Historical fiction book · Curated
A Morbid Taste for Bones
Ellis Peters · historical fiction
Series: Cadfael Chronicles
In May 1137, Prior Robert of Shrewsbury Abbey sends a party into Wales for the bones of Saint Winifred, and Brother Cadfael goes along as their Welsh translator. Ellis Peters’s 1977 novel is medieval mystery historical fiction of that expedition to Gwytherin—the villager who stands against moving the grave is killed with an arrow, and Cadfael, a former Crusader turned herbalist, looks for a human hand on the bow.
Why read it: A widely searched medieval mystery—the Peters title readers look up by name (the first Brother Cadfael chronicle, and the ITV series), and a Shrewsbury counterpart to The Name of the Rose already on the shelf (not One Corpse Too Many).
About this historical novel
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters is historical fiction set around 1137 in the Medieval period with key settings including Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury Abbey, Gwytherin, Wales. In May 1137, Prior Robert of Shrewsbury Abbey sends a party into Wales for the bones of Saint Winifred, and Brother Cadfael goes along as their Welsh translator. Ellis Peters’s 1977 novel is medieval mystery historical fiction of that expedition to Gwytherin—the villager who stands against moving the grave is killed with an arrow, and Cadfael, a former Crusader turned herbalist, looks for a human hand on the bow.
On HisFic we tag it under 3. Historical mystery & crime so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include relics, murder, faith, justice, and Wales. A widely searched medieval mystery—the Peters title readers look up by name (the first Brother Cadfael chronicle, and the ITV series), and a Shrewsbury counterpart to The Name of the Rose already on the shelf (not One Corpse Too Many).
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Plot summary
In May 1137, Prior Robert of Shrewsbury Abbey sends a party into Wales for the bones of Saint Winifred, and Brother Cadfael goes along as their Welsh translator. Ellis Peters’s 1977 novel is medieval mystery historical fiction of that expedition to Gwytherin—the villager who stands against moving the grave is killed with an arrow, and Cadfael, a former Crusader turned herbalist, looks for a human hand on the bow. A widely searched medieval mystery—the Peters title readers look up by name (the first Brother Cadfael chronicle, and the ITV series), and a Shrewsbury counterpart to The Name of the Rose already on the shelf (not One Corpse Too Many).
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Eras
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- The Name of the Rose · Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates murders in a labyrinthine abbey where books are power.
- Labyrinth · Kate Mosse
In July 1209, as the Albigensian Crusade closes on Carcassonne, seventeen-year-old Alaïs Pelletier is given a book by her father and told it holds the secret of the true Grail. Kate Mosse’s 2005 novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of that charge—and of archaeologist Alice Tanner, who in July 2005 finds two skeletons in a Pyrenees cave marked with a labyrinth and cannot leave the Cathars’ war buried.
- Here Be Dragons · Sharon Kay Penman
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth comes back to Gwynedd as a boy to take the north of Wales, and King John later marries his illegitimate daughter Joanna to the prince he cannot hold as a vassal. Sharon Kay Penman’s 1985 novel is medieval saga historical fiction of that marriage across the early thirteenth century—Joanna between her father’s court and her husband’s Wales, and a principality Llywelyn spends his reign trying to keep free.
- The Once and Future King · T. H. White
Wart the kitchen boy is trained by Merlyn—who lives backwards through time—then draws the sword, marries Guenever, and watches the Round Table crack under Lancelot, Orkney, and a war he cannot end. T. H. White’s 1958 Arthurian cycle is medieval historical adventure: the education of a king, and the legend behind Camelot and The Sword in the Stone.
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame · Victor Hugo
In 1482 Paris, the cathedral of Notre-Dame watches over Quasimodo the bell-ringer, Esmeralda the street dancer, and Archdeacon Claude Frollo, whose desire pulls all three toward the towers, the Court of Miracles, and the gallows. Hugo’s novel is medieval historical adventure: a city, a cathedral, and a love story that made Notre-Dame itself a character.
- Doomsday Book · Connie Willis
Oxford historian Kivrin Engle is sent from 2054 to study 1320—and arrives instead in 1348, in a village where the Black Death is about to come down the road, while an influenza epidemic in future Oxford strands the team that might bring her home. Connie Willis’s Hugo- and Nebula-winning novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of plague, faith, and a young woman nursing a parish through the end of the world.
Regions & places
Britain & Ireland
Shrewsbury · Shrewsbury Abbey · Gwytherin · Wales
Themes
- relics
- murder
- faith
- justice
- Wales
Tags
mystery · series · classic