kind of revenge figure, a hard, determined figure. Just a little more character development was needed here to get away from this hard, one-sided view of her.

Nevertheless, I think there are elements here for this reader and other readers to get hooked on the series. But perhaps since this novel was not exactly a page-turner, a reader should start with another in the series.

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Summary: Ika
Review: I saw the leper of Saint Giles one day in a book store and thought it sounded good, It is the 5th book in the series,I liked it so much I decided to read the series in order. I thought this book Was really good also. Brother Cadfael is a very enjoyable character and, I'm getting a great mystery and learning something about 12th century England at the same time.

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Summary: The first Chronicle of a truly rare Benedictine's adventures
Review: In a number of visions, a young monk of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at Shrewsbury believes he has encounters with St. Winifred, in her earthly life a girl from a remote Welsh village decapitated by an evil-spirited nobleman. The saint, Brother Columbanus claims, tells him she is unhappy with the lack of care and dedication her grave receives from the local village folk, and wishes to be relocated nowhere else but to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. After a heated discussion over the appropriateness and dangers of such an excursion, the monks decide to mount an expedition to Wales to save the maiden saint's bones.

Thus begins the first of what would ultimately come to be twenty Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, former crusader turned herbalist monk living in the 12th century world of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Predictably, the monks are anything but welcome in Wales - not only are they emissaries from an English abbey, which in itself would be bad enough already; they also seek to take what village folk consider their greatest treasure and, more importantly, the village's holy protectress. When wealthy squire Lord Rhysart, who has led the village in opposing the monks' mission, is found murdered, the monks quickly find themselves implicated. ...Cadfael, of Welsh descendance himself but now part of a mission from an English abbey, finds himself between all lines of allegiance in trying to find Rhysart's murderer; but find the murderer he must, to ensure the success of his brothers' mission and their safe return home. And it will take all his world-wisdom *and* all his understanding of the divine to unravel the mystery.

Like the nineteen Chronicles that would follow it, "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is rich in plot lines and subplots and demands the full attention of any reader intent on solving the mystery together with Brother Cadfael. Set in the time of the civil war between Empress Maud and King Stephen for the throne of England, Ellis Peters's acclaimed series vividly and with great care for detail portrays medieval monastery life, as well as a society caught in the middle of a civil war, with shifting allegiances, intrigue, favoritism and again and again, the innocent victims caught between the front lines. More than once, the story lines also return to the animosities between Welsh and English that are at the center of this first Chronicle. In Brother Cadfael, Ms. Peters (a/k/a Edith Pargeter) created one of the most engaging detectives in literary history. His experiences as a crusader have left him with a keen sense of reality, a certain element of world-weariness and a deep sense of morality, not only understanding the letter of the law (both divine and worldly) but more importantly, the deeper implications of the same, thus enabling Cadfael to apply the church's teachings in a truly Solomonic manner, always coming to solutions which are as just as they are compassionate and pragmatic.

To the novice who has just recently discovered the series, it probably makes sense to read the Chronicles in order, because they contain a number of cross-references and the cast of recurring characters is successively enlarged - Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar for example, Cadfael's trusted worldly sidekick, is not introduced until the second Chronicle, "One Corpse Too Many." But even for those who are coming to "A Morbid Taste for Bones" only after already having read one or more of the other Chronicles there is plenty to enjoy, and it is sure to be fun to discover how it all began.

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Summary: an absorbing tale...I'm looking forward to the rest
Review: Life is full of twists and turns...and so is "A Morbid Taste for Bones." This "First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael" is the first book in a long series of mysteries set in medieval England and Wales.

I came to this book via Eugene Peterson's recommendation of the series in his book (actually a prolonged and annotated reading list) "Take and Read." Peterson has rarely let me down, and did not do so here...this is a delightful book.

"A Morbid Taste for Bones" is a cut above most of the other mysteries I have read. It not only keeps the reader guessing until the end, but it also has passages that reflect a keen insight into human nature. More than that, it well written (a lot of mysteries feel so mass-produced and sketchy). The characters here are well formed and eloquent. All of this is done without the usual gratuitous gore so often found in such books.

One of the more interesting subtexts to watch for are the different conceptions of forgiveness that the characters hold; these conceptions largely determine the actions of each one...something to ponder in real life.

I recommend "A Morbid Taste for Bones" to all those who enjoy absorbing and well written mysteries. I look forward to the other Chronicles of Brother Cadfael.

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Summary: Classic medieval whodunnit with a brilliant crime puzzle.
Review: This novel is one of two by Ellis Peters about the medieval detective Cadfael that I've now read. But I'm hooked! In this first volume of the extensive Brother Cadfael series, the medieval crime sleuth is part of a quest of monks pursuing the bones of saint Winifred from Welsh soil, a quest commissioned by the blessed lady herself in an apparent vision to Brother Columbanus. But the town which houses Winifred's body doesn't want to give up her blessed bones so easily, and the peaceful mission is soon disturbed by the murder of the leader of the town. Suspects abound, including two suitors to his beautiful daughter, both of whom could benefit from his murder. Is the arrow in his body really from the daughter's true love, or has the other suitor tried to frame him? And are all the monks themselves beyond suspicion? Only Cadfael with his humble yet brilliant mind can unravel the truth, and come with a remarkable solution that ties up all the loose ends. The twists of the story-line are so ingenious they rival and perhaps surpass the efforts of most best-selling thrillers today.

Peters' command of the English language is outstanding, as is her precise portrait of medieval times. Although the religious aspect forms the fabric on which the novel is painted, the real concern is with characterization and intrigue. The tale is cloaked in constant talk of the supernatural, but Peters actually offers a novel that is more psychological than religious, and it is by applying the principles of reason rather than religion that Cadfael discovers the truth. The intriguing element of mystery that makes detective Cadfael's presence essential to the plot clinches this novel as a romping success. If you enjoy mystery, as well as a writer's ability to make excellent use of the English language with colourful descriptions, you are sure to enjoy this book. And chances are, like me you won't be able to stop after reading volume 1!