Bookreview: An Excellent Mystery

Excellent medieval crime

Written by Ellis Peters
Written in English
ISBN 978-0446405324

"An excellent mystery" is exactly what it claims to be; an excellent mystery. As usual Ellis Peters doesn't disappoint and serves us a fantastic story about the detective-munk Cadfael. The year is 1141 and a great civil unrest plagues Great Britain. A nunnery is burned to the ground which later reveals that a non that should have been there never arrived; a new mystery only Cadfael can solve.

As usual the book start rather dull, but the story soon gets exciting and ends up in an enormous crescendo. Quite often in the books about Cadfael the mystery itself isn't the most important part; one soon gets the picture, a fact that applies to this book as well. It would be quite a job to actually avoid noticing all of the hints you are given, but what makes this fantastic reading is how the mysteries are solved by Cadfael.

As usual Peters captures the atmosphere of the 11-hundreds in an amazing way. You can almost imagine you're there experiencing the 11-hundreds yourself.

Recommended, but be aware that you should read the books about Cadfael in the correct order.