It had been quite a few years since the last Brother Cadfael book I read, and I had forgotten how smooth and engaging they are. Ellis Peters once again gives readers not only a beautifully constructed mystery, but also a vivid image of medieval life, populated with realistic and memorable characters. Even the romantic thread is so subtle and tender that it feels genuinely refreshing. And by the end of the book we are given this wonderful line: [Describing the reaction of the culprit after he confessed his crimes] “As though he found himself where he had never thought or meant to be, in some place he could not even recognise, and not knowing how he made his way there.”