Customer Reviews

The Raven in the Foregate: The Twelfth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)

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3 star:		(1)
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Just prior to Christmas,1141, a new priest is appointed to the parish church of Holy Cross...also known as the Abbey of St.Peter and St.Paul. Father Adam, the easy going, genial and forgiving priest who had cared for his flock for many years, has died and the charge of filling his shoes falls to the brothers of the Abbey. The Abbot has selected a well educated, former secretary to the Papal legate as a worthy candidate, not realising that an able administrator does not necessarily make a compassionate and understanding priest. Father Ailnoth immediately alienates his parishioners with his harsh, unforgiving rule, severely ruffling the feathers of servants and free men alike, so when his body is found, floating in the river, Sheriff Hugh Beringar finds a wall of silence surrounding the apparent murder. Suspicion falls on Cadfael's new garden helper, Benet who came to the town as a nephew to Father Ailnoth's housekeeper. As usual, Cadfael and Hugh solve the not so difficult mystery and, as usual, the setting for the story is what makes it so appealing. Despite the changes in the surroundings and circumstances of today, the people of nine centuries past, are just the same as the people of today, with their jealousies, faults and squabbles.

The prose of Ellis Peters is phenomenal in it's own way. This time out the mystery has clues and red herrings a plenty, with the background of the civil war still thrown in to keep us entertained. A much better addition to the canon then some of the other previous ones of late.

This is the first book that I have read of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was drawn into the world of medieval England that Peters brings to life. "The Raven in the Foregate" is a quick read, entertaining and mysterious to the fact that there is not much mystery to the case at hand.

As usual, Brother Cadfael is drawn into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the newly instituted priest of Holy Cross, Father Ailnoth. While he was alive, Ailnoth was quick to make enemies in the church and in the community; many are glad to see him dead, and many are content to hold their tongues as to the truth of what caused his death on Christmas Eve. Complicating matters are the search for a French renegade who was undercover at Holy Cross in the guise of the nephew of Father Ailnoth's housekeeper. Brother Cadfael must piece together the scant clues and abounding rumors to uncover the truth of Ailnoth's death.

"The Raven in the Foregate" is a well-written mystery, although at times too tidy and predictable. It was a true delight to enter into the world of Holy Cross and medieval England that Peters has crafted throughout her Cadfael mystery series. I look forward to reading the other books in the series.

The mystery is a bit trite and too neatly wrapped up at the end, but this remains a good read because of Peter's strong characters and setting and great metaphysical questioning.

THE RAVEN IN THE FOREGATE by the late Ellis Peters delivers a full-fledged mystery without a murder. This is rare in mystery fiction and it is a delight when it is done well. Ellis Peters had the prose and style to keep us reading until the last page.
1141 -- the civil war between Maud and Stephen is still taking its toll on the lives of their countrymen. Stephen was in power, then in prison, and now he's out again with full power. The Christmas season heralds glad tidings and change as the new year approaches, but Maud supports are on the run for their lives. Many are hiding in Shrewsbury looking for ways to escape Stephen's wrath into Wales or Brittney.
A great classic read.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS.

This Twelfth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael has all the elements we have come to expect in this series: a wanted man traveling under an assumed name; a beautiful young woman whose family has been destroyed by the continuing civil war; a body in the mill pond; and at least half a dozen people with motive and opportunity for murder. Once again it is Brother Cadfael's compassionate understanding of human nature that leads to explanation, resolution and, for some of the characters, new hope. Ellis Peters (Edith Parteger) administers a bit of gentle-never malicious-justice even to the insufferable Brother Jerome, in a delightful coincidence that ends the story.

"Pleasant" is a good way to describe the Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. These romanticised renderings of life in twelfth century England, however unreal, make the era seem pleasant enough that you almost want to live there. The countryside is lovely, there is usually a hint of romance in the air, and life moves at a measured, unrushed pace. No pavement, no pollution, no hustle and bustle. Seldom mentioned are the poverty, hunger, disease, and general stench (people rarely bathed). Life, especially in the cloister, is a bucolic idyll.

In "A Raven In The Foregate", Abbot Radulfus returns from a church council with a new priest for the Foregate. Father Adam having recently died, Radulfus brings back Father Ailnoth at the recommendation of Bishop Henry. Ailnoth, however, turns out to be a harsh and stiff-necked young priest and manages to alienate his flock before turning up dead on Christmas morning. There are plenty of suspects, not the least of whom is young Benet, nephew of Ailnoth's housekeeper.

With plenty of potential suspects, this would seem to be an intricate and challenging mystery, but ultimately the plot is not as involved as one might wish. The outcome is a happy one, if a bit too neat and satisfactory for everyone involved, but not too hard to see coming.

Like most of the books in this series, "A Raven In The Foregate" is only an average mystery. What makes this and the other Cadfael tales enjoyable is the pleasant world Peters creates and the idyllic, unhurried way in which she tells the tale. These are nice books to read and, on the strength of that I recommend them, especially to those who like a bit of history and romance along with their whodunits.

