Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (USA 2021)

From the Publisher:
To save his estranged son, a monk risks breaking his vows in this "moving and suspenseful" entry in the Silver Dagger Award-winning medieval mystery series (Booklist).

For Brother Cadfael in the autumn of his life, the mild November of our Lord's year 1145 may bring a bitter -- and deadly -- harvest. England is torn between supporters of the Empress Maud and those of her cousin Stephen. The civil strife is about to jeopardize not only Cadfael's life, but his hopes of Heaven.

While Cadfael has sometimes bent the abbey's rules, he has never broken his monastic vows -- until now. Word has come to Shrewsbury of a treacherous act that has left thirty of Maud's knights imprisoned. All have been ransomed except Cadfael's secret son, Olivier de Bretagne. Conceived in Cadfael's soldiering youth and unaware of his father's identity, Olivier will die if he is not freed. Like never before, Cadfael must boldly defy the abbot. The good brother forsakes the order to follow his heart -- but what he finds will challenge his soul.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance. The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael. Mysteriouspress.com / Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781504067614 (September, 2021), 294 p., $25.99.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (USA 2014)

From the Publisher:
To save his estranged son, a monk risks breaking his vows in this "moving and suspenseful" entry in the Silver Dagger Award-winning medieval mystery series (Booklist).

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance. The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael. Mysteriouspress.com / Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781497671621 (August, 2014), eBook, 6 MB (ca. 294 p.), $14.99.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
For Brother Cadfael in the autumn of his life, the mild Novem- ber of our Lord's year 1145 may bring a bitter -- and deadly -- harvest. England is torn between supporters of the Empress Maud and those of her cousin Stephen. The civil strife is abour to jeopardize not only Cadfael's life, but his hopes of Heaven. While Cadfael has sometimes bent the Abbey's rules, he has never broken his monastic vows -- until now. Word has come to Shrewsbury of a treacherous act that has left thirty of Maud's knights imprisoned. All have been ransomed except Cadfael's secret son, Olivier de Bretagne. Conceived in Cadfael's sol- diering youth and unaware of his father's identity, Olivier will die if he is not freed. Like never before, Cadfael must boldly defy the abbot. The good brother forsakes the order to follow his heart -- but what he finds will challenge his soul.

"As usual, Miss Peters creates her magic, resurrecting a long-gone age and its people for our delight." -- Washington Times
"One of the best in the Chronicles." -- Buffalo News
"One of Cadfael's most moving adventures, one that touches his own generous heart most closely." -- Kirkus Reviews

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance. The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at Shrewsbury. The Mysterious Press / Warner Books, ISBN: 0446404535 (February, 1996), 255 p., $5.99.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
A November filled with golden sunshine seemed a gentle ending to this year of the Lord, 1145, although England remained torn between those who supported the Empress Maud as sovereign and those who pledged allegiance to her cousin, Stephen. Yet for Brother Cadfael, this sweet autumn would bring a bitter harvest: a sudden, wrenching break with his life at the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, an urgent search for a hostage of war, and a hunt for a murderer.

By rumor and official dispatch, news had come to Shrewsbury of a terrible betrayal. Philip FitzRobert, one of the Empress Maud's greatest champions, had turned coat, imprisoning thirty knights and squires who held true to the empress. The lucky ones had kin who could afford the dear price for their freedom; the others had to rot in captivity. Among the missing and unclaimed was Olivier de Bretagne, an exceptional knight whose mother had been a woman of the East - and whose sire, unknown to Olivier himself, was Brother Cadfael.

It had happened during the Crusades, years before Cadfael had become a monk. Indeed, Cadfael did not know he had a son until by chance he met Olivier as a young man. But the bond is strong, and it is the one claim that can make Cadfael break his vows and drive him from his cloister, risking the religious way of life he so loves. A father first and a brother second, the monk travels to Coventry, where a great conference holds faint hope of a settled peace and clues to his son's whereabouts. Instead, he finds Olivier's hotheaded young brother-in-law Yves, who is also searching for the missing knight. And he comes, too, upon the brutal murder of a renegade lord who had thrown his support to Philip FitzRobert. Soon Cadfael has a double quest. to save Yves from deadly danger and to find the dungeon where his secret son, and final penance, are waiting.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (UK 1994)

From the Publisher:
CADFAEL-- NOW A MAJOR ITV SERIES STARRING DEREK JACOBI
November, in the year of our Lord 1145, and the bitter nift between King Stephen and Empress Maud at lose has a chance for reconciliation. With boch sides pondering the wisdom of further conflict, they egroe that a council should take place. It is hoped that the meeting will at least resolve the question of prisoners of war, a number of whom were taken following the shocking defection to the King's cause of Philip, younger son of the Earl of Gloucester.

Brother Cadfael, ensconced in his herb garden at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, socks leave to attend the crucial meeting. For he has kearned that among the prisoners is one Olivier de Bretagne, a young man who calls upon loyulties higher even than Cadfoel's monastic vows. As Cadfael obverves, "Before I was a brother ! was a father"; and his determination to come to his son's aid prompts a perplexing investigation of a uniquely personal nature.

ELLIS PETERS, RECIPIENT OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION/ CARTIER DIAMOND DAGGER AWARD
And don't miss other titles from the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael also available from Warner Futura - see inside for details.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance. The Cadfael Chronicles XX. Warner Futura, ISBN: 0751513709 (August, 1994), £4.99.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance (UK 1994)

From the Publisher:
And in this year of our Lord, 1145, now drawing to its close, chaotic events had seemed to be offering promise, however faint as yet, that even the two cousins battling wearily for the throne must despair of force and look around for another way of settling disputes.

So a council is planned for a meeting between the Empress Maud and King Stephen, and their warring factions. It is to be held at Coventry on the last day of November.

Brother Cadfael of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at Shrewsbury asks leave of Abbot Radulfus to attend this conference - not for political interest but for personal reasons. For it is hoped that some agreement may be reached there for a general release of prisoners, even if nothing better can be achieved. In particular, Cadfael seeks* news of Olivier de Bretagne, a young knight taken prisoner after the castellan of Faringdon, Brien de Soulis, delivered over the castle to the king's men when its lord, Philip, son of Robert, earl of Gloucester, deserted the empress's cause. Nothing has been heard since of Olivier. Cadfael feels bound to put aside his duty to his vows for that of fatherhood; Olivier is his son, and though all other personal relationships are severed by his monastic vows, he cannot surrender this one. He must do all within his power to find and deliver his son.

When Cadfael arrives at Coventry he learns nothing of the whereabouts of Olivier, but discovers that the prospect of peace is by no means universally welcome. There are powerful interests ready and willing to wreck it, whatever the consequences to the innocent. And in the heated debate passions can all too easily spill over into violence, and murder. But it is Olivier whom Cadfael seeks and whom he must find. The most thrilling and humane of Ellis Peters' novels, BROTHER CADFAEL'S PENANCE combines excitement, intrigue and a meticulously depicted medieval background with powerful storytelling.

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael's Penance. The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael. Headline, ISBN: 0747211841 (May, 1994), 276 p., £14.99.