A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES

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.

When a visitor to the abbey dies, Brother Cadfael faces a personal drama. For not only was the man poisoned by monk's hood oil, made in Cadfael's own laboratory, the dead man's widow is also the woman to whom Cadfael was betrothed before he took his vows.

The great annual Fair of Saint Peter at Shrewsbury, a high point in the citys calendar, attracts merchants from far and wide to do business. But when an unseemly quarrel breaks out between the local burghers and the monks from the Benedictine monastery as to who shall benefit from the levies the fair provides, a riot ensues. Afterwards a merchant is found dead, and Brother Cadfael is summoned from his peaceful herb garden to test his detective skills once more.

A savage murder interrupts an ill-fated marriage set to take place at Brother Cadfael's abbey, leaving the monk with a terrible mystery to solve. The key to the killing is hidden among the inhabitants of the Saint Giles leper colony, and Brother Cadfael must ferret out a sickness not of the body, but of a twisted mind.

THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE

In the winter of 1139, raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester, among them an orphaned boy and his beautiful 18-year-old sister. Traveling with a young nun, they set out for Shrewsbury, but disappear somewhere in the wild countryside. Now, Brother Cadfael embarks on a dangerous quest to find them.

In the gentle spring of 1140, the midnight matins at the abbey suddenly reverberate with an unholy sound a hunt in full cry. Pursued by a drunken mob, the quarry is running for its life. When the frantic creature bursts into the nave to claim sanctuary, Brother Cadfael finds himself fighting off armed townsmen to save a terrified young man.

In September of the year of Our Lord 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But 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 so racked by dreams at night that his howls earn him the nickname the Devil's Novice. Shunned and feared, he is soon linked to the missing priest's fate. Only Brother Cadfael believes in Meriet's innocence, and only he can uncover the truth before a boy's pure passion, not evil intent, leads a novice to the noose.

Civil war continues to rage and in the battle of Lincoln the sheriff of Shropshire is captured and the king is taken prisoner by the enemies. Before an exchange of prisoners takes place, in which the sheriff is to be recovered, one of the captives is murdered - Cadfael investigates.

In the year of our Lord 1141, civil war over England's throne leaves a legacy of violence - and the murder of a knight dear to Brother Cadfael. And with Gentle bud-stewn May, a flood of pilgrims comes to the celebration of Saint Winifred at the at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, carrying with it many strange souls...and perhaps the knight's killer. Brother Cadfael's shrewd eye sees all: the prosperous merchant who rings false, an angelic lame boy, his beautiful dowerless sister, and two wealthy penitents. In the name of justice Cadfael decides to uncover the strange and twisted tale that accompanies these travelers. Instead he unearths a quest for vengeance, witnesses a miracle, and finds himself on a razor's edge between death or the absolution of love.

In the year of our Lord 1142, August comes in golden as a lion, and two monks ride into the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul bringing with them disturbing news of war - and a mystery. The strangers tell how the strife between the Empress Maud and King Stephen has destroyed the town of Winchester and their priory. Now Brother Humilis, who is handsome, gaunt, and very ill, and Brother Fidelis, youthful, comely - and totally mute - must seek refuge at Shrewsbury. And from the moment he meets them, Brother Cadfael senses something deeper than their common vows binds these two good brothers. What the link is he can only guess...what it will lead to is beyond his imagining. But as Brother Humilis's health fails - and nothing can stop death's lengthening shade - Brother Cadfael faces a poignant test of his discretion and his beliefs as he unravels a secret so great it can destroy a life, a future, and a holy order...

In a mild December in the year of our Lord 1141, a new priest comes to the parishioners of the Foregate outside the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Father Ailnoth brings with him a housekeeper and her nephew - and a disposition that invites murder... Brother Cadfael quickly sees that Father Ailnoth is a harsh man who, striding along in his black cassock, looks like a doomsaying raven. The housekeeper's nephew, Benet, is quite different - a smiling lad, a hard worker in Cadfael's herb garden, but, as Brother Cadfael soon discovers, an impostor. And when Ailnoth is found drowned, suspicion falls on Benet, though many in the Foregate had cause to want this priest dead. Now Brother Cadfael is gathering clues along with his medicinals to treat a case of unholy passions, tragic politics, and perhaps divine intervention...

