Brother Cadfael and his fellow Benedictines of the Abbey of Saint Peter
and Saint Paul are preparing for Christmas
in the year 1141 when their
abbot, Radulfus, answers a summons to meet with the papal legate in
London. When Radulfus returns, he brings back with him a young
priest to serve the people of Holy Cross Parish in Shrewsbury.
The priest is accompanied by a widow to serve as housekeeper and a
young man she introduces as her nephew who goes by the name Benet.
Radulfus soon realises that he has made a terrible error in judgment in
choosing Father Ailnoth to shepherd the souls of Holy Cross
Parish. His Latin is impeccable and his theology sound, but he is
completely lacking in mercy. His moral rectitude drives him to
assign severe penances for trivial offences. He strikes errant
scholars with his walking stick and demands perfection from everyone
around him. When Father Ailnoth is found dead on Christmas
morning, murder is immediately suspected simply because so many
welcomed his death.
Sheriff Hugh Berengar has another problem to solve. King Stephen,
who is currently in the ascendancy in England’s civil war, has set him
to find an agent of the Empress Maud who was stranded when the empress
was forced to retreat to France. Ninian Bachiler is known to be
in the area of Shrewsbury and, since Shrewsbury is one of Maud’s old
strongholds, is assumed to have allies in the area.
Brother Cadfael – ex-Crusader, monk, herbalist, and shrewd detective –
helps Hugh to sort out the mystery of Father Ailnoth’s death, at the
same time setting one or two errant souls back onto the path of
repentance. However, always the champion of underdogs and
romance, he is less than helpful in the case of Ninian Bachiler.
This is the twelfth of Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael chronicles.
It abounds in good-natured, engaging characters and takes a
light-hearted approach to the messiness of human relationships - unlike Father Ailnoth, the raven in the foregate.