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Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML:The medieval monk digs for clues when a body is unearthed by a plow: "His detecting talents are as dazzling as ever" (Publishers Weekly). When a newly plowed field recently given to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul yields the body of a young woman, Brother Cadfael is quickly thrown into a delicate situation. The field was once owned by a local potter named Ruald, who had abandoned his beautiful wife, Generys, to take monastic vows. Generys was said to have gone away with a lover, but now it seems as if she had been murdered. With the arrival at the abbey of young Sulien Blount, a novice fleeing homeward from the civil war raging in East Anglia, the mysteries surrounding the corpse start to multiply.… (more)
User reviews
We see that well fleshed out here. Cadfael and Hugh the Sheriff embark on solving the mystery and whilst doing so we have our red herrings, we have our Peters provided romance, and this time out we have a conclusion that is not so obvious, but is well within the realm of the possible that it satisfies. Certainly, given some of the faults that could have taken place and have had with the previous few novels, this was a solid novel and well worth the time.
We find that the civil war provides some background to the mystery but not as in the past books that without it, there would be no story. We also see a good mix of the perception of the church, and how the church interacts with its flock. This story provides a good return on the investment with Cadfael.
After the Abbey does a deal with another monastery that results in a local field being exchanged, Cadfael is on hand to oversee the first day's work to it when the body is uncovered. As it was previously worked by a new brother to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Paul, suspicion falls on this good man that it is the wife he left behind before taking orders. From there we have a well paced haul to the truth.
Pargeter was an accomplished historian and linguist. Any hopes I had of language playing a role in the mystery were disappointed. However, the detective plot is inseparable from its historical setting, and that inseparability is a hallmark of how successfully Pargeter blended mystery and historical fiction.
Certainly this Brother Cadfael novel pales next to it's monastic medieval mystery cousin, The Name of the Rose. But taken for what it is, The Potter's Field is a pleasant, logically satisfying, and harmless read.
The series takes place against the backdrop of the struggle between King Stephen and Empress Maud as well as the Crusades, from 1135-1150. The attention given to this historic period would emerge as an influence in Cadfael's life if the series were read in order. I rate this installment at 7 of 10 stars
Read on January 19, 2014
Description: n October of 1142, a local landlord gives the Potter's Field to the local clergy. The monks begin to plow it,
3* #1 A Morbid Taste for Bones
3* #2 One Corpse Too Many
3* #3 Monk's Hood
3* #4 St Peter's Fair
3* #5 Leper of St. Giles
4* #6 The Virgin in the Ice
3* #7 The Sanctuary Sparrow
4* #8 The Devil's Novice
3* #9 Dead Man's Ransom
3* #12 The Raven in the Forecourt
3* #13 The Rose Rent
4* #17 The Potter's Field
3* #18 Summer of the Danes
TR #19 The Holy Thief
2* Flight of a Witch
2* Light on the Road to Woodstock
WL A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury
5* Sunrise in the West
TR The Dragon at Noonday
TR The Hounds at Sunset
TR Afterglow and Nightfall
Adultery and murder, splendid!
Extended review:
There's a freshness about Ellis Peters's seventeenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael that hasn't been seen in a while. Perhaps it's that the principal characters (other than the continuing characters of the series) depart a little bit
At any rate, I enjoyed this one a degree or two more than expected--and of course I expected to, having found the author completely reliable for a comfort read when I need one. I'm heartily sorry to be so close to the end. It's tempting to go ahead and laud The Potter’s Field with four stars; but I can't, quite, in view of how tough I've been on so many other things. Let's call this a 3.7.
I consider a synopsis to be completely irrelevant. It's a Brother Cadfael mystery. I knew what I was getting. Like a Pepperidge Farm cookie right out of the package, it was just what I wanted at the time.
Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995. Cadfael chronicles ; 17.
Cadfael, Brother (Fictitious character)
Monks -- England -- Shrewsbury -- Fiction.
Detective and mystery stories.
Historical fiction.
Herbalists
Great Britain -- History -- Stephen, 1135-1154 --
(Library summary)
A plowed field yields a woman's skeletal remains...
Who is she?... An unusual place for a dignified burial.....
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Fic Mystery PetersE |