This monk is just so cool I can hardly put it into words. One Too Many Corpses is set in the summer of 1138 in the middle of the battle between King Stephen and Empress Maud for control of Shrewsbury. There is (and there was) an ugly battle for the castle held by Maud’s forces. It falls and Stephen orders all the castle’s 94 defenders hanged for treason. Brother Cadfael becomes involved when he is sent to the castle to prepare the bodies for burial and does a count. Hmm, there’re 95 bodies here. And isn’t it funny how all but this one were hanged. This one (who turns out to be the turncoat son of one of Stephen’s supporters) was strangled. But if he was a turncoat, why wasn't he part of the 94 defenders in the first place? Mysteries within mysteries.

What amazes me about these books is Peters ability to not only construct a great mystery, but to construct one within the framework of the time. There’s a lot of real, historical political quicksand around that Cadfael must skirt if he’s to get anything accomplished. I had read When Christ And All His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman years ago (and remember it vividly.) It deals with the same time period, but from the level of the nobility and Stephen and Maud directly. Cadfael is dealing with the same war from ground level. These are people who need to obey their leaders decisions even when it costs them their lives. Peters also creates sympathetic enough characters that you can’t pick one of them out as the bad guy because they’re all so darn nice, but when the villain is revealed it’s so obvious that you can’t believe you missed it. I figured out whodunnit about the time Cadfael did, but before he revealed it to the masses. And not only does he reveal whodunnit, he makes sure justice is done before hand. You’ll have to read the book to understand what I mean.

The writing is of very high quality. At no point do we have something obvious to the characters explained for the benefit of the readers though everything is historically accurate (also known as info dumping.) The descriptions of the area are drawn well enough that you don’t really need the map at the front of the book. The characters all act like people with motives and agendas of their own (and boy, do some of them have agendas.) And Peters does not indulge in needless chatter. Every word is necessary and well placed.

The only thing that makes me sad about this book is the fact that, while reading it, I figured out Peters’ system. When I moved on to the next book I realized that I knew who the killer had to be before we had any real evidence, just because I knew the structure and the signs.

But don’t let that stop you from reading and enjoying these books, just take longer pauses between them.


Recommended: Yes