Brother Cadfael is confounded when his own potion is used to kill his former love's new husband Gervase Bonel is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he suddenly takes ill. Luckily, the abbey boasts the services of the clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist.[...]
Set in the Year of Our Lord 1120, three tales of intrigue and treachery, featuring the chain of events that led one-time crusader Cadfael into the Benedictine Order.[...]
In the Summer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes Brother Cadfael from the quiet world of his garden to the bloody battlefield.[...]
In July of 1139, a quarrel between the local burghers and the monks of the Benedictine monastery over Shrewsbury's annual Fair leaves a merchant dead.[...]
In the Autumn of 1142, a holy man living as a hermit is found dead. His murder coincides with the arrival at the Abbey of Shrewsbury of the new Lord of Eaton. Brother Cadfael suspects a connection, but the new lord is only ten years old - who can have been acting in his interests?[...]
In the April of 1144, Brother Cadfael is sent to Wales on Church business, but becomes entangled in the affairs of a young woman desperate to escape an arranged marriage.[...]
November, 1145. The bitter rift between King Stephen and Empress Maud at last has a chance of reconciliation. Brother Cadfael is faced with a shocking revelation: one of the hostages is his illegitimate son.[...]
When Judith Perle's husband dies, the young widow bestows one of her properties a house in the Monk's Foregate on the Abbey of Shrewsbury. The only rent is a single white rose, to be delivered annually upon the day of the translation of St Winifred. But as a beautiful woman with a substantial dowry,[...]