A Morbid Taste for Bones - Ellis Peters

I don't normally read crime books, but I love the Cadfael series. These books are set in Shrewsbury in the twelfth century and deal with the exploits of a monk called Brother Cadfael. A crime-solving monk? It's certainly an interesting catch. All the books in the Cadfael series are murder mysteries, which Cadfael, who had seen the world before he became a monk, sets out to solve. They have all the important elements of a good murder mystery: an innocent who seems to be the obvious suspect, an intreguing plot, and a killer who you didn't see coming but who makes perfect sense when they're ... more

Whilst it's not that important to read the Cadfael "chronicles" in order, this book deals with the arrival of St Winifred's bones at Shrewsbury Abbey, which is useful when reading other books later on in the series. I began with "An Excellent Mystery" then read some of the other books, and kept wondering who on earth Brother Columbanus was.... This book solved THAT mystery for me! It all begins when Prior Robert (second only to the Abbot in the monastic pecking order) decides that Shrewsbury needs the relics of a saint to atttract pilgrims and their money (you have to remember that in medieval ... more