An Excellent Mystery

 

By Ellis Peters

A Brother Cadfael Mystery

It 1141 and in Britain, King Stephen and Empress Maud are still at war. War which lead to the burning of the city of Winchester and refugees from the fire, two Benedictine monks, arrive at Shrewsbury and are accepted into the abbey. Brother Fidelis is a former soldier who retired from military service after being gravely wounded. His companion is young Brother Fidelis, who is Humilis' caretaker and attendant, as Fidelis never fully recovered from his injuries and is in declining health. 

Before Humilis became a monk, he was engaged to be married to a little girl named Julian. He went off to war, planning to return in about ten years when the girl would be grown. But returning maimed and dying was not part of the plan and he releases Julian from their promise to marry. He joins the brothers and Julian joins a convent.

Three years have passed and Humilis wants to find Julian to assure himself that she went on to have a good life without him. But upon investigation, it is discovered that Julian never reached the convent. What happened to her and to the treasure she took with her as a gift to the convent is not known. Amazingly, her family was not aware that she never arrived at her destination. Once they find this out, though, they are quite anxious to discover her fate! The fear is that she was murdered for the small treasure she took with her.

Humilis and a former associate of his, Nicholas, both want to find out what happened to her. Humilis, because he let her down by ending their connection. And Nicholas, because he was the one who met Julian three years ago to let her know that Humilis was backing out of their marriage. And Nicholas was quite smitten with the young woman and would like to get to know her better. The news that she is missing and her fate unknown makes him determined to figure out what happened. 

Meanwhile, back at the abbey, Humilis takes a tumble and his old wound breaks open. Due to Brother Edmund's and Brother Cadfael's and Fidelis' care, he makes a partial recovery but clearly his already fragile health is failing. It would be a comfort to the dying man to understand what happened to his missing former bride, Julian. Which makes the hunt for Julian even more urgent. But things are not looking good when a distinctive ring of hers turns up in the possession of a silversmith who bought it from a man who claimed it belonged to a woman he knew who had died. 

This was an okay story. It is not hard to figure out what is going on with Fidelis. So that was no surprise. What I never really understood was why Julian did what she did. I wish the author had gone into that a little more deeply because it really did not make any sense to me at all. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.