Ellis Peters

The year is 1142, and England is in the grip of civil war. Within the cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, there begins a chain of events no less momentous than the upheavals of the outside world. It starts with the sad demise of Richard Ludel, Lord of Eyton, whose ten-year-old son and heir, also named Richard, is a pupil at the abbey. The boy refuses to surrender his newly inherited powers to Dionysia, his furious, formidable...

When an obnoxious Nazi landworker is murdered in the small village of Comerford, Sergeant George Felse faces one of the toughest investigations of his career It is 1952, and the shadow of World War II still lies over the green fields of the small village of Comerford on the Welsh borders. When ex-prisoner of war Helmut Schauffler is murdered, local policeman Sergeant George Felse has his work cut out: Schauffler was Nazi to the core and the majority...

In the early twelfth century, civil war rages between the English and the Welsh. In the battle of Lincoln, the Welsh capture the sheriff of Shropshire and barter him for a young Welsh lord, who had been captured during a misguided assault on a convent. But before the exchange can be completed, one of the prisoners mysteriously dies. Brother Cadfael suspects foul play—his theory hinging on a single thread that binds together the destinies of an unusual...

In summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England. The armies of King Stephen and Empress Maudhave temporarily exhausted each other. Brother Cadfael, herbalist-sleuth of Shrewsbury's Benedictine Abbey, agrees to accompany wise young Brother Mark on Church business in Wales. But the brothers soon find themselves caught up in yet another feud. A Welsh prince has banished his brother, accusing him of the treacherous murder of an ally, and the...

Detective Inspector George Felse investigates a death and a disappearance both linked to mystery whose roots go back to ancient Roman times When archaeologist Alan Morris disappears in Turkey, his great-niece, Charlotte, regrets never having gotten to know him better. In an attempt to better understand him, Charlotte begins reading the books he wrote. One of them leads her to visit the Roman site of Aurae Phiala on the Welsh border-the last place...

When an old grave reveals two bodies, neither of which belong to the man named on the tombstone, Detective Inspector George Felse is once again called upon to investigate While on a seaside vacation in Cornwall with his son, Dominic, Detective Inspector George Felse can't help but investigate a dark mystery of smuggling, missing bodies, and murder. Jan Treverra was a legendary Cornish poet and smuggler who died two centuries ago. But when local scholar...

Detective Inspector George Felse is called upon to investigate the disappearance of two members of a musical gathering Singers and musicians are gathered for a weekend course in folk music at the impressive neo-Gothic country mansion Follymead. Most come only to sing or to listen, but one or two have nonmusical scores to settle. When brilliantly talented Liri Palmer sings "Black, black, black is the colour of my true-love's heart," she clearly has...

When the late-Gothic, oak door is returned to its rightful place at Mottisham village church, there is a body to go with it A news photographer is found dead at the threshold of the church of Saint Eata, his hand extended to the door's great cast-iron knocker. Surely it is not a coincidence when a second victim is discovered in eerily similar circumstances? Legend holds that sinners who seize the knocker have their hands burned by the cold iron, but...

On an expedition to acquire a saint's remains, Brother Cadfael instead finds intrigue and murder It is 1137, and the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey wishes to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for the glory of his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to the saint's final resting place in Wales, where he finds the villagers divided over the Benedictines' quest.   When the leading opponent to moving the grave is...

Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in September of the year of our Lord 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive nineteen-year-old novice. Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and Meriet, the son he coldly delivers to the abbey to begin a religious vocation. Meriet, meek by day, is...