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    The Devil's Novice
    The Devil's Novice
    The Devil's Novice
    Ebook319 pages6 hours

    The Devil's Novice

    By Ellis Peters

    4/5

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    From the Edgar Award–winning author: When a troubled novice is blamed for a priest’s disappearance, Brother Cadfael seeks to save his soul—and his life.

    Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in September of 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive nineteen-year-old novice.
     
    Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and Meriet, the son he coldly delivers to the abbey to begin a religious vocation. Meriet, meek by day, is so racked by dreams at night that his howls earn him the nickname “the Devil’s Novice.” Shunned and feared, Meriet is soon linked to the missing priestly emissary’s dreadful fate. Only Brother Cadfael believes in Meriet’s innocence, and only the good sleuth can uncover the truth before a boy’s pure passion, not evil intent, leads a novice to the noose. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateAug 5, 2014
    ISBN9781497671249
    Author

    Ellis Peters

    Ellis Peters (the pen name of Edith Pargeter, 1913–1995) is a writer beloved of millions of readers worldwide and has been widely adapted for radio and television, including her Brother Cadfael crime novels, which were made into a series starring Derek Jacobi. She has been the recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger, Edgar Award for Best Novel, Agatha Award for Best Novel, and was awarded an OBE for her services to literature in 1994.

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    Reviews for The Devil's Novice

    4/5

    27 ratings20 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Clearly something is troubling Meriet Aspley, 19, who is dropped off at Shrewsbury Abbey declaring his intention to become a monk. Elsewhere, the Bishop's man, Peter Clemence, a distance relative of the Aspleys, has gone missing and no one knows where. Brother Cadfael is intrigued, especially by certain actions of Meriet. Did the young man commit murder? Or who is he protecting?
    • 5/5
      Book 8 on the "Brother Cadfael" series and another superb story by Edith Pargeter (real name of Ellis Peters). Very well crafted, her writing is obviously not “old” English, but she brings to her words a taste of that time. I has just the right amount of mystery, intriguing characters and situations. The series of books was made into several movies with one of my favorite actors, Derek Jacobi, as Brother Cadfael. I watched the movies before reading the books and maybe that is the reason, but I can’t imagine another actor in the skin of Cadfael. When I read the books, I can’t help imagining Jacobi as the Benedictine monk.
    • 2/5
      Not her best.
    • 4/5
      A young man seems to be totally eager to give his vows and become and monk but Cadfael feels there might be some reason he is in such a hurry. The second son of a wealthy landowner (and as such ineligible to inherit), Meriet seems to have no better path for his life. When out collecting fallen tree branches for firewood, Meriet leads them to an abandoned coalmaker's hut where they discover a recent fire which consumed a dead body. This victim turned out to be a recent visit to the town, Peter Clemence. Whatever Meriet knows about the death is giving him terrible nightmares that cause him to wake up screaming. In his usual slow and gentle way, Cadfael gathers information about the victim and his young novice and how the two are related.I love the gentle life of the monks as world events swirl around them and gentle eddies stirring up their lives and adding some worldly content to their lives.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review:Pleasing variant on successful mystery formula.
    • 3/5
      a young man from a local gentry family is sent to be a novice in the monastery but disturbs it with his screaming nightmares. When there is a murder, he is a suspect. Cadfael investigates.
    • 4/5
      Some pretty great family dynamics in this one, and I always appreciate a really badass female character.
    • 5/5
      Re-read 2012, still marvelous.
    • 3/5
      When I reached the 10% area, I thought I would pack it in. Found it boring. But the dust cleared and it came back on track. Not as good as the previous stories.
    • 3/5
      The latest addition to the abbey is a young man with night terrors...what sins has he committed in order to act this way? Brother Cadfael works out the clues as usual. I thought I knew the murderer this time, but the motive was not apparent until the end. Good read, as always.
    • 5/5
      All of the Cadfael books are wonderful. I have not read them all but I have read many. Go back to a different time and place, leave the cell phones and traffic behind. They are a fast and fun read that will leave you thinking about a lot of things.
    • 5/5
      Meriot Aspley comes to the Abbey at Shrewsbury as a young troubled novice. Cadfael feels he may not really be fit nor wishes to be in the Benedictine order, contrary to what he says. Meanwhile, chaos is in the countryside and an emissary for King Stephen goes missing. We meet Brother Mark again - Cadfael's former assistant and now the Brother-in-charge at the hosital for lepers at St. Giles - who is an important part of the plot. Ellis Peters at her best and a surprise ending.
    • 4/5
      There was more of the "local politics" of the Stephen/Maud civil war in this novel than in previous ones. Opportunist nobility and bishops are seeking to take advantage of the political chaos by setting up their own fiefdoms that support neither Stephen nor Maude. Nobody is quite sure of what the mission was of the priest murdered in the forest.Meriet is the Lord of Apsley's second son, delivered to the Abbey to become a priest, while his first son Nigel is about to be married and will take over lands to the north as part of his wife's dowry. Brother Cadfael is pretty sure Meriet does not have a vocation, that he has come to the Abbey for some other reason.Reading these novels in order pays off as some characters persist from one to the other, and assist in the development of Cadfael's character. Cadfael works in tandem with Hugh Berengar the deputy sheriff of Shrewsbury who is now consistently featured.
    • 3/5
      A perfectly adequate mystery. I don’t really have any complaints about it, but neither was it groundbreaking or astounding. It was a nice, undemanding vacation read – I’d read a couple of others in this series, and it was exactly what I expected. I enjoy the medieval/monastic setting.

