A review by arthuriana
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

3.0

one of my favourite books involve a crime-solving religious brother sometime during the middle ages, so reading the blurb of this book made me quite sure that this would have been a pleasure to read. suffice to say, it is quite the adventure: its environment is excessively rich, the characters well-drawn, and the narrative quite intriguing; but unfortunately, i didn't like it as much as i thought i would have.

while the story in these pages are quite riveting in its own right, it still lacked the finer details of historical minutiae that i first wanted to have. i have long been interested in religion and history, and religious history mixing the two of them is a match made in heaven—yet sadly while this book delved into either subjects quite well, it never combined the two together. perhaps its recounting of the translation of saint winifred would have been charming years ago, but now it just seems like a historical footnote barely even given the attention it deserves.

yet for what it's worth, i do quite like this book. i'm probably going to pick up the sequel because, again, history-laden mystery narratives with a strong reek of religion hit a certain sweet spot for me. besides, it's well-written and quite rewarding, if i do say so myself. i won't say anything about the mystery itself because, again, i'm usually quite gifted in seeing mysteries a while off and so i was barely surprised; but it does the tricks of the crime mystery genre quite well.