Brother Cadfael's Penance

The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

By: Ellis Peters

Narrated by: Sir Derek Jacobi

While Brother Cadfael has bent Abbey rules, he has never broken his monastic vows—until now. Word has come to Shrewsbury of a treacherous act that has left 30 of Empress Maud's knights imprisoned during England's dynastic war between two grandchildren of William the Conqueror. All have been ransomed except Cadfael's secret son, Olivier. Conceived in Cadfael's soldiering youth and unaware of his father's identity, Olivier will die if he is not freed. Cadfael is determined to find him but must leave the monastery without his abbot's blessing.

©1994 Ellis Peters (P)1996 Phoenix Books, Inc.

Some of my favorite things!

I have every one of the cadfael books from audible. Love them. Also watched them on public television.

Listened to them many times. Derek Jacobi is fantastic both as an actor and as a narrator.

The only thing I am sorry for is that the author has passed on and there will be no new Cadfael stories forthcoming.

A fine closing chapter in one of the best mystery series ever written

Ellis Peters should definitely go down in history is one of the greatest mystery novelists of all time, and probably should straddle into the historical fiction novelist upper strata as well. having audibly devoured all of the Patrick Tull narrated books, I was deeply disappointed that Derek Jacobi, as fine an actor as he is, was the alternate narrator for the final book. I should not have been concerned, his performance is nothing short of masterful, although I still prefer Tull. that, this is a shorter novel than her previous ones, and a bit less focused on the mystery of the murder and more on the interpersonal entanglements typical of her previous novels. All in all though, an absolute joy to listen to

Entertaining mystery in a turbulent time

If you could sum up The Brother Cadfael's Penance in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, fun, thoughtful

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brother Cadfael who keeps his broad prospect inspite of confining surroundings and violent circumstances

Medievil mystery greats

What made the experience of listening to The Brother Cadfael's Penance the most enjoyable?

Derek Jacobi is a superb actor who is able to bring all his talent into his voice for this superb performance of a wonderful story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brother Cadfael - cause he is a real 'mensch'

What about Derek Jacobi’s performance did you like?

Jacobi is familiar with this character so he brings much humanity and authenticity to the performance.

If you could take any character from The Brother Cadfael's Penance out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Brother Cadfael - want to hear about how it was during the crusades.

Any additional comments?

Ellis Peters novels are always wonderful and historically correct.

Each book in the series is different

I have read scores of Brother Cadfael books, all of the them good. I felt this one is the very best and very different from the others. In this book Brother Cadfael goes out looking for his son. Lots of suspense, twists and turns, and hidden agendas.