      Here, a new novice enters Brother Cadfael’s monastery. The boy is clearly unsuited to the lifestyle, but he vehemently insists that he wants nothing more than to become a monk, even requesting that he be allowed to expedite the process and take vows immediately. During the day, he professes devotion… but at night, he suffers nightmares that disturb the whole community.

      Cadfael decides to look into the background of this novice, to discover what he is hiding. The secret appears like it may be more sinister than suspected when a body is found…
    • 4/5
      The language in all the Brother Cadfael novels never ceases to boggle my mind. How Peters managed to take modern English and make it sound as if it were straight out of the 12th century is nothing short of amazing. The Devil's Novice is one of the better entries in the series. The history, as always, is fascinating. One day I'll go back and read the entire series in order just so I can follow the ebb and flow of the war between Maud and Stephen. I found the characters to be quite compelling - the pride and stubbornness exhibited by several of them is exactly what I would have expected from a lord of the manor, and while the guilty party was narrowed down to a couple of people early in the story, I was never able to make out the motive until it was revealed, and at that point I felt that it fit together well.
    • 3/5
      I have finally found an Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael mystery story that didn't quite measure up to the high standard she has set and achieved in the other Brother Cadfael mysteries. I believe the answer lies in the rather unsympathetic ancillary characters that not only don't ring true, but also do not inspire our interest. We still have the tried and true Brother Cadfael, resident monk and herbalist at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Medieval Shrewsbury, England as well as Hugh Beringar, the no nonsense sheriff of the shire plus the gentle monk, Mark, who cares for the lepers and maimed at nearby St. Giles. We also have the excellent descriptions of medieval life and wonderful use of the English language from Ellis Peters to give pleasure to one of her lesser offerings.
    • 4/5
      The prose is very enjoyable in the early half of the book. The mystery solution seems to become apparent as the story unfolds, but the conclusions for it are a little forced, perhaps needing another clue or two.
    • 4/5
      8th in the Brother Caedfel series.A young man, Meiret Aspley, who is obviously on tense terms with his father, is received into the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul as a candidate for the community. Meanwhile, there is a missing cleric from the house of the powerful bishop of Winchester, one who was an envoy to the Northern baron, the Earl of Chester, whom bishop Henry, the King’s brother, is courting as an ally for Stephen in his war with the Empress Maude for the English crown; no one has seen the canon since he left the manor of Aspley, the family home of the young new novice.While fervent in his desires to rush the usual procedure and take committing vows early, Meiret is not the world’s most suitable candidate for monkhood. In addition to personality characteristics such as aloofness, Meiret has troubling dreams at night, which are so loud and so disturbing that the other novices become afraid, fearing he is possessed by demons, calling him the Devil’s novice. Meiret’s cause is not advanced when he attacks the officious Brother Jerome for taking and burning a keepsake that Meiret had under his mattress.Caedfel journeys to Aspley to find out more about Meiret, and comes across a young heiress who has her cap set for Meiret despite his oblivion to her presence in any capacity more than a former playmate. Caedfel and Isouda become co-conspirators to find out what is troubling Meiret. Then the horse belonging to the missing envoy is found; that and other discoveries throw suspicion squarely on Meiret.Another good book in the series of the late-to-vocation Brother Caedfel, Benedictine lay brother and master of herbs at the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. This is not a heavyweight series, but rather a gentle excursion into the Police procedural genre set in the 12th century. Peters’ writing is never hurried, and her characters are not complex although well-drawn. What makes the series interesting is the political history that is seamlessly interwoven into each of the stories. It was a terrible time, of civil war, in England, and the ordinary people were, as usual, the ones who suffered. More than most, this book depends on the shifting alliances of that war for its main story-telling impetus. Peters does an excellent, although understated, job of depicting how the actions of high lords influenced events on the local level.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A novice is wracked by nightmares. His nightly screams named him as the Devil's Novice. It is Brother Cadfael who uncovers the hidden hurts he has witnessed and uncover a crime in Shrewsburry. Good read. I love Brother Cadfael mysteries. He has a certain flair in a medieval world.
    • 4/5
      The monastery receives a new novice Meriet Aspley. He appears meek but his nights are punctuated by screams, waking the other monks and earning him the nickname of Devil's Novice. Cadfael isn't sure why he wants to become a monk and isn't sure that it's for the right reasons.Interesting and involved, though occasionally my brain did stray that may have been with the astonishment that there was some sun.

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    The Devil's Novice - Ellis Peters

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