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Brother Cadfael must intervene when a prisoner exchange is interrupted by love and murder In February of 1141, men march home from war to Shrewsbury, but the captured sheriff Gilbert Prestcote is not among them. Elis, a young Welsh prisoner, is delivered to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to begin a tale that will test Brother Cadfael's sense of justice-and his heart. By good fortune, it seems, the prisoner can be exchanged as Sheriff Prestcote's ransom. What no one expects is that good-natured Elis will be struck down by cupid's arrow. The sheriff's own daughter holds him in thrall, and she, too, is blind with passion. But regaining her father means losing her lover. The sheriff, ailing and frail, is brought to the abbey's infirmary-where he is murdered. Suspicion falls on the prisoner, who has only his Welsh honor to gain Brother Cadfael's help. And Cadfael gives it, not knowing the truth will be a trial for his own soul.… (more)
User reviews
I was afraid I knew where the story was heading, but I was wrong. I didn't see the end coming, and it was better than the ending I had imagined for the book. I was pleased by the appearance of one of my favorite characters in The Leper of St. Giles, the best of all the Cadfael books I've read so far. The book does have an uncharacteristic flaw. Fairly early in the book Peters introduces a character with a potential motive for murder, but then doesn't follow up on the character or the motive. I kept waiting for him to reappear but he didn't. I listened to this one in audio, so I might have been confused by unfamiliar names that sounded similar.
Cadfael sponsors young romance, exposes murderer.
This is one I'd almost completely forgotten, so it was like reading it all over again new. The resolution was interesting and thought-provoking.
Ellis Peters is one of the few writers who can have characters fall in love at first sight and make me either believe it or not mind
Also, I wish Sister Magdalen had her own series too!
Afar at the nunnery, a Welsh raiding party is
The cousin of the young man is brought to make penance & reparation.
The Sheriff lays beaten, near death in the Abbey's infirmary.... In stealth three approach the Sheriff....in the morning the Sheriff lays dead, a gold brooch is missing, another patient is missing.
The Sheriff's daughter denounces her secretly betrothed accusing him of murder...
All the while Brother Cadfael makes discreet inquiries & investigates the murder....
As Hugh's prisoner of war, Elis finds himself missing his foster-brother Eilud and falling madly in love with Prestcote's daughter, Melicent. Eilud is, meanwhile, in love with Elis' bethrothed since childhood, Cristina.
But then Gilbert Prestcote dies, and Brother Cadfael declares it murder.
In this book, we see medieval Wales under Owain Gwynedd (the grandfather of Llewelyn, "the one, true and only Prince of Wales," as well as the continuing feud between King Stephen and the Empress. A book well worth reading!