A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "outside the monastic enclave, but here, in the enclosed garden within the walls, close to the abbot's fishponds and the brook that worked the abbey..." (more)
Key Phrases: Prior Robert, Brother Cadfael, Brother John (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A pleasing, and unusual mixture of suspense and historical fiction.' Evening Standard 'Soothing, but no shortage of mayhem.' The Observer 'A cult figure of crime fiction.' Financial Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Brother Cadfael travels to the remote Welsh mountain village of Gwytherin in order to acquire the relics of St. Winifred and finds himself in the middle of a bizarre mystery when the leading opponent to moving the bones is murdered. Reprint.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First American Edition edition (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446400157
• ISBN-13: 978-0446400152
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,522 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Brother Cadfael Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first Chronicle of a truly rare Benedictine's adventures, April 7, 2002

By	Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In a number of visions, a young monk of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at Shrewsbury believes he has encounters with St. Winifred, in her earthly life a girl from a remote Welsh village decapitated by an evil-spirited nobleman. The saint, Brother Columbanus claims, tells him she is unhappy with the lack of care and dedication her grave receives from the local village folk, and wishes to be relocated nowhere else but to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. After a heated discussion over the appropriateness and dangers of such an excursion, the monks decide to mount an expedition to Wales to save the maiden saint's bones.

Thus begins the first of what would ultimately come to be twenty Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, former crusader turned herbalist monk living in the 12th century world of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Predictably, the monks are anything but welcome in Wales - not only are they emissaries from an English abbey, which in itself would be bad enough already; they also seek to take what village folk consider their greatest treasure and, more importantly, the village's holy protectress. When wealthy squire Lord Rhysart, who has led the village in opposing the monks' mission, is found murdered, the monks quickly find themselves implicated. Cadfael, of Welsh descendance himself but now part of a mission from an English abbey, finds himself between all lines of allegiance in trying to find Rhysart's murderer; but find the murderer he must, to ensure the success of his brothers' mission and their safe return home. And it will take all his world-wisdom and all his understanding of the divine to unravel the mystery.

Like the nineteen Chronicles that would follow it, "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is rich in plot lines and subplots and demands the full attention of any reader intent on solving the mystery together with Brother Cadfael. Set in the time of the civil war between Empress Maud and King Stephen for the throne of England, Ellis Peters's acclaimed series vividly and with great care for detail portrays medieval monastery life, as well as a society caught in the middle of a civil war, with shifting allegiances, intrigue, favoritism and again and again, the innocent victims caught between the front lines. More than once, the story lines also return to the animosities between Welsh and English that are at the center of this first Chronicle. In Brother Cadfael, Ms. Peters (a/k/a Edith Pargeter) created one of the most engaging detectives in literary history. His experiences as a crusader have left him with a keen sense of reality, a certain element of world-weariness and a deep sense of morality, not only understanding the letter of the law (both divine and worldly) but more importantly, the deeper implications of the same, thus enabling Cadfael to apply the church's teachings in a truly Solomonic manner, always coming to solutions which are as just as they are compassionate and pragmatic.

To the novice who has just recently discovered the series, it probably makes sense to read the Chronicles in order, because they contain a number of cross-references and the cast of recurring characters is successively enlarged - Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar for example, Cadfael's trusted worldly sidekick, is not introduced until the second Chronicle, "One Corpse Too Many." But even for those who are coming to "A Morbid Taste for Bones" only after already having read one or more of the other Chronicles there is plenty to enjoy, and it is sure to be fun to discover how it all began.

Also recommended:
A Rare Benedictine
One Corpse Too Many: The Second Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Monk's Hood: The Third Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Leper of Saint Giles (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Virgin in the Ice (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
Brother Cadfael's Penance (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Cadfael Collection
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start to an epic pilgramage, August 18, 2000

By	Steve Benner "Stonegnome" (Lancaster, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ellis Peter's first Cadfael murder mystery takes as its setting the events surrounding the translation of the holy relics of Saint Winifred from the remote Welsh village of Gwytherin to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury in 1138. Taking this real event as her starting point, Peters weaves an enchanting if rather overly romanticised tale of mediaeval rural and monastic life. Naturally, the practical common sense and basic human decency of her very worldy central character, Brother Cadfael, win out in the end. Here, he neatly side-steps all of many power-struggles - secular, political and ecclesiastical - going on around him, to provide everyone with their heart's desire and solve the inevitable murder mystery into the bargain! Ellis Peters' writing style is so wonderfully erudite that one can always forgive her the occasional lapse into stereotypical characterisation or silliness of plot which tend to pepper her novels. "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is no exception in this regard, and whilst the story's central murder mystery is not at all hard for the reader to solve, the telling of it is so captivating that the book is hard to put down until it's finished!

Incidentally, I would recommend reading this book before any others in the series, because otherwise you will know which of the main suspects can be eliminated immediately! Of course, if you've seen the TV dramatisation, you'll know the main outcome already, but even then, the book is sufficiently different to still make it well worth reading. Recommended.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey Through a Decade, December 4, 2000

By A Customer

A Morbid Taste For Bones is the start of a 20-book series about Brother Cadfael. The Cadfael books are absorbing reads, as others here have stated. I would like to add that you will enjoy the series so much more if you read the books in order. They chronicle the decade of civil war in England, between the factions of King Stephen and the Empress Maud. The books always have the ongoing story of this, in a little history lesson, usually at the beginning of the book. It can be complicated history for those coming to it, as I did, uninformed. But we are taken through the war years with these stories, and in chronological order, they tell the story of the civil war, along with the mystery of each book.

Also, the characters and their relationships develop along the way. Hugh Beringer comes into the picture early in the series and eventually becomes deputy to the sheriff, who is loyal to King Stephen. Hugh and Brother Cadfael begin their relationship with suspicion, but they come to respect each other for the intelligence and integrity each has. Hugh meets and marries Aileen, has a baby boy, and, around the ninth book, becomes the sheriff of Shrewsbury. By this time Cadfael and Hugh are fast friends.

Cadfael has his own secrets, little episodes of his life in the Crusades, that catch up with him during the series...but not right away. Later in the series, Cadfael confides in his dear friend Hugh, also relating the secret of this first book, Morbid Taste For Bones, which Hugh had not been privy to before.

I just loved this series, and I tend to think of it as one *really big* book! So do read all 20, and read them in order. They are all available, and all except one (The Hermit of Eyton Forest, no. 14) tell which number it is in the order, right on the front cover. Brother Cadfael is one of the most endearing characters ever created. Lose yourself with him in 12th century England when you need a break from the 20th or 21st century.