jacey | Booklog 67/2023: Ellis Peters: Monk's Hood - Cadfael Chronicles #3

Gervaise Bonel, a guest at Shrewsbury Abbey, is poisoned with a monks hood potion and his stepson is accused. Brother Cadfael, one-time crusader and now a monk, takes on the case. Cadfael is a shilled herbalist and, indeed, brewed the potion himself for the abbey's infirmary. It's complicated by the fact that the dead man's widow, and mother to the accused boy, is Richildis, once long ago betrothed to Cadfael before they were separated by the crusades. The sherrif's sergeant is convinced that he has the killer bang to rights, but Cadfael is not so sure. I consumed this in audio book form as part of a sequence of full cast recordings by the BBC featuring the excellent voice of Philip Madoc as Cadfael. The book has been abridged for radio.