The Sanctuary Sparrow

The Seventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

By: Ellis Peters

Narrated by: Patrick Tull

In the middle of the abbey's evening services, an angry mob pursues a young boy into the sacred peace of the sanctuary. Terrified and in tatters, he clutches at the altar-cloth, grasping for mercy in the only sure place he might find it. He is accused of robbery and murder, but Cadfael senses his innocence and sets out to prove it.©1983 Ellis Peters (P)1993 Recorded Books, LLC

The reader’s voice and capacity to render each character individually was remarkable.

It is also a terrifically well crafted love story and murder mystery, both at once!

No one can do it like the English

On, to Chronicle Eight! I mean to read them all, and I heartily recommend them. The writing is dense with delicious details that flesh out the life and time to which the wonderful narration transports you.
Murders to solve! Subplots and clues abound. Let us go forth with haste!

Patrick Tull is unparalleled

I love the humanity that Ellis Peters brings to heroes and villains alike. A very powerful and moving tribute to a humanity that will never stop loving and hating.

Subject

Not even one thousand years can alter the emotions of this story. Perhaps it needs another thousand years. But even then…don’t hold your breath… maybe truth is just truth.

Great entry in the Cadfael series

This book is classic Cadfael - a boy wrongfully accused of murder, young love, and Cadfael and Hugh Berringar coming together to solve the murder. The story starts with a young minstrel pursued by a mob and he just makes it to the monastery church where he claims sanctuary. Cadfael believes the boy and mounting evidence begins to confirm the boy’s innocence. It turns out a young servant girl in the home where the robbery occurred was sweet on him and so that blossoms into love. Cadfael and Berringar eventually solve the mystery, with a rather surprising result, and this leads to a perilous finale. I enjoyed the characters and th plot kept moving nicely, and this was a great addition in the Cadfael series. Patrick Tull was an okay narrator but he tends to leave very long pauses between paragraphs and sections. I always have to adjust the playback speed up when Tull narrates.