A late spring in 1142 brings dismay to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, for there may be no roses by June 22nd. On that day the young widow Perle must receive one white rose as rent for the house she has given to benefit the abbey or the contract is void. When nature finally complies, a pious monk is sent to pay the rent - and is found murdered beside the hacked rose-bush. The abbey's wise herbalist, Brother Cadfael, follows the trail of bloodied petals. He knows the lovely widow's dowry is far greater with her house included, and she will likely wed again. But before Cadfael can ponder if a greedy suitor has done this dreadful deed, another crime is committed. Now the good monk must thread his way through a tangle more tortuous than the widow's thorny bushes - or there will be more tears...

After the death of Lord Ludel, his son Richard, a student at the Benedictine Abbey, becomes the new lord of Eaton. Meanwhile, a hermit has taken up residence in Eyton Forest, a holy man's arrival causes confusion among the Monks, Richard disappears, and a corpse is found in the forest. It is time for Brother Cadfael to leave his peaceful herb garden and track down a ruthless murderer.

December 1142 brings snow, which damages the guest hall of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The brothers must repair its roof, but the icy conditions cause Brother Haluin to slip, sustaining such grave injuirie that he makes a deathbed confession to Brother Cadfael.

This work comprises three tales of intrigue and treachery, featuring the monastic sleuth. The story of Cadfael's entry into the monastery at Shrewsbury has been known hitherto only to a few readers; now the reader can discover the chain of events that led him into the Benedictine Order.

This is the 16th chronicle of Brother Cadfael in which William of Lythwood returns from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, his soul at eternal peace, brought by his servant, Elave, a young man of great strength and wisdom.

In October of 1142, a local landlord gives the Potter's Field to the local clergy. The monks begin to plow it, and the blades turn up the long tresses of a young woman, dead over a year. Then the arrival of a novice who fled from an abbey ravaged by civil war in East Anglia complicates life even further for Brother Cadfael.

Cadfael accompanies the Bishop of Lichfield's representative as interpreter on a journey to the newly-revived Welsh diocese of St Asaph. The journey is more eventful than expected. The Danish fleet is sighted approaching the Menai Strait, a girl disappears and a corpse is discovered.

At the height of the hot summer of 1144, a lucky hit by one of King Stephen's archers rids the Fen country of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, who has amassed his castles and gold by robbing rich and poor alike. Thus, the Benedictine abbey at Ramsey, long used as a den for Geoffrey's raggle-taggle marauders, is returned in a thoroughly ruined state to the good brothers of that order. The news comes to Brother Cadfael or the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury in the person of the dour, raw-boned Brother Herluin who is soliciting funds and aid to restore Ramsey Abbey to its former splendor. Of much more interest to Cadfael is Herluin's companion, Brother Tutilo, a slightly built lad with a guileless face surrounded by a profusion of brown curls. But Brother Cadfael, long a shrewd judge of character, notes on that brow an intelligence that bespeaks more of mischief than innocence, and he muses that this Brother Tutilo bears watching. The arrival of a French troubadour, his servant, and a girl with the voice of an angel gives Cadfael a feeling in his wise bones that something is about to happen. It does. The late autumn rains bring flood waters right to the altar where the abbey's most precious possession reposes - the bones of Saint Winifred. Only Brother Cadfael knows that moving the holy relic can expose a long hidden secret. He never envisions that the results of disinterment will be the theft of the cherished bones...and murder. Suspicion quickly falls on a guilty-looking Brother Tutilo. But did he do it?

By rumor and official dispatch, news had come to Shrewsbury of a terrible betrayal. Philip FitzRobert, one of the Empress Maud's greatest champions, had turned coat, imprisoning thirty knights and squires who held true to the empress. The lucky ones had kin who could afford the dear price for their freedom; the others had to rot in captivity. Among the missing and unclaimed was Olivier de Bretagne, an exceptional knight whose mother had been a woman of the East - and whose sire, unknown to Olivier himself, was Brother Cadfael. It had happened during the Crusades, years before Cadfael had become a monk. Indeed, Cadfael did not know he had a son until by chance he met Olivier as a young man. But the bond is strong, and it is the one claim that can make Cadfael break his vows and drive him from his cloister, risking the religious way of life he so loves. A father first and a brother second, the monk travels to Coventry, where a great conference holds faint hope of a settled peace and clues to his son's whereabouts. Instead, he finds Olivier's hotheaded young brother-in-law Yves, who is also searching for the missing knight. And he comes, too, upon the brutal murder of a renegade lord who had thrown his support to Philip FitzRobert. Soon Cadfael has a double quest...to save Yves from deadly danger and to find the dungeon where his secret son, and final penance, are waiting.