{"id":10939,"date":"2018-07-10T20:02:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T00:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=10939"},"modified":"2025-07-02T16:20:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:20:03","slug":"a-morbid-taste-for-bones-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10939","title":{"rendered":"A Morbid Taste for Bones"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Morbid Taste for Bones<\/a><\/em> (1977) Ellis Peters<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cadfael is a brother at Shrewsbury abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Unlike most of his brethren he came to his calling late, having spent his younger years as a Crusader–and perhaps also an adventurer.<\/p>\n

Nothing troubled his peace but the necessity to take himself indoors for Mass, and the succeeding half-hour of chapter, which was always liable to stray over by an extra ten minutes. He grudged the time from his more congenial labours out here among the vegetables, but there was no evading his duty. He had, after all, chosen this cloistered life with his eyes open.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Through a series of somewhat suspicious events, Prior Robert convinces the Abbot to send them on a pilgrimage to bring the bones of a saint to their Abbey.<\/p>\n

He had been scouring the borderlands for a spare saint now for a year or more, looking hopefully towards Wales, where it was well known that holy men and women had been common as mushrooms in autumn in the past, and as little regarded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brother Cadfael goes along as he grew up in Wales and his native speech comes in use as they travel. Which is good, because there are complications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my church,\u201d said Huw humbly, \u201cI have never heard that the saints desired honour for themselves, but rather to honour God rightly. So I do not presume to know what Saint Winifred\u2019s will may be in this matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The best part of this series is, of course, Brother Cadfael, whose past makes him far more pragmatic than most brothers.<\/p>\n

Cadfael returned along the path with the uncomfortable feeling that God, nevertheless, required a little help from men, and what he mostly got was hindrance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meet every man as you find him, for we\u2019re all made the same under habit or robe or rags. Some better made than others, and some better cared for, but on the same pattern all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“(L)eave agonising too much over your sins, black as they are, there isn\u2019t a confessor in the land who hasn\u2019t heard worse and never turned a hair. It\u2019s a kind of arrogance to be so certain you\u2019re past redemption.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a lovely story and a good mystery and as enjoyable the second time as the first read.<\/p>\n

Publisher: MysteriousPress.com\/Open Road
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Ellis Peters Cadfael is a brother at Shrewsbury abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Unlike most of his brethren he came to his calling late, having spent his younger years as a Crusader–and perhaps also an adventurer. Nothing troubled his peace but the necessity to take himself indoors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,190,292,33,8,41,26],"tags":[120,119,549,877,878],"class_list":["post-10939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-cozy","category-ebook","category-historical","category-mystery","category-reread","category-romance","tag-brother-cadfael","tag-ellis-peters","tag-high-middle-ages","tag-medieval","tag-the-anarchy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2Qr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23583,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23583","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":0},"title":"A Morbid Taste for Bones","author":"Michelle","date":"May 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Ellis Peters (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael) Set in England in 1137. The herbarium in particular was his kingdom, for he had built it up gradually through the fifteen years of labour, and added to it many exotic plants of his own careful raising, collected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Morbid Taste for Bones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/A-Morbid-Taste-for-Bones.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6106,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6106","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":1},"title":"A Morbid Taste for Bones","author":"Michelle","date":"October 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Ellis Peters Set in England and Wales in ~1137. I picked this up on sale--and by accident. I'd confused Ellis Peters with Peter Tremayne (whose real name was Peter Berresford Ellis, so it's not that ridiculous of a mistake) and so picked up a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"a-morbid-taste-for-bones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/A-Morbid-Taste-for-Bones.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11129,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11129","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":2},"title":"The Pilgrim of Hate","author":"Michelle","date":"September 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pilgrim of Hate (1984) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1141 It's been four years since the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul brought the bones of Saint Winifred (or so they thought) to Shrewsbury, and the abbey is holding a festival for her, with pilgrims coming to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/The-Pilgrim-of-Hate-e1511011418934.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23757,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23757","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":3},"title":"The Leper of Saint Giles","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Leper of Saint Giles (1981) Ellis Peters (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #5) Set in Shropshire England in 1139 \u201cI hope she may be beautiful,\u201d said Mark. \u201cPrior Robert would be interested to hear you say so,\u201d said Cadfael drily. blessedness is what can be snatched out of the passing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"leper of saint giles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leper-saint-giles.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6116,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6116","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":4},"title":"The Leper of Saint Giles","author":"Michelle","date":"October 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Leper of Saint Giles (1981) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1139. I found I hadn't purchased book four, so I skipped to book five of the Brother Cadfael series. Brother Mark has gone to Saint Giles, to minister to the lepers there, and Brother Cadfael misses his former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"the-leper-of-saint-giles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/The-Leper-of-Saint-Giles.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11145,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11145","url_meta":{"origin":10939,"position":5},"title":"An Excellent Mystery","author":"Michelle","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An Excellent Mystery (1985) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1141 The war between Stephen and Maud continues, leading to the burning of much of Winchester. This causes two monks to appear at the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, seeking refuge and shelter at their brother abbey. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/An-Excellent-Mystery-e1511012747949.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}