The Pilgrimof Hate, by Ellis Peters

The Pilgrim of Hate
By Ellis Peters

A Brtother Cadfael Mystery

Shortly after starting this novel, I discovered, for the second time, that the television series did not follow all the stories faithfully. As with The Holy Thief, the writers made significant changes in the story and characters. It might be argued that in that case they changed who the murderer was to eliminate an extra character.. and actor's salary, though they chose my favorite character to be the bad guy. In The Pilgrim of Hate I just don't see why they changed so much. This time the corpse is the one who is different.. causing the program to hire an extra character, though no doubt at a lower rate of pay as he had no lines. In the television bersion, Matthew and Ciaran are brothers and the victim of the crime is their father, found on a chilly night inside Matthew's pack. In the novel, they are not brothers, the victim is a knight in Winchester,not in anyone's pack, and it's mid-June.

But back to the book. It is the time of St. Winifred's Translation, and flocks of pilgrims have made their way to Shrewsbury. Among them are an odd couple, a barefoot penitent who claims to be mortally ill and on his way to die in Wales and his companion, a man who never lets him out of his sight. The other significant grouping is a lame boy named Rhun with his sister Melangell and their loving aunt. During the ceremonies young Rhun is cured and Matthew and Melangell fall in love. Ciaran has asked Melangell to hide from matthew that he has left the company and gone on his way alone, and her compliance earns her hard words and a slap from matthew, who takes off after Ciaran. Matthew has taken a vow to stick with the penitent. It is why and what the vow consists of that is the crux of this mystery.

One marvelous addition to this story is the return of Olivier de Bretagne, Cadfael's son by a love in Syria. He has come to search out a young man who may or may not be the killer of the aforementioned knight. Cadfael confesses to Hugh Beringar at the very end of the book that he knows that he is Olivier's father. Cadfael and his son spend some pleasant time together befor the latter must rush off after hearing that the Londoners have drivben off Empress maud before she could be crowned Queen. Cadfael vows he will not reveal their relationship to Olivier. Of course, I hope he changes his mind.

This was a mmost satisfying read. The mystery is complex enough to keep you guessing. I suppose the one good thing about the television rewrite of the plot is that it has not been spoiled for you when you read the book! I can't imagine how readers who got to the screenplay second felt about the change! The love story of Matthew and Melangell is less idyllic than the usual, which makes it more interesting. And the story of how sweet and good Rhun came to the abbey is worth the whole effort.

Now I find myself with only two little green boxes on my shelf to choose from for my next read... one Ursula Vlanchard and another Cadfael. Time to look elsewhere for a book...

The Doublet Affair, by Fiona Buckley

The Doublet Affair
By Fiona Buckley
An Ursula Blanchard Mystery at Queen Elizabeth I's Court

If you read my other blog, Nan Hawthorne's Booking the Middle Ages, you know two things relevant to this review. One is that I read what the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library sends me, and that they have been sending me a lot of Ursula Blanchard mysteries lately. Another thing you know is that I am not entirely nuts about these mysteries. I groan every time Ursula starts describing the intricacies of fabric, cut and embellishment of clothing. I swear, she would start in at this even while standing next to a corpse... Still, this book at least deserves my commentary.

In this mystery, Ursula has just seen her new husband, de la Roche, escape to France. She doesn't know if he can and will forgive her for betraying him to Cecil, but if he will have her, she will move Heaven adn Earth to get to him. Or will she? Cecil and Queen Elizabeth have other plans for her. They place her in the home of the Masons, a Catholic family, suspected of being involved in a plot to help Mary Stuart onto the throne of England. Leonard Mason is a quirky inventor, and his new flying machine and other devices seem to point to his being part of a plot that has claimed the life of two men whose bodies are found in the Thames. Ursula finds herself playing embroidery and dancing mistress to the three daughters in a wildly chaotic household. Her attempts to uncover documents and other evidence of the unknown plot nearly get her and her sevants, Brockley and Dean, killed. Ursula is puzzling over the roles of various of the Masons' acquaintances when who should arrive but de la Roche. Ursula must decide how to help him get away and whether to go with him.

It's an entertaining story and rather informative of things other than fashion in places. Buckley mostly uses the props she presents the reader with, but not always, which can make things alternatiely confusing and predictable. However, I like her attitude towards historical fiction expressed in the Author's Note while explaining the two inventions and their anachronistic debuts: "Have some fun with it and after all, it is fiction".

By the way, "doublet" not only means a type of men's clothing, but turncoat in the loyalty sense of the word.

