The Potter's Field

by Ellis Peters

Overview

The medieval monk digs for clues when a body is unearthed by a plow: “His detecting talents are as dazzling as ever” (Publishers Weekly).

When a newly plowed field recently given to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul yields the body of a young woman, Brother Cadfael is quickly thrown into a delicate situation. The field was once owned by a local potter named Ruald, who had abandoned his beautiful wife, Generys, to take monastic vows.
 
Generys was said to have gone away with a lover, but now it seems as if she had been murdered. With the arrival at the abbey of young Sulien Blount, a novice fleeing homeward from the civil war raging in East Anglia, the mysteries surrounding the corpse start to multiply. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504067584
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Series:	Brother Cadfael Series , #17
Pages:	294
Sales rank:	175,052
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Ellis Peters is a pseudonym of Edith Mary Pargeter (1913–1995), a British author whose Chronicles of Brother Cadfael are credited with popularizing the historical mystery. Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey in the first half of the twelfth century, has been described as combining the curious mind of a scientist with the bravery of a knight-errant. The character has been adapted for television, and the books drew international attention to Shrewsbury and its history.
 
Pargeter won an Edgar Award in 1963 for Death and the Joyful Woman, and in 1993 she won the Cartier Diamond Dagger, an annual award given by the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain. She was appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1994, and in 1999 the British Crime Writers’ Association established the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, later called the Ellis Peters Historical Award.

Editorial Reviews

"A beautifully constructed, gracefully written story.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“This beautifully written tale of medieval detection ranks with the very best in the series.” —Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

From the Publisher

Peter's 17th mystery featuring Brother Cadfael finds the 12th-century monk at his most sober and reflective, but his detecting talents are as dazzling as ever. When a newly tilled field recently given to the Benedictine abbey yields the hastily buried body of a young woman, Brother Cadfael takes a keen and immediate interest in the situation. Ruald, the former tenant of the land, entered the abbey as a novice a year earlier, abandoning his beautiful, young and extremely resentful wife, Generys. She has since mysteriously disappeared. Though it seems likely that the body is hers, Ruald is quickly cleared of suspicion via an unlikely source. Sulien Blount, a monk fleeing homeward from the devastating civil war near his own abbey, has solid proof that Generys was recently seen alive. When a second suspect, an itinerant peddlar, is arrested in connection with the murder, Sulien is again able to clear him. Brother Cadfael, deeply troubled, feels that Sulien knows much more than he is saying. An unusual air of melancholy pervades this novel as war, illness and human frailties take their tolls on the weary citizens of Shrewsbury. Created with Peters's consummate skill, Brother Cadfael's world is here seen through a darker glass. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A local landlord gives the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul a field formerly owned by a potter named Ruald, now a monk himself. When plowing begins, however, the body of a woman is turned up. Can this be Ruald's former wife, the beautiful young Generys? Only bones remain (and even Ruald cannot identify her for certain), but the troubled Benedictine Brothers can see that she was carefully buried with her hands arranged to hold a small cross made of sticks. Is there any doubt of the woman's identity? Or who killed her? Brother Cadfael thinks there is and thus begins his 17th investigation. Stephen Thorne, a veteran of the Old Vic and over 2000 BBC broadcasts, lends his wonderful voice to one of Cadfael's more introspective and brooding adventures, recounting the effects of war, death, duty, and the plight of women during a violent and chaotic time. A particularly rewarding listening experience, a treat for all Cadfael fans. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Barbara Perkins, Irving P.L., TX Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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