Brother Cadfael's Penance, by Ellis Peters

Brother Cadfael's Penance is the twentieth book in the Brother Cadfael series, and continues the historical mystery series. In Britain in 1145 amidst a lull in the war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, Brother Cadfael recieves news about the disappearance of someone close to his heart. Begging leave of the Abbot, he heads off to join in with peace talks, in order to follow the trail of the missing person.

The book, while being mid-series, works reasonably well as a standalone book, although it may be helpful to have read some of the earlier books to know about some of the characters, and the identity of Cadfael's son is a major feature of this book, which is a plot device in a previous book. However, personally I'd feel quite happy, that caveat aside, to read this book out of order.

The plot of the book is fairly unusual for a Brother Cadfael book, in that murder does not play a big part in this book. I found this quite refreshing, since a lot of the Cadfael books are very similar in structure. There is no love story here, no sucession of murders, no chance discoveries in the herb garden. This is the tale of one man's journey in search of a loved one, and his complications with divided loyalties.

So in some ways this is more an exploration into the role of fatherhood and loyalty, with several different characters all involved in the plot due to parental influence. There is a lot of personal discovery for Brother Cadfael in this book, as well as for some other characters. But despite the potential for heavy philosophy, this is an easy and enjoyable read, with a fair share of mystery, excitement and adventure.

All in all, this is an interesting variation on the theme of the other Cadfael books. Like most of the books, this is more of an adventure than a mystery, but I felt that I could empathise with the characters more here than elsewhere, with many of whom are carried along on a tide of senseless war and vengence. All in all, this is one of the better Cadfael books, and a decent historical tale for those who are new to the character.

Buy Brother Cadfael's Penance from Amazon.com