An Excellent Mystery, by Ellis Peters

An Excellent Mystery: The Eleventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
By Ellis Peters

If I have been feeling the surfeit of Cadfaels lately, this wonderful if somewhat obscure example dispelled that neatly. An Excellent Mystery, with its seemingly prosaic title, just moved into first place as my favorite of the Brother Cadfael mysteries. It is such a warm and loving story, with characters even more vivid and compelling than the many others, I can't but recommend it with all my heart.

During the period when Empress Maud is trapped in Winchester by King Stephen's queen's armies, two monks whose abbey there has been burned to the ground arrive seeking shelter at Shrewsbury. One is a former crusader, Brother Humilus, who has entered the cloister as a result of a devastating wound, and a mute companion, Brother Fidelis, young and devoted. The title, An Excellent Mystery, refers to a line in The Book of Common Prayer refers to marriage, and it is the "marriage" of Humilus and Fidelis that the story dramatizes so gently and with such eloquence. Though homosexuality is a theme of this novel, it is one of several which blend into a remarkably complex bit of poetry.

Humilus has been betrothed to a young woman named Julian since before he left for the Holy Land. She was only six years old when the betrothal was made, and now that he is, as they say, only a shadow of man due to his injuries, he has freed her and told her and her family of his decision to enter a monastery. Julian chooses to enter a convent herself, but when the Crusader's squire, Nicholas, smitten by her, goes to make sure she is well and truly dedicated to her vows, he discovers she never made it to the nunnery. The mystery begins, to discover what happened to her. Hugh Beringar, Cadfael and Nicholas all fear that one of her attendants on the journey robbed and killed her, and the evidence stacks up to support this fear. In the meantime, Humilus grows more and more ill. Cadfaael is impressed with Brother Fidelis's devotion to the older man. Another monk, who has forsworn the life of the body because of a painful betrayal buy a woman, finds his passions coming out for a couple of the young brothers, in particular Fidelis, and he threatens to reveal a secret if the young monk if he does not comply with his advances..

I figured out the mystery of what happened to Julian about halfway through the book, and I will not spoil it for you in this review. But I will say it only enhanced my pleasure in the reading knowing the truth. More than one marriage lends it goldenness, not only the one mentioned above, but Hugh Beringar's, Nicholas's longed-for with the missing Julian, and even the sad one that torments the blackmailing monk. The secret behind Fidelis's faithful devotion is what makes this book so moving however. I don't think I have ever read a sweeter love story. You will just have to read it to see what I mean. It is, indeed, an excellent mystery.

Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett -- House of Niccolo

Gemini
By Dorothy Dunnett

House of Niccolo, Volume 8

I have been known to say when finishing a book that got under my skin that now I shall have to kill myself. What do I say when finishing the eighth book of an eight volume series that not only got under my skin but overran my mind and soul? I have actually dreaded this day when there would be no more "Nicholases"" to read. Though I understand that Dunnett herself advised reading the continuing story of the Lymond Chronicle first, perhaps those six volumes give me a reprieve. As is said about Nicholas, the blood is too fresh, so I will wait a bit to tackled Francis Lymond, especially since I now know his connection to Dunnett's Burgundian hero.

I usually provide a synopsis of the plot in these essays, but Gemini may just be too complex to be able to do that. This is the novel that ties up all the loose ends, puts the end to all the fractured and threatening relationships in Nicholas and his family's lives. Dunnett had a lot of garbage to take out with this one, by which I mean we still have all the nasties and one extra one to take care of. David de Sametin/Davy Simpson, Simon and Henry de St. Paul, not to mention "fat father Jordan". As the resolution comes for each one of these I was surprised there was any more story to tell. But of course there was, since each of these antagonists had another left to pursue their coincidental vendetti.

The backdrop of these struggles is the tension between the three royal brothers of Scotland, King James, his brother Alexander and their troubled brother John. Ricardians will thrill to discover that their favorite Duke of Gloucester is an actual character and meets Nicholas. The story casts Nicholas as one of the saviors of the Kingdom of Scotland, his former victim and now chosen nation. The remarkable ability of a strictly fictional character to be at the heart of Grand Events would make Bernard Cornwell proud.

Though of course there had to be a mop up novel, this one's plot suffers from having less of its own focused vision. It feels episodic. The Big Surprise that caps the tale is something I will have to digest, but it did not feel like an "aha!" to me. I suppose you could figure it out by applying my father's trick for figuring out who the murderer is in the old Perry masons. Think back over all eight volumes. What single character has no other vital function in the saga than to be the lurking threat? That's all I am going to say.

