Monk's Hood (1980)

Six-word review: Monastic sleuth investigates murder by poisoning.

Extended review:

By the third installment in the series, Brother Cadfael's approach to matters both sacred and profane is becoming predictable; which is to say, we are getting to know him. This development does not detract from the pleasure in watching him apply logic, skill, and a sizeable helping of intuition to a puzzling crime and also dispense his own measure of justice and mercy according to his understanding.

These books are small and do not delve deep, but they are not trivial either, examining as they do both the temporal and eternal questions that the good brother faces, both in his cloistered life following a soldierly career and in his missions into the secular world.

I enjoy the author's treatment of setting, secondary characters, and aspects of medieval life. In this story I particularly liked the glimpses of the lives of shepherds and their flocks, homely, fragrant details that contribute to atmosphere and verisimilitude. I never doubt the author's attention to authenticity and historical fidelity. The emerging picture of life in the Middle Ages is a significant element of the appeal of this series.

My rating of 3½ stars in the overall scheme of things does not really reflect my appreciation of the Cadfael mysteries. Within the genre I give it 4 stars. ( )

Still enjoying this series a lot. I love the way the Welsh/English issues are woven in. This one is less political than the previous book, but it's still fully grounded in its historical setting. If you're looking for books that go straight to the mystery, it isn't these.

One thing I'm appreciating a lot, though, is that from the very first page, I'm trying to figure out what the crime will be, and who the suspects could be. I've mostly got it right, even from early on, but it's lovely to read on and find myself mostly right.

I didn't enjoy the characters in this book as much, but Cadfael remains wonderful, and the comedown for Prior Robert was amazing. And I'm quite fond of Brother Mark, if he sticks around, and of course, still fond of Hugh. ( )

The Brother Caefael series never disappoints; the historical aspect always adds to the enjoyment, the subtle humor is always welcome and the characters in the story are always engaging. The plot this time is better than at other times and everything except Cadfael's decision regarding the killer flows out of everything we have already learned about not just Cadfael but about the whole Abbey at Shrewsbury. In fact that is the strength of the Bother Cadfael series. The reader does not just come to know Bother Cadfael, but comes to know all of the monks at the Abbey as the series progresses.

Many of the best mystery series have recurring characters that become our friends and we enjoy reading about them in each new book in the series. It is not just the main character that we come to know and identify with but come to know and care about all the other characters as well. In fact , the characters often times come to be like a small family within the sereis. But in the Brother Cadfael series the author, Ellis Peters, has all the monks of the Abbey to draw from and what the reader gets is not just a sense of family throughout the series but a sense of a whole community as well.

It is somewhat odd that a female author, Ellis Peters, would choose to write about a communtiy of men in which there is going to be little or no romance for most of them throughout the sereis. But what Peters does get and uses repeatedly to great effect is the moral implications of what is occurring in the story that she is telling. Some of these moments are small such as when Cadfael is admonished by Prior Roberts for his relationship with the newly widowed Mrs. Bonel. The Prior then bans Cadfael from leaving the abbey until Mistress Bonel has moved and the temptation of the relationship is removed. Having taken a vow of obedience, Cadfael must live by the mandate of Prior Roberts though it severely restricts his ability to find the real murderer, "Vows of obedience, voluntarily taken, cannot be discarded whenever they become inconvenient."

The larger moral issue that has even greater impact on the story and helps to identify the person that Cadfael really is comes when he confronts the killer. Cadfael not only must discover who the killer is but then he must understand not only the psychology that is underlying the killers actions, but also understand the moral core of the killer. Cadfael sets up a test to show both the killer and himself what the true moral nature of the killer is. Cadfael makes decisions based on what he percieves the killers moral center to be and those decisions are not the ones that the legal authorities would have made. But by having her detective as a monk, Ellis Peters gets to do this and confront the morality of humans instead of just looking at the crime and the solving of the crime. ( )

Monk's Hood, the third Brother Cadfael mystery, is set in the fall of 1138 when Shrewsbury is recovering from its participation in the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud. Shrewsbury Abbey is experiencing some changes of its own: the gentle Abbot Heribert has been called to a Legatine Council that will likely strip him of his authority, and the ambitious Prior Robert eagerly takes his place pending the Council's ruling. Meanwhile, a wealthy landowner, Gervase Bonel, cedes his estate to the abbey in return for a comfortable place to live out his days... only, those days aren't very long. After eating a delicacy sent him by Prior Robert, Bonel dies in the agonies of poison.

In the course of his investigations, Cadfael comes into contact with a variety of people in Bonel's household — among them an old flame, Richildis, who is now Bonel's widow. This gives rise to various musings on what might have been and the life Cadfael has chosen instead. Peters skirts the edges of cynicism without quite brushing up against it: hard to do, to achieve that resignation that is actually quite content without casting aspersions on the reality of romantic attachment.

Like several other well-known literary sleuths, Cadfael uses his own discretion when it comes to unveiling and punishing the murderer. In this case he does not expose the murderer to public justice, choosing instead to set a lifelong penance that will, he hopes, do the world more good than would justice according to the letter of the law. Cadfael is already set apart from the other characters by his uncanny wisdom in getting to the bottom of murder, but does this give him the right to administer justice as he sees fit? I'm not sure how I feel about this; despite Cadfael's brilliance, he's still a fallible human being. Only one other character, Hugh Beringar, dimly guesses at how Cadfael has disposed of the case.

Peters' writing is so smoothly effortless that it would be easy to take it for granted. Most readers don't look for great literature in the murder mystery genre, but that doesn't mean that the technical brilliance of the plotting should outweigh the style of the prose. Peters writes characters who are believable in their historic setting and personal relationships, with an unfaltering narrative voice that is both lively and original. She is also noted for the historical faithfulness of her work.

Peters takes two of my favorite genres, historical fiction and mystery, and marries them to produce an engaging tale of medieval murder. If you're a fan of either genre, you should give this series a try! Cadfael's a great character, the mysteries are well plotted, and the prose is excellent. I look forward to reading more of Cadfael's monkly murder adventures. ( )

My second helping of the Brother Cadfael series wasn't quite as good as the first, but it was still an enjoyable read. Ellis Peters's medieval monastery and its inhabitants are described so well that I feel like I'm right there among the brothers as I read. However, the modern world seemed to insert itself toward the end of the book.

***Spoiler***
I was disappointed that Cadfael was able to rationalize allowing the murderer to escape the penalty of law. His argument for doing so sounded very much like modern arguments against the death penalty. Or, if you prefer, like the Wild West “he needed killing” justification for murder. Cadfael didn't wrestle much with his decision, or suffer regrets once the decision had been made. Instead of ambiguity, there was a “happily ever after” ending - for everyone except the dead man. ( )