Undertow Book

While it is certainly and definitely true that Ellis Peters' Monk's Hood does not (and will likely also never) rank as one of my favourites of the Brother Cadfael Mediaeval mystery novels, I still very much and actively do consider it one of the more important earlier books of the series (and as such to be read if not in actual order of appearance then still relatively early on, as indeed, there are in my opinion some very good reasons why Monk's Hood is the third mystery featuring Brother Cadfael and not a later instalment).

For one, Monk's Hood presents to us readers quite a bit of supplemental information regarding Brother Cadfael's past (before he decided to become a monk), important details regarding the latter's so-called back story, even though part of me does tend to consider the arrival of Cadfael's former lover Richildis at the abbey just a wee bit too deliberately coincidental. And for two (and yes, in my opinion, much more essentially and importantly for the entire series as a whole), in Monk's Hood Ellis Peters clearly portrays and points out in no uncertain terms why it would be an absolutely horrible fiasco in every sense of the word were Prior Robert ever to permanently become abbott of the Monastery of Saint Peter and Paul in Shrewsbury (and actually not even so much because of Prior Robert's rather strict and unbending ways but more because of his devoted fan and obsessive acolyte, Brother Jerome, with his penchant for gossiping, spying and seeing the work of Satan in even the most innocent of behaviours).

Now with regard to the actual mystery featured and presented in Monk's Hood (as to who poisoned Gervase Bonel with one of Brother Cadfael's own herbal tinctures), there is frankly rather a bit too much of the standard and traditional whodunnit present for my tastes (and I also tend to enjoy those Brother Cadfael novels somewhat more where Cadfael, while of course still being the one to ultimately solve the mystery or mysteries at hand, also tends to remain more in the background, is not acting so much front and centre with regard to discovering the identity of the main villain or villains). But all in all, I have certainly and indeed very much enjoyed Monk's Hood (and yes, especially and as usual due to Ellis Peters' writing style and her wonderfully descriptively imaginative yet always spot-on realistic sense of historic time and place, giving us as readers truly marvellous portraits of Mediaeval England and in Monk's Hood of course also of Mediaeval Wales).

But for me, what has finally and ultimately moved Monk's Hood from three to four stars is that Ellis Peters does not simply end up having the main villain appear as some downright evil and utterly vile entity but as basically a decent enough person pushed to the limit and then having the temptation of Brother Cadfael's monkshood tincture dangled in front of him (and I guess that this is actually one of the main and recurring reasons that I do consider the Brother Cadfael series such a personal favourite, namely that in the vast majority of the novels, Ellis Peters does not usually present her villains as horridly evil caricatures but as nuanced and fully fleshed out human beings who have made some very terrible and problematic mistakes and choices leading to murder and mayhem).