This week: Medieval Mystery Edited by: eyestar~*  
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Hiya and Happy New Year, Mystery buffs! I am back as a guest editor this week. 
During the holiday I had time to peruse on tv! LOL And I came across an old favourite mystery show set in medieval times. "Brother Cadfael"! I enjoy history so it was fun to enter into this world as the books come to life. So, let's have a look at some Medieval Mystery authors!
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Medieval Mystery
Ellis Peters pen name for the English author Edith Pargeter, wrote the "Cadfael Chronicles" on which the 1990's tv show was based. Her 20 stories about Brother Cadfael written from the 1970's to the 1990's were well received.
 Born in September 1913 in Shropshire , England, she also had Welsh ancestry and used Wales as a background in many stories. From the mid 1930's she wrote historical fiction and crime novels and under her name and other pseudynoms. She often wrote of her experiences in military service. She had worked in the Royal Navy, earning a British Empire Medal in 1944. Her interest in history of Shropshire where she was born and died, led her to begin writing her first Cadfael novel, set in the 12th century Shrewsbury, in 1977. That town became quite famous during that time.
 "A Morbid Taste for Bones" featured this wonderful monk and herbalist Brother Cadfael. He is an interesting and well rounded detective type as he had served as a Knight in the Crusades, and a sailor, lover, soldier before his calling to be a Benedictine monk around the years 1135-1145, at the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul, in Shrewsbury, England. He becomes a herbalist and medicine man who used his knowledge of nature to solve crimes. He also uses his worldly knowledge to look into and understand the thought processes of his fellow men. I really enjoy his engaging character. He works for God and truth and can often be in conflict with his abbot. He helps the worthy and pursues truth.
The stories are detailed and the historical background is realistic. Ms. Peters was an avid researcher and wanted to get the facts right. She had worked as a pharmacist so had some background knowledge of healing remedies herself. Some of Cadfael's compounds were based on these. Her books showed "appreciation for the ideals of medieval Catholic Christianity, but also a recognition of its weaknesses, such as quarrels about theology and the desire of the church to own more and more land and wealth.
She was a self taught scholar and she even learned the Czech language and translate poetry into English after visiting Czechoslovakia. She met a man there and while never married, she remained his friend. She supported her self with her writing until her death in 1995 at age 82. There is a stained glass window of St. Benedict in Shrewsbury Abbey dedicated to her and paid for by donations of her admirers.
Some Books in the Brother Cadfael Series:
A Morbid Taste for Bones
One Corpse Too Many
Monk’s Hood
St. Peter’s Fair
The Leper of St. Giles
The Virgin in the Ice
The Sanctuary Sparrow
I enjoyed reading these especially as a student of history and loved in the role on tv! Background is so real.
I discovered the Dame Frevisse Series by Gail Frazer and Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld in my research. I had no idea of these mysteries and look forward to reading. They feature a nun!
The 15th c seems to be popular as are the Benedictines for murder mystery backgrounds.
These two authors under the name of Margaret Frazer, worked together to create 6 mysteries set in a Benedictine priory in the 1400's. A nun named Dame Frevisse becomes involved in a series of mysteries she solves using her wits. Their books have won multiple awards for their historical accuracy and for their lovely prose. Gail Frazer continued on her own after the 6th book.
Award winner, Margaret {Gail) Frazer was a historical novelist born in 1946 and died of Cancer in 2013.
Her series is set from 1431 to 1452, during the reign of Henry VI of England; they overlap William Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 1 and Henry VI, part 2. It is cool that Dame Frevisse is related to Dame Frevisse is related to Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, by her aunt's marriage to Geoffrey's son, Thomas Chaucer. The historical backgrounds of these books are very accurate relating life of the village life and priory of the 15th c. Over the twenty years of the writings we see the heroine age as the time moves on.
Her second set of novels are spin offs of the Dame Frevisse Series called the Joliffe series and continues on in the 15th c. time line.
Books in the Dame Frevisse Series:
The Novice’s Tale
The Servant’s Tale
The Outlaw’s Tale
The Bishop’s Tale
The Boy’s Tale
The Murderer’s Tale
The Prioress’ Tale
The Maiden’s Tale
The Reeve’s Tale
and more...
Mary Kuhfeld left the collaboration after 6 stories to move on from medieval works to her own writings under the name of Monica Ferris.
Looking forward to reading some of their work!
Keep looking for mysteries! They are everywhere.
Thanks for reading.
 eyestar
Sources:
https://detecs.org/frevisse.html
https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/cadfael-medieval-murders/ About the tv series!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Frazer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Pargeter
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Enjoy!
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Mystery concerning a will, a beneficiary and a riddle
#2177935 by Sumojo  |
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Thanks for your responses to my last newsletter "Mystery Newsletter (December 22, 2021)"
andiprescott 
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Mystery: January 19, 2022 Issue [#11171]
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