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    The Confession of Brother Haluin
    The Confession of Brother Haluin
    The Confession of Brother Haluin
    Ebook301 pages5 hours

    The Confession of Brother Haluin

    By Ellis Peters

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateAug 5, 2014
    ISBN9781497671478
    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 Confession of Brother Haluin

    4.5/5

    14 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Haluin suffers a near-fatal fall and makes what he thinks is a dying confession to the abbot and Cafael; he unexpectedly recovers and decides to make a journey of expiation with Cafael as his companion.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review: Improbable tale charms indulgent series fan.Extended review: It's not hard to picture the author chuckling quietly to herself as she pieced together the fifteenth chronicle of a medieval monk whose monastic life seems to be as riddled with episodes of violent death as if he were a spiritual ancestor of Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. The first book of the series takes place in the spring of the year 1137, and this one begins in December of 1142. That's an average of nearly three dastardly crimes per year within the reach of the quiet, well-run abbey in Shrewsbury, all of which depend somehow on Brother Cadfael for their solution and the invocation of justice.So it's no wonder that by now the author has ventured rather far into the realm of unlikelihood, albeit with the usual complement of concealed identities, long-hidden sins, thwarted romances, and complicated family relationships.However, if we've stayed with the series this long, we love Brother Cadfael, and we're just happy to watch him going about his business, doing what he does best, which on most days is growing and tending his herb garden, preparing remedies, and offering wise counsel to those who seek it, and on surprisingly frequent occasions is investigating crimes and exposing culprits.In this installment, it doesn't even matter that Cadfael has almost no detecting to do. His main function is to serve as a go-between and catalyst while the dramas of others play out. That's enough. I got what I came for.
    • 4/5
      Brother Cadfael mysteries are good for rainy days when one's brain just can't think any longer and escape, escape, escape is all one wants to do! This particular one is a rather slim volume, but still, it was as expected. No spoiler alerts for this review (unlike some of the ones that follow), but I will say that although I guessed the answer to the main mystery early, early on, I was puzzled as to the motive for it. But all is revealed in the end....This plot gives us a glimpse into the life of a Benedictine convent, and of how these beautiful stone convents and monasteries were constructed. Just a glimpse, but still interesting.
    • 4/5
      In this the 15th Brother Cadfael Chronicle, we watch unfold the unhappy consequences of long distant, long hidden deception. The author gives us an important lesson in the sorrows brought about by suppressing devious actions of the past which can only be rectified by the sometimes painful process of revealing truth. Brother Cadfael, the medieval monk of Shrewsbury Abbey reflects, "Truth can be costly, but in the end it never falls short of value for the price paid." The tangled tale begins with the inexplicable rejection of a suitable husband for a daughter and proceeds to the burdening of the young suitor with false guilt driving him into the cowl at the Benedictine Abbey of Shrewsbury with a heaviness that now 18 years later is still consuming him. Brother Cadfael, resident herbalist and amateur sleuth of the Abbey, is the partner in the redemption of this young monk as they make pilgrimage together to the tomb of his long lost beloved and to the revelation of painful occurences of the dark past. Ellis Peters can not only tell a good tale, but she also has a remarkable insight into human nature--the motives that drive us and the consequences of our unfortunate choices.
    • 4/5
      Another enjoyable mystery that isn't too mysterious early on, but still a great diversion. These stories never fail to please. Unfortunately, I am starting to run low on unread Brother Cadfael books.
    • 3/5
      When you can see some of what is coming at you for pages in a mystery, then it is not doing what it should be doing. This is the problem I found with The Confession of Brother Haluin. Previously when Peters has sent Hugh Beringar to court then we have court intrigue find its way to Shrewbury. This time, we do not. We find very little in the way of additional detail about Saint Peter and St. Paul's though we do hear about the brothers who work in the scriptorium as that is where Haluin has found his skills to be valued.As we delve into the story, we see so much earlier than Cadfael what is taking place, that it leaves me wondering why the story was even written. Then the body. All good mysteries are murder mysteries and so there must be a body.But we don't get to the body for such a long time, and by then we know the heart of the mystery so the motive for there being a body is too evident. The reason to read the story is to pass time and keep up with the rest of the series.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy all the Cadfael mysteries, so I would recommend any of them.
    • 4/5
      I love the Brother Cadfael series, but in this one, I figured out the big twist long before it was even an issue. Ellis Peters kind of broadcasted it; the writing is just as great as the others, but parts of it just aren't a mystery.
    • 4/5
      Excellent story in the Brother Cadfael series. A monk who is trying to atone for something he did when younger is badly injured, confesses to having given herbs from Cadfael's collection to procure an abortion with his girlfriend, which then kills her. He thinks that this is a deathbed confession, but he lives. He goes on a pilgrimage as part of his penance and what he finds out changes his life.

    Book preview

    The Confession of Brother Haluin - Ellis Peters

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