Goodbye Brother Cadfael
After 8 years, I have finally finished reading the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters.
Great books. Not a single bad one among them. It seems like in every book Cadfael must solve a murder and reunite separated lovers and delicately handle both the clerical and secular authorities. And he often does this in a way that makes sure justice is done in a merciful way, and leaves the authorities satisfied but baffled – they’re sure someone has pulled the wool over their eyes, somehow, but it’s all ended well, so why complain? At times Cadfael moves into full Guile Hero territory – both Batman and Grand Admiral Thrawn could learn a trick or two from him!
In some ways, the final book, BROTHER CADFAEL’S PENANCE, is the best, since the personal stakes are so high for Cadfael. He has to abandon his monastery to rescue his son from imprisonment in England’s civil war of the 1140s. Cadfael is alone, with no support from his abbot, no weapons, no money, just an old man with his wits and trust in God.
Definitely recommend the series if you enjoy a good mystery and a book that offers a good verisimilitude of medieval life (unlike, for example, GAME OF THRONES). At the moment all 20 Cadfael books and a short story anthology are in Kindle Unlimited, so if you’re a KU subscriber you can binge right through them.
Also, full credit to Open Road Media for releasing the ebook editions, and including beautiful maps of 12th-century Shrewsbury and Cadfael’s local neighborhood in each book.
-JM
Absolutely, great series. And, as a medievalist myself, wonderful to read something that is historically plausible (which is all I ever ask for, historically accurate is not always dramatically worthwhile but historically plausible is a must). Did you ever see the 1990s TV adaptations with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael and a host of great British character actors supporting, including Michael Culver as Prior Robert and Terence Hardiman as Abbott Radulfus? Slightly spoiled by the fact that they only made 12 episodes and by the fact that 3 different actors played Hugh Beringar, none of whom really nailed the part for me, but really good nonetheless. I just rewatched the whole lot last month, coincidentally. As is usual, however, the books are undoubtedly better!
I saw “One Corpse Too Many” and thought it was pretty good – need to watch the rest of them!