Another horrible eBook cover – c’mon, publishers, the original covers were perfect – don’t cheap out on the e- version.

This book continues my medieval jag this week. Ellis Peters (pen name of Edith Pargeter) wrote a ton of books, history, fiction, non-fiction. But she is mostly known for her Brother Cadfael series of mysteries, where her detective is a monk in 12th century England, near the border with Wales.

Brother Cadfael, in his earlier life, was a knight who went and fought in the crusades. While he was in the middle east, he learned healing and medicine from the Muslims. When he returned home to England, he took vows and joined the monastery, where most of the books take place.

The 12th Century was a turbulent time in England. When the only legitimate male heir of King Henry I died in an accident, Henry intended that his daughter, Matilda inherit the throne. However, after his death, his nephew Stephen of Blois insisted that he was the rightful male heir and war broke out. Outright war lasted 15+ years but, even after they negotiated for peace, unrest continued to simmer.

Most of the action in these books takes place in and around the manor (county) where the monastery that Cadfael belongs to is located, north of most of the military action (which is mostly centered near London). Through these stories you learn about life in a medieval monastery, medieval agriculture and medicine, roles in medieval towns and manors, rules of inheritance, and the war between Matilda and Stephen.

All this history is woven into really smart plots. In this one, two monks who narrowly escape the battle of London, in which Stephen’s wife is trying to rescue a bishop that is supporting him from Matilda, and burns London to the ground, monasteries included. The older of the men barely survived the crusades, returning home barely stitched together and taking orders immediately after releasing his fiancée, who he became in engaged to when she was 5 years old, from their engagement to marry a man who could give her children. (Such is the nature of his injury.) The younger man – who looks around 20 – is unable to speak although he hears and is literate, able to not only read but write. He took vows right after the older man did, and has devoted himself to the older man’s care, carrying his weight as he walks, and tending to his really gross wounds as needed.

Not long after the two monks take refuge at the monastery, a young and handsome knight arrives. He was in the middle east with the older monk and was, in fact, the one who rode north to tell the fiancée that she was released from engagement. He has sought out the monk to ask his permission to ask the ex-fiancée to marry him because, although it has been about 3 years since he saw her, he has been thinking about her all this time.

The monk approves whole-heartedly and the knight goes off to her nearby home. There he finds that, immediately after he visited before, she decided to join a nunnery and left home with her dowry, escorted with three loyal servants who had known her since childhood. And, right after she left, her father died and her half-brother inherited the house. He hadn’t had a relationship with her since she was a toddler and assumed that she was satisfied with her life at the nunnery, since she had never written otherwise. The knight notes the name of the nunnery and departs.

When he stops back at the monastery, he learns that the nunnery where she took orders had just been destroyed in the war and many nuns killed. He rushes south, in search of word for her. After much strife, he locates the abbess of the monastery – who tells him that the young woman never arrived at the monastery.

And yet, the three servants had arrived back her home, and reported that she had arrived safely and been accepted into the nunnery.

So what happened?

Was the nunnery lying? Why would they lie? Were the servants lying? If so, what happened to her? If they had killed her and stolen her dowry, why would they have returned to her family home? Will the knight be able to find her?

It’s pretty ballsy, you might think, for a mystery writer to call their book, An Excellent Mystery. But in this case, a “mystery” actually refers to a miracle that defies explanation.

But, in truth, while these books often deal with miracles and religion, there is nothing supernatural about the solutions.

The first Cadfael book I read was The Rose Rent, which I read while I was in high school. Since then, I have read many of these, all on p-book, although it seems you can really only get them used, on audiobook, or eBook now. They’re a great way to learn about the middle ages and easily so easily readable.

But beware or beware, they are potato chips and you can’t eat just one!