1988;
196 pages. New Author? : No. Book 15 (out of 20) of the “Brother Cadfael” series. Genre : Murder-Mystery, Historical
Fiction, Cozy Mystery. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
Ah, yes.
Those deathbed confessions. They’re
good for your soul. Especially when
you’ve been carrying around an unconfessed sin for close to 20 years.
Such is the burden Brother Haluin’s bearing. But he’s slipped from the icy roof of the
abbey’s guest hall while trying to clear the snowfall off. It was a 40 foot drop, and now he lays at
death’s door. Best to confess the
grievous transgression that drove him to take up the cloth in the first place.
As
head of the abbey, Abbot Radulfus is duly called to hear Brother Haluin’s final
confession. Brother Cadfael is also
present, since Haluin says the sin was also against him, even though Cadfael
was unaware of it. And it is indeed a
vile misdeed, something that definitely needed to be gotten off one's chest before
approaching the pearly gates. There’s
just one problem.
What do you do about it when, against all odds, Brother Haluin makes a
dramatic recovery?
What’s To Like...
The Confession of
Brother Haluin is the ninth book I’ve read in this series, so I’m about halfway in completing it.
The plotlines are by-and-large formulaic: there’s always a heartwarming-but-forbidden
love, somebody gets murdered, one or the other of the lovebirds gets accused,
and Brother Cadfael saves the day via 12th-century sleuthing.
This book is no exception to this format, but the first half of the story
is mostly about Haluin resolving to undertake a pilgrimage of penance, despite being
unable to walk without crutches. By page 100, I was muttering “Where’s
the Murder?” and “Where’s the Romance?” I shouldn’t’ve fretted. Both show up shortly thereafter, and things
hum along swimmingly through the rest of the pages.
Ellis Peters tackles some controversial issues here – abortion and
incest – and I was wondering how she planned on resolving both while still
maintaining the “cozy mystery” style. Well, she
managed this quite successfully and with impressive plausibility.
All Brother Cadfael books are a vocabularian’s delight. The best words of the bunch are listed below,
and I was proud that my brain is retaining some of the medieval words, such as “lief” and “assart”. The use of the
word “solar” as a noun was totally new to me.
The settings for the story are somewhat unusual in that very little
takes place at the abbey and the nearby town of Shrewsbury. Haluin makes his pilgrimage to a place somewhat removed from the abbey, and Cadfael
accompanies him. So most of the regulars are either missing or have only minor roles. Ah, but this meant meeting lots of new people and
going to lots of new places, and I enjoyed that.
I
also liked that none of the characters were totally black or white, not even
those who perpetrated the murder. Even
Cadfael has some moments of self-doubt, such as when he reflects on his “meddling” in the past. Everything builds to great, and somewhat
surprising ending which, like any cozy should, will leave the reader with a
warm and fuzzy feeling, despite a loose thread or two.
Kewlest New Word...
Solar (n., Middle English) : a loft or upper chamber
forming the private accommodation of the head of the household in a medieval
hall.
Others: Chilblained
(adj.); Elegiac
(adj.); Garth
(n.); Colloquy
(n.); Advowson
(n.).
Excerpts...
“You do know
about my marriage – that Jean comes here today?”
“Your brother has
told us,” said Cadfael, watching the features of her oval face emerge softly from
shadow, every plaintive, ingenuous line testifying to her youth. “But there are things he could not tell us,”
he said, watching her intently, “except by hearsay. Only you can tell us whether this match has
your consent, freely given, or no.” (…)
“If we do anything freely, once we are
grown,” she said, “then yes, this I do freely.
There are rules that must be kept.
There are others in the world who have rights and needs, and we are all
bound.” (pg. 106)
It is a terrible
responsibility, thought Cadfael, who had never aspired to ordination, to have
the grace of God committed to a man’s hands, to be privileged and burdened to
play a part in other people’s lives, to promise them salvation in baptism, to
lock their lives together in matrimony, to hold the key to purgatory at their
departing. If I have meddled, he thought
devoutly, and God knows I have, when need was and there was no better man to
attempt it, at least I have meddled only as a fellow sinner, tramping the same
road, not as a viscount of heaven, stooping to raise up. (pg. 114)
Murder brings out into the
open many matters no less painful, while itself still lurking in the dark. (pg. 128)
The quibbles are negligible.
I‘m
getting to the point, having read so many of these Brother Cadfael books, that
I can anticipate the plot twists coming up.
But I still marvel at how plausible Ellis Peters makes them seem.
Also, the pacing of the first half of the book kinda dawdles for a while
as Cadfael and Haluin traipse around, and the reader waits for someone to get
killed. Plus, there were one or two
incredible coincidences that strained my bridge of believability, but it has to be said they served to move the story along.
Last, and least, if you like cozies but don’t like historical fiction,
this series may not be your cup of tea. Cadfael
and the sheriff Hugh Beringar spend about 10 pages at the beginning discussing
the ongoing civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud (yes, England
did have an Empress once upon a time). I love
history, and so for me this was fascinating. But for those
who aren’t history buffs, it may be a bit tedious.
8 Stars.
At Book 15 out of 20, The Confession of Brother Haluin comes rather late in the series, and most of the ones I’ve read so far are earlier
entries. So it was a nice surprise to see the series
hadn’t lost any of its luster as it aged.
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