RAVEN makes play with the dual role of the abbey church as the parish church of Holy Cross, which puts the brothers in the odd position of appointing a new parish priest when an incumbent passes on. The void left by the passing of Father Adam isn't adequately filled by the title character, unfortunately, a scholar ill-suited to being a pastor. This book explores the lives of the ordinary folk of Holy Cross, and just how much damage an ill-chosen shepherd can inflict on the flock.

I recommend the audio edition narrated by Stephen Thorne. The Jacobi TV adaptation isn't the same story.

This December of 1141, papal legate Henry of Blois must for the second time in a year call a legatine council - a mirror of that in THE PILGRIM OF HATE, now that King Stephen is free and the empress has been driven from Westminster. Once again Henry has turned his coat according to the fortunes of war - small wonder that Bishop Henry seeks to reinforce his own position with his abbots.

Abbot Radulfus returns from the council with a priest from Henry's staff to fill the vacancy of Holy Cross. In his wake, Father Ailnoth brings a housekeeper and her nephew, Benet, who is assigned to Cadfael as a lay helper, Ailnoth having implied that Benet might have a vocation.

Neither Benet nor Ailnoth turns out to be what was hoped for.

Benet not only has no intention of taking vows, but is inexperienced at the kind of chores Cadfael can use him for. However, he's a hard worker and has many virtues that appeal to Cadfael if not Prior Robert. Benet is, in fact, one of the many strayed young hawks of the empress' party to cross Cadfael's path over the years - a bit of a problem, deep in the heart of King Stephen's territory.

Father Ailnoth, on the other hand, seems fine in theory - scholarly, if austere - but serious issues arise in his wake in practice. Ailnoth's hellfire sermons and violent temper with boisterous children distance parishioners from the church. (Under Father Adam's tolerant regime, by contrast, the Foregate children used to play ball outside the priest's house.) Ailnoth measures all things by the bare razor of justice, without mercy or generosity - fine for a bishop's clerk, but not a parish priest, and hard to live with even in an ordinary land-owning neighbour. He doesn't even have a knack for picking his battles, having (for example) outraged the Foregate baker with accusations of giving short weight, rather than knowing enough to mention Jordan's adultery.

Jordan leads a delegation of parishioners to Abbot Radulfus. Even one of Ailnoth's good points - that he does his job conscientiously - has a dark side: Ailnoth wouldn't interrupt his devotions even to perform an emergency baptism. By the time Ailnoth arrived, Centwin's baby son was dead - and Ailnoth then refused burial in consecrated ground. Then there's the case of Eluned, a beautiful girl who couldn't say no to men. Where old Father Adam was merciful, Ailnoth said Eiluned was *not* genuinely penitent. After Ailnoth publicly turned her out of the church, Eluned was found in the mill-pond; fortunately the next parish treated it as an accident. (Eiluned's grieving mother later says that Eiluned had also defied Ailnoth, refusing to betray the father of her newborn daughter.)

As Radulfus says privately, getting nowhere with Ailnoth, "A man with every virtue, except humility and human kindness. That is what I have brought upon the Foregate...and now what are we to do about him?" The first sign of an answer is Ailnoth's non-appearance at mass on Christmas morning. Cadfael last saw Ailnoth storming along a frost-slick street, and sure enough, searchers find Ailnoth's body trapped under the ice in the mill-pond. Cynric, the old and silent verger, must bury another parish priest.

Benet soon finds himself hunted by Hugh's sergeant's for murder. Having tried to contact Ralph Giffard, one of the empress' former supporters in the district, Benet had found someone who'd lost too much at the battle of Shrewsbury to remain on the empress' side. Giffard had told Ailnoth of Benet's approach, and Father Ailnoth would hardly take kindly to being embarrassed by a connection with the empress after Bishop Henry's experiences, any more than Giffard did. But Benet, although an easy answer, isn't the only answer.

(Hugh Beringar, who could have found 'Benet' if he wanted to, is fortunately keeping Christmas with King Stephen, since Stephen needs to decide whether to confirm Hugh as sheriff - he's only been acting sheriff since DEAD MAN'S RANSOM. Once Hugh returns, the investigation takes another turn, as the fate of the empress' liegemen in Shropshire has become a concern of the king's for his own reasons.)

Cadfael's epitaph for Ailnoth is that 'no blinking it, the man generated grudges wherever he stepped. He may well have made the most perfect of clerks, where he had to deal only with documents, charters and accounts, but he had no notion how to coax and counsel and comfort common human sinners. And what else is a parish priest for?' Radulfus, taking responsibility for installing Ailnoth, pronounces the eulogy - well worth reading. Cadfael's quest for truth here is not for the sake of justice to the dead, but for the living - including Radulfus, who feels a double guilt over inflicting Ailnoth on the Foregate and on having brought him to his death, putting him in a job to which he was never suited.