THE SANCTUARY SPARROW by Ellis Peters
I finished reading THE SANCTUARY SPARROW by Ellis Peters, one of her series about the mystery-solving monk Brother Cadfael, set in medieval England during the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda.
I really enjoyed it! In this book, a desperate singer named Liliwin takes sanctuary at Brother Cadfael’s abbey, pursued by an angry mob that claims he assaulted and robbed a local goldsmith. Liliwin protests his innocence, and Brother Cadfael starts to investigate. Naturally, darker things are afoot than mere robbery.
I always enjoy it when Cadfael teams up with Hugh Beringar, the deputy sheriff of Shropshire. I definitely recommend this book, and the entire series. Always a pleasure to read a really good book from a writer at the top of her game.
-JM
One of the things that a lot of people don’t realize is that Ellis Peters under her own name was a well known scholar of Welsh History. Interestingly enough she was self taught oh and her actual name is Edith Pargeter. Turns out she also was fascinated by the Czech language and taught her self to read and write that and then translated a whole bunch of check manuscripts and stories and tales.
That was a worth while side trip in the Ellis Peters background thanks. 🙂
Anyway one of the reasons her Cadfael stories are so good is because she had lots of research on and knowledge of that time period.
That is interesting. It was obvious from the books that she had a thorough knowledge of Welsh history, but I didn’t realize how thorough. Thanks!
No problem. That is one of those obscure and interesting facts a lot of people don’t know.