The Hermit of Eyton Forest (1987)

I enjoyed this enormously. We have the impact of the civil war between Stephen and Maud on the people that come to the Abbey in Shrewsbury, and the area. There is an escaped villein, a hermit, the hermit's boy, a tale of a mysterious horse without a rider, an avaricious dowager that wants to take a boy from his guardian and marry him to a neighbouring landowner's daughter, a boy looked after and educated at the Abbey with the Abbot as his guardian at the request of his father, some hunters, a couple of murders, a disappearance.... There's a lot going on, spun in an enchanting way, at a walking pace. I enjoyed reading about the forest, and I remembered a bit about Wroxeter Roman city which appears briefly.

Good fun. ( )

More interesting and complex than the other Cadfael mystery I read. I didn't connect the dots, either, although I felt silly for not doing it when the murderer was revealed. The backstory of the war between Stephen and Maud continues. Characters are interesting, and the slow pace of the medieval world continues to make for an enjoyable and rather dreamlike read. ( )

Some interesting goings-on, with a victim and murderer who for once both deserve their fates. But Rafe of Coventry is a little deus ex machina, and there's more than a little wish-fulfillment in the way Hugh Beringar, himself a holder of villeins, connives at the escape of Hyacinth. ( )

Another dip into medieval life as we consider the plight of young Richard who is orphaned at ten and in the care of Abbot Radolphus at The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury, England. He is now the heir of a manor and uneasy about his grandmother's desire to marry him off at a very young age to increase the wealth of the manoral holdings. Interesting characters in the form of a hermit who may not be a hermit and a runaway villein with the unlikely name of Hyacinth. There are two murders to occupy Brother Cadfael, resident herbalist at the Abbey. Brother Cadfael, who came late to his calling as a Brother, traveled the world widely in the Crusades and comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge in human behaviour and the clues that solve mysteries. Another very well-written book by Ellis Peters that is hard to lay down. ( )

Once again there is the backdrop of the political turmoil that surrounds the civil war interweaved in the story. Without it, the mystery would not stand, and by far that makes the telling the weaker. There are several nice twists to arrive at a conclusion but that we need something that touches the war between Maud and Stephen seems a stretch once again.

Ellis is gone and Cadfael shall have no new mysteries in the canon, but with the knowledge of others in the field, the violent times of the dark ages should more than lend itself to murders without the need for princes and kings. The Abbey and Shrewsbury have more than an abundant wealth of detail that we have seen previously to support a rich environment for mayhem.

This story and the mystery seem to stem from just such an environment, but the murders that come about end up being related once more to our civil war and the impetus of life going on in spite of such a war is denied. ( )