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batbones 's review for:
A Morbid Taste for Bones
by Ellis Peters
A historical mystery novel; more historical than mystery but immediately after I've written this I feel the need to recant this description. It is a lot more balanced than the claim, but the medieval atmosphere is very immersive and one of those things the reader will notice from the very beginning. Close attention is paid to a world where the terms English and Welsh are more racial than geographical, the names of kings recall events too deep in the past for the layman or even someone exposed to historical narratives to recognise. Even the names of the main characters are unfamiliar. It all takes time to get used to. Speech and description are also rendered medieval/distant by Peters' poetic language, and the characters conversations can seem a tad formal, but that I think preserves a certain beauty of that time and place. Despite all this, the mystery is intelligent, considered and fast-paced in moments of suspense, and the main detective Brother Cadfael is very likeable: reserved in judgment but assuringly just, with quick eyes and a quicker wit.
(The book is maybe not as fast-pacing as readers who come from the Cadfael tv series will like it to be, since there are more loose ends and diversions here, and more time paid to the secondary characters. Cadfael is rendered slightly different, more...plucky, more quick and sharp with his answers especially when emotionally invested. Jacobi's Cadfael is milder, though not without the strength recognised and foregrounded here.)
(The book is maybe not as fast-pacing as readers who come from the Cadfael tv series will like it to be, since there are more loose ends and diversions here, and more time paid to the secondary characters. Cadfael is rendered slightly different, more...plucky, more quick and sharp with his answers especially when emotionally invested. Jacobi's Cadfael is milder, though not without the strength recognised and foregrounded here.)