The Hermit of Eyton Forest

This installment finds Brother Cadfael involved with two problems – the murder of a monastery guest and the disappearance of one of the school boys, whose has just become lord of the manor of Eaton after his father's death. The father's will appointed the abbot as the boy's guardian, but the boy's grandmother has other plans for him. She wants to marry him off to the daughter of a neighboring landowner, even though the daughter is much older than 10-year-old Richard. The grandmother has allowed a hermit to take up residence on her land, and the hermit's young assistant becomes the main suspect for the murder. The assistant has fallen in love at first sight with the forester's daughter, and series readers know by now that Cadfael show more always has a soft spot for young lovers.

Most books in this series follow the same formula. This isn't the best book in the series, but it's still interesting and enjoyable. Cadfael has helped other young people in danger of being married against their will, but it's usually a young woman. This predicament is given a new twist with a pre-adolescent boy as the object of Cadfael's aid. One of the biggest disappointments with this book is that Cadfael spends very little time in his herbarium or tending the sick. His knowledge of wounds and injuries mainly comes into play when he's examining corpses. show less

Summary: A hermit’s arrival brings death and mayhem in a quarrel over a boy’s fate, damage to Eyton Forest, and a search for a fugitive villein.

Richard Ludel is a spirited ten year old boy being educated at Shrewbury Abbey. Richard’s father, severely wounded in the war between Stephen and Maud, entrusted him to the care of Abbot Radulfus. Brother Paul sits Richard down in the fall of 1142 to tell him his father has died. He is now the lord of Eaton Manor. Because Richard is a minor, Sheriff Beringar oversees the manor and steward John of Longwood ably care for it. But they have not reckoned with another interested party, Richard’s grandmother, Dame Dionesia.

She comes to the funeral with her newly acquired hermit, Cuthred and his show more assistant, a young man named Hyacinth. He lives in a hermitage in Eyton Forest, between the manor and the abbey. She demands that Richard return with her. Richard knows it is part of her design to marry him off to the much older daughter of an adjacent landowner. Having accepted the charge by Richard’s father to educate him until his majority, Abbot Radulfus refuses the request.

Suddenly, Eyton Forest, on which the abbey depends, turns hostile. Hyacinth brings a message that it is due to the boy being withheld from his grandmother that all this is occurring. Then a tree falls on Eilmund, forester of the abbey. Hyacinth rescues him and fetches Brother Cadfael to attend him. Hyacinth meets Annet, Eilmund’s daughter. Immediately they are smitten with each other.

With the arrival of Drogo Bosiet, Peters introduces a new plot element. Drogo seeks his fugitive villein, a talented young man, Brand. Brother Jerome tells Bosiet that a man fitting the description is Cuthred’s assistant. Young Richard overhears the conversation. Previously, Hyacinth had treated Richard with kindness. Now Richard returns the favor and sets off to warn Hyacinth. Meanwhile, Drogo also goes after Hyacinth. Neither returns to the abbey.

The next day, Cadfael goes to the forest to check on Eilmund. He finds Bosiet’s riderless horse on the path to the hermitage. Soon, he finds Bosiet as well–stabbed in the back. Meanwhile, back at the abbey, the brothers discover Richard’s absence. Hugh and his men scour the countryside, both to find Richard, and Hyacinth, the leading suspect in the murder.

Once again, Cadfael and Hugh engage in a delicate dance of “don’t ask; don’t tell.” Cadfael knows where Hyacinth is hiding and that he couldn’t be the murderer. Both know that to capture Hyacinth means turning him over to Bosiet’s son. And Bosiet’s son is as vicious as the father. And when Cuthred is murdered, both Hugh and Cadfael walk a line that distinguishes justice from law.

This one finishes delightfully. The abbot gets the last laugh while Dame Dionesia gets her comeuppance. And don’t forget that there is a love story. Peters loves to throw these into her plots. In this story, she expertly weaves three subplots together. And for once, she tells a story that turns more on what Cadfael does not do. show less

Six-word review: Surprise! Someone's hiding out in disguise.

Extended review:

Reading a Brother Cadfael mystery reminds me a lot of having lunch at a bookstore cafe: you know what you're getting, it won't be amazing but it's perfectly fine, you won't leave hungry, and anyway you didn't go there for the food.

I wouldn't have said this when I'd read only the first two or three in the series, but this was my fourteenth. Among the things I'm happy to give the author credit for are building a main character with enough dimensions and conflicts to be interesting, recreating a fascinating historical setting, and knowing a good formula when she finds one.

Not that everything is obvious from the beginning: it isn't. There are puzzles, red herrings, show more subplots, mysterious travelers, false names and false pretenses. And, dependably, there are charming young people whose threatened fortunes are championed by the worldly-wise Benedictine brother.

In this case, we have an orphaned young heir with an overbearing grandmother, a runaway serf suspected of murder, and a revered hermit caught up in a scheme to gain control of valuable lands. Somehow this is all the business of the abbey, and Cadfael is actively engaged once again in the service of truth and justice. Dependable fun, written with style and old-fashioned grace. I didn't come here for astonishment. show less

A hermit, a servant, a child under the protection of the monks at Shrewsbury Abbey, an avaricious grandmother and a dead body populate the pages of the next installment of the Brother Cadfael chronicles, The hermit of Eyton Forest. As usual, Cadfael sees things that others do not and solves the mystery while helping the child, Richard Ludel.

There is no map in this volume and one would have been useful to understand where the action is taking place. All-in-all, an average Brother Cadfael mystery.

[re-read 2013]

Strange how a murder mystery can be comforting! I quite enjoy the mysteries in this volume -- and especially the interactions between Richard and Hiltrude, and between Cadfael and Rafe. Also the growing sense that Cadfael is aware his actions are perhaps not in keeping with his vows, giving a bit of a sense of the overall series arc.

This is the Fourteenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael I’ve read, and one more satisfyingly complex. Mainly because Peters ties together several of her themes from other books in one overlapping plot. There’s a young man on the run from the law—innocent of course—who meets and falls in love with a young woman in Shrewsbury. There are agents from the war between Stephen and Maud who arrive in Shrewsbury, one to kill the other for treachery. And in a new twist there’s a boy at the monastery school whose grandmother wants him to marry against his will, leading to abduction. Nice little medieval adventure.

10 year old Richard Ludel, a student entrusted to the abbey's care by his father, has just inherited a large estate upon his father's death. His grandmother, Dame Dionisia, insists that the boy be returned home and marry the “older” heiress to the adjoining property. Two mysterious tenants on Dame Dionisia's land, a devout hermit, Cuthred, and his young aid, Hyacinth, may in league Dionisia, who is unaware that Hyacinth is actually a runaway and that Cuthred's background is unknown. When Richard disappears from the abbey, Dame Dionisia is immediately suspect. Other events follow rapidly: an inquisitive nobleman is murdered in the forest; Hyacinth vanishes; and Cuthred is stabbed to death. Brother Cadfael must bring all his skills to show more solve the crimes. Though I love this series—this was not one of my favorites. I felt that character I love the most—Cadfael, was hardly part of the narrative—I found that I really wanted to see him work his “magic”—but the ending just seemed rushed. 2 ½ out of 5 stars. show less