One Corpse Too Many (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael)

There is a civil war in England, as two claimants to the English throne fight it out in Shrewsbury. After an assault on the castle, the attacker, King Stephen, overthrows the supporters of Empress Maud. After the victory, King Stephen orders the surviving defenders to be executed. However, Brother Cadfael discovers an extra body among the dead. He tries his best to discover the identity of the victim and the murderer.To add to his troubles, he finds himself the caretaker of one of the daughters of a supporter of Empress Maud. The young girl lives in the monastary disguised as a young novice. Also he finds an injured supporter of Empress Maud who is charged with delivering the gold from the castle treasury. What is Cadfael to do? To make matters worse, he is being watched by a clever young nobleman, Hugh Beringar, who seems to match Cadfael's every move. Can Cadfael outwit him? Read and see.

This is one story which I had seen on PBS, which inspired me to read the original. What a treasure lay waiting in my bookcase!I found that all Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books are "Excellent Mysteries", even if I occasionally question her private brand of clerical or secular justice. But the literary gems of extreme value are those five novels which enhance our understanding of the protagonist's character. An additional bonus to the delectable mysteries themselves with their beautifully landscaped setting of England or Wales is our introduction to medieval customs and monastic ritual. I promise to be careful not to give anything away which might diminish the reader's enjoyment of future novels in the series (20, plus a prequel book of 3 short tales). My favorites are #1, where we realize the importance of Cafael's devotion to his Saint Winifrid, also Welsh. Next comes #2 because we have the wonderful relationship with Hugh Beringar, his friend and fellow sleuth--no matter which of the warring cousins they seem to serve: King Stephen or Empress Maud. My last 3 favorites are those novels which reveal Cadfael's gradual relationship with Olivier--no hints or spoilers. Thus the unlikely hero who has retired from the world to pursue a life of inner peace within the cloister becomes increasingly more human; he earns our sympathy, respect and love. Forget the clever plot on this one--for it is the unique and fascinating countredance of personalities that makes this novel precious. Each side in the battle for the kingdom is distrustful, trying to outmaneuver the other. Readers must decide for themselves who gains the most, who loses the most and who has the last laugh. Brother Cadfael certainly enjoys great freedom of movement--missing many masses and daily offices in purusit of justice--thanks to the old Abbot's pious nature and shunning of secular matters. Ellis Peters offers us much more than mystery artfully blended with medieval history; she presents great insight into the human heart and mind. Savor each novel and Brother Cadfeal will surely become your favorite herbalist-detective.

"One Corpse Too Many" appeared a couple of years after the earlier, `pilot' book in the Brother Cadfael series. During the intervening period, Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) had fleshed out her picture of mediaeval Shrewsbury somewhat - and also clearly formulated a plan for developing her earlier novel into a longer series of stories. This second book skilfully sets the scene and introduces characters for later volumes, so for maximum enjoyment of both this and later volumes, you should read this early in the sequence (indeed, the TV dramatisations of the books features this as the first episode).The action of this book is set in 1138, during the siege of the castle of Shrewsbury - held by parties loyal to the Empress Maud - by King Stephen, anxious to defend and uphold his claim to the throne of England. As in the previous book, Brother Cadfael's interest lies more in seeing to a successful resolution the personal dramas of those innocents caught within the wider political manoeuvrings, than any pursuit of larger goals. Indeed, his dogged pursuit of the truth and justice for the unidentified and unremarked "extra" corpse amongst those slain on Stephen's orders is just one example of this. Throughout the book, though, the solving of the murder mystery takes second place to his concern for those still living. Indeed, the murder is solved almost along the way, as it were. And not by Cadfael, alone.As with others in this series, Peters' use of archaic language (both words and phrasing) in her prose and attention to historical detail draw the reader wholly into the picture of mediaeval Britain that she paints. In addition, she has a fine sense of drama, which makes the book hard to put down from the outset. Even when you know the outcome, the tale remains gripping, so even if you've seen the TV dramatisation, this book remains an excellent and exciting read. Its ending is somewhat different (and rather more satisfying) than the TV version, too.

With her first Brother Cadfael novel ("A Morbid Taste for Bones"), English author Ellis Peters introduced us to perhaps, now, the most famous of the medieval "detectives"! And in her second installment, "One Corpse Too Many," we find the erstwhile Benedictine monk up to his neck in another murder mystery, this time involving way too many deaths! In this episode, Brother Cadfael and his beloved Shrewsbury have the unpleasant task of burying the bodies of 94 soldiers, killed as a result of a battle between Stephen and the Empress Maud, both trying to claim the throne of England. In this ugly civil war, we find the countryside constantly in a flux as to which side is which, as this struggle, which lasted for 12 years, seemed to change shapes and sides all too frequently. In this instance, it is Stephen who has won the day. After the hanging of the hold-outs, Brother Cadfael, representing the church and the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury, goes in to arrange for the proper burial of the dead. He is told there were exactly 94 bodies. Instead, he finds an extra one--that of a young man, unidentified, who has had his throat slashed. And Brother Cadfael, over the course of the novel, uses all his God-given talents to solve the mystery. And solve it, of course, he does. He wants not only to identify the young man, but to name the murderer. At the same time, Peters, whose real name is Edith Pargeter, lays the foundation for two of her other recurring characters, Aline and Hugh Beringer (This is a nice romantic touch!). Cadfael, himself, is the herbalist to the abbey and uses that skill to help him solve the murder. He is also able to call upon some of the knowledge he learned during his younger days as a Crusader to the Holy Lands. In all, Peters has created a full-blown medieval character--one who is at once ever the romantic, yet is worldly enough to negotiate the foibles of reality. Peters and Cadfael add up to a great literary combination and their numbers prove it!([email protected])

This is a superb story and Peters is in top form. Peters can get addictive. Peters does use the word CORN, but in the old country CORN refers to grain (see an unabridged dictionary).