A light on the road to Woodstock

A light on the road to Woodstock
Ellis Peters
Originally published in Winters Crimes 11
1979
Now part of the collection A Rare Benedictine

Mediaeval crime from Ellis Peters that chronicles Brother Cadfael's earliest adventures. The author states in the introduction that the character sprung into existence in the first Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones as a mature character with seventeen years service behind him.

She had often thought of writing a prequel novel but in the end decided against it as the series had its own momentum and she thought origin stories would spoil the flow. And so the Sleuth's early days were presented as short stories in the long running annual anthology Winters Crimes.


This short story - there are two others in this volume - tells of how Cadfael entered the holy service in the first place and sees the mediaeval sleuth mixed up in a land dispute. The story works well in the short form and the historical detail, though not as rich as in the novels, is presented well and gives the story its backbone.

I enjoyed this story and would mark it on a 4 out of 5.