The mystical side to the series is still present. The epilogue is voiced by the astrologer Dr. Andreas, who has warned Nicholas against divining but also revealed to him what his visions mean, whose life he is seeing, if not his own.

The prelude to the Lymond Chronicles means, in my o pinion, that some characters get short shrift in the closure department. I won't say much m ore, but be prepared to find out about all the secrets.

Let me just finish tby saying to any of you who have not read this series, which takes Nicholas from engaging youth to ruthless plotter to a man you come to realiiize is consciously responsible as no other character could be, that this series shook me to the soles of my feet. It warmed me, chilled me, filled me with anxciety and with horror, and finally left me unsure what I can do next to fill my life with renewed love and devotion to a book.

I ask a favor... as you know, I listen to books, not being able to read print. I looked around on the web to try to find the spellings of some of the characters. Nicholas's wife for one, and several other. If anyone can help me out, I'd be beholden.

You can find a synopsis of the series at Wikipedia.

The Raven in the Foregate, by Ellis Peters

The Raven in the Foregate
By Ellis Peters

A Brother Cadfael Mystery

I especially wanted to read this Brother Cadfael as I had seen the video dramatization and felt as if there was something I missed in the complicated story line. As it turns out, the screenplay was just enough different by virtue of what the author chose to use and emphasize from the novel that it is no wonder the real plot was pushed to the side. Not much but enough to make it harder to follow for someone, perhaps, who can't follow the visuals on a TV screen any more. The result was that I appreciated this one of the Cadfael chronicles the more for being able to appreciate a better laid out tale.

This is classic Cadfael, replete with a violent death, this time to someone who did his best not to be regretted, with moral choices that trouble our monastic sleuth and others, appealing underdog and lady fair, and a terrifically nerve-wracking resolution where all the major characters are in one place and peril. After having read a couple less stunning Cadfael's lately I feel like I have partaken of a healthy, satisfying meal.

The time is just after King Stephen has been released from literal chains in his prison at Bristol and the highly unpopular Empress Maud has failed to hold the crown she stripped from him after the siege of Lincoln. The civil seesaw has taken the side of the male contender for the throne again, and the abbey and Shrewsbury, steadfast for Stephen, are due again for some changes. The abbot has been induced to bring back a learned but rigid man who was in Henry of Blois' service to replace a kindly old priest for the church in the foregate. The priest, the title "raven in the foregate", is a heartless man and seems to have a talent for doing or saying just the right thing to make every individual in his flock detest him. No surprise then that when he is found drowned on Christmas Eve in the mill pond with a gash in the back of his head that there is no lack of possible suspects.

At the same time, Cadfael finds himself with a new helper in the garden, Bennet, the nephew of the new priest's housekeeper. It becomes clear to Cadfael if no one else that Bennet is the partisan of the Empress that Hugh is charged to capture and turn over to the King. He has contacted a local noble once a similar partisan to get help fleeing to Wales. When the nobleman balks, the man's lovely daughter takes an interest in Bennet, and when he is found out and also suspected of the priest's murder she hides him. Planning to flee with him so they both, once wed, can take up the Empress's cause again, she must wait as the young man won't leave until his name is cleared of the murder. The novel continues more or less without the pair as Cadfael and Hugh Berringar, now Sheriff, wait for the frozen ground to thaw enough to bury the priest and to find the solution to the mystery of who killed him. Hugh devises a ruse to bring forth the murderer which Cadfael fears will backfire, and it is carrying out this ruse that brings the story to its exciting end.

I can recommend this novel with out hesitation. Some of its commonplaces -- the rash young hero, the stalwart and fearless heroine, the Capulet/Montague conflict, the colorful local figures equipped with red herrings, the pitting of humanity against the rigid application of law -- will appear again in later mysteries, but at the point this one was written, they were fresh and the better drawn.

The Laughing Hangman, by Edward Marston

The Laughing Hangman
By Edward Marston

The listing for The Laughing Hangman in Amazon calls it a "Missing Mystery" and designates it as #50, but I came to know about the series as "the Elizabethan theater mysteries".

Again, Nicholas Bracewell, the bookholder, a sort of theater manager/producer, of Lord Westffield's Men, a troupe of actors and crew, is c alled upon to hold the collective hands of the company while solving murders. He is also called upon by former lover, Anne Hendrick, to help her neighbor retrieve his son from forced singing and acting for the Chapel Royal. If Marston had given us a more plausible reason for the two murders in this story, and if the narrator of the book had not been pretty terrible, I probably would have liked it more. But more on those two issues in a moment.

