The Potter's Field
by Ellis Peters | Mystery & Thrillers | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0747201595 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0747201595 Global Overview for this book
3 journalers for this copy...
From the cover flap:
"In October 1142 a local landlord had made a present of the Potter's Field to an Augustinian Priory close to Shrewsbury. This substantial meadow adjoining the river had gained its name from the fact that a potter called Ruald had lived and worked there for fifteen years with his beautiful young wife. Now, in August 1143, the field is to be transferred, for the sake of convenience, to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury. Shortly afterwards the Benedictine monks begin to plough it.
The plough turns up the long, raven tresses of a young woman, dead a year or more; even Brother Cadfael, herbalist and student of all things medical, cannot say how long.
Cadfael had taken his vows in middle age after years of roaming and adventure in distant lands; and in the course of his duties in charge of the Abbey gardens and their herbal remedies had more than once been obliged to turn detective. The body of this young woman brings with it complex and delicate problems, for Ruald had abandoned his lovely wife when he felt the call to take monastic vows, and she is believed to have gone away secretly with a new lover.
It is not known who the dead woman is or how she died. But it seems likely that this is Ruald's wife. Generys, and that someone has murdered her. With the arrival at the Abbey of young Sulien Blount, a novice fleeing homewards from an abbey ravaged by the civil war then raging in East Anglia, the mysteries surrounding the woman and her death start to multiply.
The cast of characters here is as convincing and vital as we have come to expect in Ellis Peters' novels of mystery and romance, and to name individuals might misdirect the reader: for after the dark passions and tragedies that led to the woman's death, a new young love is beginning.
In the Seventeenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael the medieval scholarship is everywhere present, but it is the plog that dominates - an intricate mystery with a most sensational and unexpected outcome."
"In October 1142 a local landlord had made a present of the Potter's Field to an Augustinian Priory close to Shrewsbury. This substantial meadow adjoining the river had gained its name from the fact that a potter called Ruald had lived and worked there for fifteen years with his beautiful young wife. Now, in August 1143, the field is to be transferred, for the sake of convenience, to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury. Shortly afterwards the Benedictine monks begin to plough it.
The plough turns up the long, raven tresses of a young woman, dead a year or more; even Brother Cadfael, herbalist and student of all things medical, cannot say how long.
Cadfael had taken his vows in middle age after years of roaming and adventure in distant lands; and in the course of his duties in charge of the Abbey gardens and their herbal remedies had more than once been obliged to turn detective. The body of this young woman brings with it complex and delicate problems, for Ruald had abandoned his lovely wife when he felt the call to take monastic vows, and she is believed to have gone away secretly with a new lover.
It is not known who the dead woman is or how she died. But it seems likely that this is Ruald's wife. Generys, and that someone has murdered her. With the arrival at the Abbey of young Sulien Blount, a novice fleeing homewards from an abbey ravaged by the civil war then raging in East Anglia, the mysteries surrounding the woman and her death start to multiply.
The cast of characters here is as convincing and vital as we have come to expect in Ellis Peters' novels of mystery and romance, and to name individuals might misdirect the reader: for after the dark passions and tragedies that led to the woman's death, a new young love is beginning.
In the Seventeenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael the medieval scholarship is everywhere present, but it is the plog that dominates - an intricate mystery with a most sensational and unexpected outcome."
Posted today to dotdot via surface mail.
Lovely looking book arrived today. It was a part of Plant Life Relay. Many thanks to tantan:)
I read my Cadfael books in 'wrong' order. Luckily they have individual plots and so little references to Cadfael's earlier cases that they really can be read in any order. This was the seventeenth of Cadfael's chronicles. The last one I read was the second one.
This story follows the familiar line: death and romance. Characters are pleasant, there isn't the evil one in this story. i quite liked The Potter's Field, but I have to say I disagree with the moral of the denouement.
This story follows the familiar line: death and romance. Characters are pleasant, there isn't the evil one in this story. i quite liked The Potter's Field, but I have to say I disagree with the moral of the denouement.
To hippolein and Teddyke. Happy reading!2010 "KEEP THEM MOVING" # 2
my husband brought the book home today, looks great and certainly look forward to reading another Cadfael story!
Thank you so much dotdot !
Thank you so much dotdot !
