Review of One Corpse Too Many, the second Chronicle of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters, a mystery set in 12th century England.
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Synopsis
Following the 1138 Siege of Shrewsbury, 94 people are executed. Brother Cadfael volunteers to clean and dispose of the bodies. Counting them, Cadfael notices that there are 95 bodies. He identifies the extra corpse and is convinced that he must find the killer.
His breakthrough comes when his new helper finds the dead man’s friend lying behind some bushes, badly wounded. Together, the three of them work to gather evidence and Cadfael finds who was behind the attack, and why they attacked.
Review
I really enjoyed One Corpse Too Many. It has a couple of romantic sub-plots, lots of lively intrigue, and interesting characters. The overall story is well constructed. I love the way this author writes; the language feels like it fits the historical setting and it doesn’t linger on the gore-y bits.
One Corpse Too Many was the first of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael that I read and even though it’s technically the second book in the series, it’s a great starting point. It’s the book that introduces Hugh Beringar; even though Hugh becomes important in the rest of the series, it’s not obvious in this book.
The evidence was attained a bit too conveniently. Cadfael seems to stumble across much of the evidence, especially the last piece that proves who the murderer is, accidentally. Even once he knows who the murderer is, the murderer is only convicted through trial by combat. Granted, it took intelligence to put all the pieces together.
Cadfael was walking back to the hall when his eye fell upon a lad of about twelve, who was sitting in the torchlight on the inner side of the gate house, his back comfortably against the wall, carving his meat into small pieces with a narrow-bladed knife. Cadfael had seen him earlier, in the kitchen, gutting fish with the same knife, but he had not seen the haft of it, and would not have seen it now if the boy had not laid it down beside him on the ground while he ate.
Cadfael halted and gazed, motionless. It was no kitchen knife, but a well-made dagger, and its hilt was a slender shaft of silver, rounded to the hand, showing delicate lines of filigree-work, and glowing round the collar of the blade with small stones. The hilt ended in a twist of silver broken off short. It was hard to believe, but impossible not to believe. Perhaps thought really is prayer.
I liked how Ellis Peters respects both sides of the ongoing war. She doesn’t favour either Stephen or Maud (Matilda) over the other. In fact, many of the characters seem unconcerned about who sits on the throne and it makes no difference to the story.
Conclusion
Have you read One Corpse Too Many? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.
If you haven’t, you can buy it at Book Depository (they have free international shipping!).
