Brother Cadfael's Penance (Brother Cadfael Series #20)

by Ellis Peters

Overview

While Cadfael has bent Abbey rules, he has never broken his monastic vows—until now. Word has come to Shrewsbury of a treacherous act that has left 30 of Maud's knights imprisoned. All have been ransomed except Cadfael's secret son, Olivier. Conceived in Cadfael's soldiering youth and unaware of his father's identity, Olivier will die if he is not freed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446404532
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Series:	Brother Cadfael Series , #20
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Although she wrote under a number of pseudonyms, Edith Mary Pargeter (1913-1995) is perhaps best known as the mystery author Ellis Peters. Pargeter wrote the Brother Cadfael series featuring a medieval Benedictine monk. She won many writing awards during her lifetime and a number of her Brother Cadfael books were made into television movies.

Editorial Reviews

In Brother Cadfael's 20th chronicle, Peters deftly binds the medieval monk's new adventure with family ties, moving from issues intensely public to problems determinedly private. Olivier de Bretagne, who (unknown to himself) is Brother Cadfael's son, has been taken prisoner during England's dynastic war between two grandchildren of William the Conqueror. Cadfael is determined to find Olivier, although to do so he must leave the monastery without his abbot's ``leave or... blessing.'' The search begins badly when, at an unsuccessful peace conference, Yves Hugonin, Olivier's hot-headed brother-in-law, picks a fight with Brien de Soulis, a commander who may know where Olivier is held-but won't say. When Brien is found murdered, Yves is abducted by one who holds him responsible for the killing, and then Cadfael has two men to find. In the process, he delicately explores puzzles related to Brien's death and to shadowy deeds in the larger political scene. While Cadfael does his usual excellent sleuthing, Peters succeeds at an equally subtle game, demonstrating how personal devotion can turn to enmity-and how such enmity can be forestalled by justice and mercy. Mystery Guild selection. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Peters's last Brother Cadfael mystery, The Holy Thief (Mysterious Pr., 1993), sold nearly a third more than its predecessor, so Peters is clearly on a roll. In his 20th outing, Brother Cadfael decides to break his monastic vows in order to save his long-lost son.

Library Journal

Peters' twentieth tale in her popular Brother Cadfael series has the gentle monk leaving his cloister on a journey that will prove both dangerous and wrenching. In twelfth-century Britain, a rebellion has arisen, with factional fighting between the knights supporting Empress Maud and those swearing allegiance to her cousin Stephen. Philip FitzRobert, a traitor to the empress, has taken 30 hostages, among them a young man named Olivier de Bretagne, who is Cadfael's son from a chance encounter years earlier. Although Cadfael has lost track of the boy's mother, he's never forgotten his son, and once he finds out that Olivier has been spirited away and imprisoned, nothing--not even his vow of obedience to God and the abbot--can keep him from setting out to find the young man who has never known his true father. The quest becomes fraught with peril when Yves, Olivier's brother-in-law, is falsely accused of murder, and only Brother Cadfael can save him. Peters' graceful writing perfectly captures the spirit and ambience of early Britain. Intelligently written, the story is moving and suspenseful, with the intrepid and valiant Cadfael at his wise and gentle best.

Emily Melton