Customer Reviews

Dead Man's Ransom: Library Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ellis Peters, the pseudonym for Edith Pargeter, has carved a special niche with the Brother Cadfael mysteries. She is able to bring to life twelfth-century England, mixing monastic daily life with the very real threat of murder and mayhem, which there seems to be a lot of in the town of Shrewsbury. "Dead Man's Ransom" is the ninth chronicle of Cadfael's sojourns into sleuthing and it offers readers a unique mystery.

With border clashes an ongoing problem between the English and Welsh, a young Welsh prisoner is brought to Shrewsbury. Hugh Beringar is now in charge of the town since his sheriff has been captured by the Welsh. He hopes to exchange his prisoner for his sheriff, which he manages to do, but not before complications arise. For the sheriff's daughter falls in love with the prisoner, and they know that her father's return will tear them apart. Shortly after the sheriff returns, he is found murdered in the abbey where he had been recovering from his wounds. The likeliest suspect is the young prisoner who had everything to gain if the sheriff was out of his way, and now he must try to clear his name on foreign soil.

"Dead Man's Ransom" is a quick-paced read and an interesting mystery that may keep readers guessing. At times Peters' prose is weighed down with too much effort at capturing twelfth-century English turns of phrases, but Brother Cadfael is a unique detective and one that keeps readers interested.

In the tenth installment of the ever-so-popular Brother Cadfael series, author Ellis Peters proves a winner once again with "Dead Man's Ransom."

Set in the year 1141, civil war runs amok in Britain between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, and it appears that the end of the twelve year old struggle is in sight. The war has taken its toll in many areas, as civil wars do, and the people are quite weary of it all. Maud's forces, however, now have captured the king himself. The sheriff of Shropshire, too, has been taken captive. This means, in those days, that in all likelihood an exchange of prisoners will take place.

Alas, one of the captives is now dead and it is our Brother Cadfael who senses that, indeed, it is murder, and, just as naturally as Peters would have it, it is he who is given the responsibility to solve the case and to try to bring about the release of the king.

Brother Cadfael is the former crusader now a Benedictine monk, who specializes in herbal medicines, solving murders, and compassion. Peters (Edith Pargeter) has developed her Cadfael through this series of medieval whodunits into a man of the cloth easily admired and respected. He is a man of firm, and devout, principles; a man who seems to carry the weight of the shire on his own Welch-born shoulders!

Peters has made grand the area of Shropshire, and especially the town of Shrewsbury there on the Welch borders. She has also created an exciting family of literary characters to complement Cadfael: Hugh Beringar (deputy sheriff of the shire and Cadfael's closest friend) and his wife Aline, Abbot Radulfus (the venerable patriarch of the abbey, and other members of the abbey. It is not essential that this series be read from the start (with "A Morbid Taste for Bones"), as this book could easily be read first and it would still hold up as a book on its own; however, readers generally will want to read them in order, as the presentation of character, of historical events, of character-interaction does show development in the series' genealogy. Peters died a few years ago and apparently there are no more Cadfael episodes aside from the twenty or so published, but each of the books extant bring the reader a treasure of reading adventures.

Billyjhobbs@tyler.net

I am an avid fan of the Cadfael series and I enjoyed this book very much. The ending is terrific, though some people may not agree with me. Am deducting one star because of the character of Millicent Prescote. She is extremely disloyal and changeable. I truly wondered at the end if her marriage will be a happy one.

Ellis Peters is in a class by herself. Before her death at the age of 82 in 1995, she wrote a series of 20 mysteries set in England and Wales during the 12th Century. (She also wrote many other books under her real name, Edith Pargeter.) In the Cadfael mysteries, her "detective" is a former Crusader who has decided to spend his last years as a monk in a monastery in Shrewsbury. I have found the Brother Cadfael in the books to be far more interesting than the Brother Cadfael of the television series. Many of the books in the Cadfael series are as much (or more) historical romances as they are mysteries. Don't start any book in this series unless you enjoy a strong dose of romance and medieval English history mixed with mystery. The Cadfael series (like most good series) is more enjoyable if the books are read in sequence. Dead Man's Ransom is the ninth book in the series.

In Dead Man's Ransom, Brother Cadfael is called upon to solve the murder of the Sheriff of Shropshire, Gilbert Prescote. Suspicion falls on a Welsh captive and on others who have a grudge against the stern sheriff. Cadfael's investigation is hampered by Welsh raids along the border and by continued strife within England.

During the course of the ongoing civil war between the followers of King Stephen of England and his rival to the throne, Empress Maud, Sheriff Gilbert Prescote of Shrewsbury, is wounded and taken prisoner by the Welsh. An exchange of prisoners is agreed upon, with Elis, a young member of the Welsh nobility, at present in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar, to be exchanged for Prescote. The wounded Sheriff is returned to his home in a litter and placed in the infirmary at the Abbey of St.Peter and St.Paul, in the care of Brother Cadfael. Less than a day later, Prescote is smothered in his sleep, leaving the finger of suspicion pointing at Elis, who was seen entering the sick man's room. Elis had fallen madly in love with Melicent, daughter of Sheriff Prescote and intended to ask for permission to marry her, but is shattered when she declares him a murderer and wants nothing more to do with him. Among the Welsh soldiers who returned the Sheriff to Shrewsbury is Eliud, cousin and foster brother to Elis, and who is ordered by Owain Gwynned, a prince of Wales, to remain in Shrewsbury until the murderer is found and brought to justice. Marauding bands of outlaws, taking full advantage of the state of civil unrest which exists because of the war, burn and plunder neighbouring farms and threaten even a local convent, so Beringar joins forces with their previous enemy, the Welsh, to restore order to the area. The rather convoluted love stories between the two Welsh noblemen and their chosen ladies becomes so threatened by war, murder and danger from the law that happy endings seem impossible and would have been, without the clever assistance of Cadfael who finds the murderer from the most minute clues and once again ensures a happy ending.

Ellis Peters has a wonderful grasp of customs, geography and human nature. In this retelling of the story of Romeo and Juliet in 13 century England and Wales border wars, the foster brothers are betrothed to women who are not their loves. How this is resolved with the help of a Benedictine monk so that each ends up with the right woman.

I listen to a lot of "books on tape." Ellis Peters writes interesting mysteries. They are written for adults, but there isn't anything inappropriate for teens. The voice on this particular recording is nice and fits with my imagination of the story.

DEAD MAN'S RANSOM is one of the most complex and convoluted of the Father Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. The way to marriage can be through murder.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS.

I'm reading the Cadfael chronicles in order. Our county library did not have this one, so I bought it. Having finished it yesterday, I'll now donate it to the library. The BBC productions of Cadfael are good, but the books contain much more detail. Each one is delightful.

I really enjoyed the Cadfael TV series and was sorry when I got to the last installment. Then, I found out that not all the novels had been used. There are 7 (really 8 as one was not followed all that well) left over - not counting the related book of three short stories. The novel here, Dead Man's Ransom, is the first of the novels not used for TV which is the ninth in the overall series of the Cadfael chronicles/novels.

I enjoyed the book, but it seemed to start off a little slow and some of the "expressions" used were a little hard for me to understand - maybe you have to be British. In any case, things do pick up and there are numerous plot twists/surprises along the way to keep things interesting. The author managed to do a lot in only a short number of pages - 190 in the edition I read.

I did manage to figure out who the killer was before it was "announced", but maybe it was pretty easy by that point as there were a lot of clues by then. There is at least one other crime as well which was resolved in a somewhat "unexpected" way. Some may think the ending a bit of a cop out, but at least it is a happy one.

I look forward to the other 6 or 7 novels remaining for me.