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    An Excellent Mystery
    An Excellent Mystery
    An Excellent Mystery
    Ebook328 pages6 hours

    An Excellent Mystery

    By Ellis Peters

    4/5

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    In this “enchanting” historical mystery, “medieval England comes marvelously alive” as Brother Cadfael investigates a woman’s baffling disappearance (The Washington Post).


    In the year of our Lord 1141, August comes in golden as a lion, and two monks ride into the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul bringing with them disturbing news of war—and a mystery.
     
    The strangers tell how the strife between the Empress Maud and King Stephen has destroyed the town of Winchester and their priory. Now Brother Humilis, who is handsome, gaunt, and very ill, and Brother Fidelis, youthful, comely—and totally mute—must seek refuge at Shrewsbury. From the moment he meets them, Brother Cadfael senses something deeper than common vows binds these two good brothers. What the link is he can only guess. What it will lead to is beyond his imagining. As Brother Humilis’s health fails—and nothing can stop death’s lengthening shade—Brother Cadfael faces a poignant test of his discretion and his beliefs as he unravels a secret so great it can destroy a life, a future, and a holy order.

    “Unflagging tension which builds to a swift, satisfying climax. Peters never disappoints [with] her absorbing, superbly crafted stories.” —Kirkus Reviews
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateAug 5, 2014
    ISBN9781497671355
    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 An Excellent Mystery

    4/5

    22 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Engaging mystery novel, not so much featuring Cafael, as featuring Brothers Humilis and Fidelity, and the excellent mystery of what happened to Julian Cruce?
    • 4/5
      Typically good mystery by Ms Peters and a great evocation of the time.
    • 5/5
      The eleventh Brother Cadfael mystery involves an injured knight who becomes a monk, his faithful mute attendant, and his squire who seeks to marry the knight's fiancee. "Then a latent tragedy becomes a present reality, and only the ever-indefatigable Brother Cadfael can distinguish between the innocent, the guilty -- and the victims foredoomed by the demands of honour, love, and Fate." (from the back cover)
    • 4/5
      Most of the mysteries in this series that I have read are about a murder that needs to be solved. An Excellent Mystery is different, and takes its time to get "to the point", but it's still a good read. There are some twists and turns in the plot, so don't think you've solved the mystery halfway through, as I did. It's a good read, worth reading. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review: Secret passions, secret griefs, secret redemptions.Extended review:Brother Cadfael, perceptive and resourceful as ever, takes a secondary role in this story of loyalty, loss and pursuit, hidden sorrows, and deliverance, tightly interwoven with the political upheaval of twelfth-century England. Secrets, as ever, drive the drama, and the secrets in the present instance are more dramatic than most. Even though I guessed the answer halfway through, the answer, in this case, was not a solution, and its unfolding still left much of a tale to be told.The author is admirably confident of her principal character's ability to sustain a series without having to be in the limelight every moment. This variant on the formulaic earlier novels refreshes the reader's interest and amplifies the development of Cadfael's character. The ongoing tension of civil conflict in the land brings history to life while showing how ordinary people are affected when giants take to the battlefield.I continue to take pleasure in the author's lyrical and insightful prose style and authoritative command of English. I'm sorry to note that I've passed the halfway mark in the twenty-book Cadfael series and may have to resist the urge to gallop on through, in favor of making what remains last a little longer.
    • 2/5
      A very rare disappointment from Ellis Peters. Not an excellent mystery, I thought, in spite of almost all of hers being excellent.
    • 5/5
      [Re-read 2013]
      One of my favorite of a favorite series...
    • 5/5
      I think this was my favorite Cadfael book yet - good characters, a subtle mystery, tied very well into the time and place.
    • 3/5
      Definitely lacking in the mystery department; the epilogue explains the title. Interesting w/ its sanitized details of mediaeval life, but also kind of soppily romantic.
    • 5/5
      If there is a disappearance of a noble lady heading to a nunnery along with very valuable items to give to the nunnery, then there has to be a murder & thievery. Or was it? An old worn out monk whose deeds were well known & a mute brother monk arrive after his monastery is destroyed. The mystery deepens when Cadfael discovers there is more to this story than it looks. Hmm, there's a lot to untangle but it is "an excellent mystery."
    • 4/5
      An ancient tale of knights and damsels, monks and kings and queens.
    • 3/5
      An excellent mystery, the eleventh Cadfael Chronicle is not as excellent as the title. Two monks, one mortally ill and one mute, arrive at Shrewsbury from war torn Winchester and a young girl is found to be missing and presumed dead. We must also deal with Brother Urien's tendancies. Cadfael unravels the mystery and averts disaster in the end, as usual with the help of Sister Magdalen. (See for more information on her.)This book was a bit of stretch and a bit unrealistic, especially as compared with the other novels thus far. Still, with Ellis Peters' remarkable ability to make the 12th century alive, a good read.
    • 4/5
      A classic Brother Cadfael. As ever, Cadfael's easy affection and his unquashable curiosity make him a charming figure, the coziest of cozy detectives.Cadfael, however, appears a little less often than average in the pages of this volume, as we follow Sheriff Hugh Beringar and other interested parties around war-torn England, searching for answers. Peters again does a good job of incorporating the larger history of the Stephen vs. Maud civil war into the book. She makes her story arise out of and interlock with those greater events seamlessly.Notes on audiobook: The narrator did a fine job, but I find it odd that they chose a female narrator for a book with a male protagonist and scarcely any female characters.
    • 2/5
      I've enjoyed the television series, but this book, not so much. SIt moves slowly and deliberately conceals knowledge from the readers which makes me feel toyed with.
    • 4/5
      Cadfael is one of the great detectives and Ellis Peters is generally a master of the genre. To my mind she invented the medieval Mystery, but here we have much of the detective work being done by another that is not Cadfael. Further Cadfael and we the reader can jump to the conclusion, to the mysteries outcome midway through the book.A good mystery should not let you have the information you need to solve it so easily. A great mystery keeps you guessing until the end. So where does that leave us here? Cadfael does not really contribute much to the solving of the mystery, and as such it could be set anywhere. The reason to read this is for the background of what else is happening in Cadfael's england. The Civil War between the King and the Empress, and that outcome that will effect the lives of our real protagonist.
    • 5/5
      My personal favorite in the series, perhaps because I identify with the knigth
    • 5/5
      Read by Derek Jacobi. England in 1141. Winchester has been sacked by Queen Maude and two Benedictine monks, Brother Humilis and the mute Brother Fidelis, arrive at Shrewsbury looking for sanctuary. Humilis is carrying a wound from the Crusade and near death. Humilis' former squire arrives to ask permission to pay court to Humilis' former fiance, but finding the girl is harder than it looked as if it was going to be. Very well read, good characterisation, although it is an abridged version - 3 hours.

    Book preview

    An Excellent Mystery - Ellis Peters

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