1979;
188 pages. New Author? : No. Book 2 (out of 20)
in the “Brother Cadfael” series.
Genre : Murder-Mystery[ Cozy. Overall
Rating : 7½*/10.
For the besieged defenders of Shrewsbury
Castle, there is no hope. King Stephen
has decreed that no mercy shall be given to them. And so, after the final assault by Stephen’s
forces, the 94 surviving defenders are hanged from the castle walls, then cut
down and their bodies unceremoniously dumped into a common ditch
But
enemies or not, they deserve a proper Christian burial, and it falls upon
Brother Cadfael from the nearby abbey to oversee that duty. And it is quite a shock when he
discovers that, whereas 94 bodies went into that ditch, 95 were taken out.
Who
is the extra corpse? Why was he
murdered? And perhaps most importantly.
who killed him and then why did he feel the need to cover it up?
What’s To Like...
The Brother Cadfael series takes place in 12th-century
England, in the westernmost area close to the border with Wales. One Corpse Too
Many is set in a particularly violent time – when civil war rages across
England as King Stephen and the Empress Maud vie for power.
As
is usual for this series, the storyline is part Romance (two of them, in fact), part
Murder-Mystery (of the ‘cozy’ variety), and
part Historical Fiction, of which Ellis Peters (the pen name for Edith Pargeter)
is an absolute master. One of the recurring characters in the series, Hugh Beringar, is introduced here, and plays a lead
role in the plotline. This is my eighth Brother
Cadfael book, although I’m not reading them in order, and it was neat to see from where and how Hugh makes his way into the greater plotline.
The
book is unusual in a couple ways.
First of all, at 188 pages, it is the shortest Brother Cadfael book I’ve
read so far. The previous ones have
ranged from 198 to 275 pages. Also,
while this can still be called a “cozy” murder-mystery, the parts dealing with
the 94 victims are somewhat gruesome.
Finally, both Romances are rather straightforward and
uncomplicated. Generally, the Romances
in this series have “issues” – one of the lovebirds is a suspect, the duo
come from different social classes or opposite sides of a conflict, etc. That
isn’t so here.
There’s
more action than usual, mostly because of the bitter war going on. And if
you like your protagonist subjected to situational ethics, you’ll quite enjoy
the decisions Brother Cadfael has to make with regards to God, the warring parties, and the lovers themselves.
Kewlest New Word ...
Unchancy (adj.)
: unlucky, inauspicious, dangerous.
Others : Distrained
(v.); Sedulous
(adj.);
Caltrop (n.).
Excerpts...
Nicholas Faintree
was laid, with due honours, under a stone in the transept of the abbey church,
an exceptional privilege. … Abbot Heribert was increasingly disillusioned and
depressed with all the affairs of this world, and welcomed a solitary guest who
was not a symbol of civil war, but the victim of personal malice and
ferocity. Against all the probabilities,
in due course Nicholas might find himself a saint. He was mysterious, feloniously slain, young,
to all appearances clean of heart and life, innocent of evil, the stuff of which
martyrs are made. (pg. 65)
When the dishes
were cleared away, musicians playing, and only the wine on the tables, the
servitors in their turn might take their pick of what was left in the kitchens,
and the cooks and scullions were already helping themselves and finding quiet
corners to sit and eat. Cadfael collected
a bread trencher and loaded it with broken meats, and took it out through the
great court to Lame Osbern at the gate. There
was a measure of wine to go with it. Why
should not the poor rejoice for once at the kings cost, even if that cost was
handed on down the hierarchies until it fell at last upon the poor themselves? Too often they paid, but never got their
share of the rejoicing. (pg.
167)
“Brother Cadfael at least can tell a hart from a hind.” (pg. 88 )
There’s only one weakness to One Corpse Too Many, but it’s a significant one - The Murder-Mystery itself. For the first ¾ of the story, Brother Cadfael
is up to his ears in various plot and intrigues, so his sleuthing takes a back
seat.
When he does finally get time to investigate
the murder, it’s essentially a string of fortuitous discoveries. A fragment of an artifact is conveniently
found, which makes it a simple task to determine who the perp is – just look for the rest
of the artifact. Our baddie realizes this
as well, and has the foresight to dispose of the rest of incriminating artifact.
But there is a convenient witness to the act, and said witness then
conveniently crosses Brother Cadfael’s path.
All this is trite enough, but it gets exacerbated by a medieval “let God decide”
method of determining guilt or innocence.
It reminded me of the Monty Python Holy Grail “how do you know she’s a witch?” scene, except here the tone is supposed to be
serious. All works out, of course. But it would’ve been much more entertaining
if God had somehow chosen wrongly.
7½ Stars. Add 1 Star
if you read Brother Cadfael books for the Historical Fiction and couldn’t care
less about whodunit.
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