Lord Westfield's Men have ally themselves with a scandalous fellow, a Jonas Applegarth, to perform his brilliant but provocative play The Misfortunes of Marriage. Applegarth is an arrogant and unpleasant man who criticizes everyone and makes those opinions widely known. Needless to say, he is one of the two hanged men Bracewell comes across, with quite a few possible suspects so roundly reviled was he. Like the first corpse found hanged by Nicholas and a colleague, the chapel master of the aforementioned Chapel Royal, the discovery of the hanging is accompanied by an insanely and gleefully laughing and retreating voice. Bracewell discovers the earlier man hanged while on an errand for his former lover to find her neighbors son who, it seems, is miserable at being forced to perform by the acting manager of the troupe, all young boys. The novel relates several separate stories, the murders and Bracewell's investigation, his growing friendships with Applegarth, with his historian neighbor and his rekindling relationship with Anne. In the meantime Edmund Hood gets laid, which makes him bravely stand up for his plays with the company, and a romance is stemmed between Anne's neighbor and herself, while the boy actor turns out to love the theater.

Two things failed in this novel for me. One is the solution, which I will just obliquely ascribe to Sudden Unexpected Catholicism. There is no hint of this as far as I can tell, so I don't know how Bracewell comes to his conclusions. I also feel that Marston missed a bet by not having it turn out that Anne's neighbor had everything to do with the misfortunes that result in her needing money, which the smitten and manipulative neighbor is only too happy to lend.

The recording I listened to came from the library for the bllind but was not recorded by the National Library Service. The reader, whom I will aboid like the plague in future, read accurately, but he hand only two voices: a dull narrative and an almost hysterical uptalk for all the dialoque. One consequence is that I discovered how unispired the prose is. A talented reader can do wonders for flat narrative. The dialogue could at times be downright stilted. It's too bad, with all the excellent potential of the stories Marston writes.

The Hermit of Eyton Forest, by Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael Series)

The Hermit of Eyton Forest
By Ellis Peters

I was glad to get this one along with the pile of other medieval mysteries the Talking Book and Braille Library has been sending me as it is one that I have not read before nor was it, I believe, dramatized.

The novel takes place during the period of time that Empress Maude is trapped in the besieged castle in Oxford, alone, without either her brother, Robert of Bloucester, or her rumored beloved, Brian Fitzcount. English schoolkids and those of us who have subsumed ourselves in English history will realize that about a month or two after this novel ends, Maud will slither down the side of the tower during a blizzard and escape through the snow from King Stephen's army.

There are three storylines in this novel, though for most of it there is only the one murder. One story involves Richard, a young fellow at school at the abbey, whose father has died and whose greedy grandmother wants him to drop out of school and to marry a neighboring heiress, though he is 10 and she is 22. For the second plot we have a runaway vilein who calls himself Hyacinth and who has come to the Shrewsbury area in the company of the title hermit. Finally and seemingly tangential, a man who tells Cadfael he is shopping over the border in Wales for hunting birds for his lord appears to be interested in everyone who comes and goes until he hears the person is either older or younger than he.

The stories of course become linked. Richard and Hyacinth meet, and when Hyacinth's lord comes looking for him, Richard goes into the forest to warn him. When he heads back to the abbey, Richard is captured by his grandmother's men and imprisoned at an estate owned by his equally reluctant bride-to-be. Feeling responsible Hyacinth tracks him down and gives him the key to getting out of the marriage. In the meantime Hyacinth's lord has tracked him to the hermit's cell, and on his own journey back to the abbey is stabbed in the back and killed. Hyacinth is the prime suspect. He cannot flee because he has fallen in love with the daughter of the forester whose broken leg is his fault but whom he also saved, and he can't come forward with his own alibi because the dead man's son has arrived and can force him to return to servitude.

Where does the man window shopping for birds come in? Well to tell you that plot I would give it all away. Let's just say the engaging fellow, who confides much but not all to Cadfael, is somehow connected with the Empress and so is another central character to the story.

This mystery has one enormous flaw. Cadfael, Hugh and the rest after clearing Hyacinth conclude the guilt of another person with the flimsiest of evidence, little more than what could be coincidence. In essence they say, "Well, So-and-so is dead, and since we know he was lying about this matter, he must be guilty of that other one." Owen Archer would roll his one eye at this bit of sleuthing. The Hermit of Eyton Forest feels like a patchwork of other better Cadfael plots, including The Virgin in the Ice for its bond between a young boy and the older girl he took for granted as well as the kidnapping, and The Sanctuary Sparrow for for the love that grows between a simple honest girl and her murder suspect boy.

If you like Cadfael, as do I, you will still enjoy this book, but it won't be one of the memorable ones you come back to read again.