Elsa Pelitti Books

A late spring in 1142 brings dismay to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, for there may be no roses by June 22nd. On that day the young widow Perle must receive one white rose as rent for the house she has given to benefit the abbey or the contract is void. When nature finally complies, a pious monk is sent to pay the rent - and is found murdered beside the hacked rose-bush. The abbey's wise herbalist, Brother Cadfael, follows the trail of bloodied petals. He knows the lovely widow's dowry is far greater with her house included, and she will likely wed again. But before Cadfael can ponder if a greedy suitor has done this dreadful deed, another crime is committed. Now the good monk must thread his way through a tangle more tortuous than the widow's thorny bushes -- or there will be more tears...

In 1137 the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for his Benedictine order.

Een scherpzinnige monnik tracht in 1139 twee weeskinderen en een non op te sporen, die tijdens de troebelen van een burgeroorlog zijn verdwenen.

Brother Cadfael’s pastoral life is upended by the disappearance of a young boy and the arrival of a saintly hermit. The year is 1142, and England is in the grip of civil war. Within the cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, there begins a chain of events no less momentous than the upheavals of the outside world. It starts with the sad demise of Richard Ludel, Lord of Eyton, whose ten-year-old son and heir, also named Richard, is a pupil at the abbey. The boy refuses to surrender his newly inherited powers to Dionysia, his furious, formidable grandmother. A stranger to the region is the hermit Cuthred, who enjoys the protection of Lady Dionysia, and whose young companion, Hyacinth, befriends Richard. Despite his reputation for holiness, Cuthred’s arrival heralds a series of mishaps for the monks. When a corpse is found in Eyton forest, Brother Cadfael must devote his knowledge of human nature to tracking down a ruthless murderer.

A savage murder interrupts an ill-fated marriage set to take place at Brother Cadfael's abbey, leaving the monk with a terrible mystery to solve. The key to the killing is hidden among the inhabitants of the Saint Giles leper colony, and Brother Cadfael must ferret out a sickness not of the body, but of a twisted mind.

The fourth anniversary of the transfer of Saint Winifred's bones to the Abbey at Shrewsbury is a time of celebration for the 12th-century pilgrims gathering from far and wide. In distant Winchester, however, a knight has been murdered. Could it be because he was a supporter of the Empress Maud, one of numerous pretenders to the throne? It's up to herbalist, sleuth, and Benedictine monk Brother Cadfael to track down the killer in the pious throng.

In October of 1142, a local landlord gives the Potter's Field to the local clergy. The monks begin to plow it, and the blades turn up the long tresses of a young woman, dead over a year. Then the arrival of a novice who fled from an abbey ravaged by civil war in East Anglia complicates life even further for Brother Cadfael.

Christmas, 1141 AD. Abbot Radulfus returns from London, bringing with him a priest for the vacant living of Holy Cross (known as the Foregate), a man of presence, scholarship and discipline, but neither humility nor the common touch. When he is found drowned in the mill-pond, suspicion is cast in many directions, not least towards a young man who came in the priest's train, sent to work in Brother Cadfael's garden. For he has little obvious priestly calling. Indeed, he soon attracts the friendship of a girl both beautiful and formidable. To Brother Cadfael, once worldly, now dedicated, if gently cynical, is left the familiar task of sorting the complicated strands which define guilt and innocence.

In his ninth outing the beloved Brother Cadafel must helps a lovelorn young Welshman accused of murdering a sheriff.*

Nel caldo afoso dell'estate dell'anno del Signore 1141, giungono a chiedere ospitalità all'abbazia di Shrewsbury due monaci dai nomi emblematici e singolari: fratello Humilis e fratello Fidelis. Il primo, eroico ex crociato, ha abbandonato la promessa sposa poco prima delle nozze per dedicare i giorni che restano al servizio del Signore; il secondo, giovane novizio muto, è una figura enigmatica e schiva. Entrambi, forti del loro indissolubile e devoto legame, rifuggono la guerra feroce e spietata che continua a insanguinare e a devastare Winchester. Ma non solo. Il loro arrivo, come un uragano d'agosto, turberà infatti la vita di molti, e darà il via a un gioco complesso che svelerà e mischierà le carte di uno scomodo passato, fatto di ricordi inconfessabili, e di un drammatico presente, scosso da rimorsi laceranti. Qual è la vera identità di Fidelis e quale passato nascondono i suoi tristi occhi grigi? Che cosa è accaduto alla fanciulla che Humilis doveva sposare e che adesso sembra svanita nel nulla? Toccherà a fratello Cadfael, alla sua perspicacia e alla sua eccezionale abilità di scandagliare i recessi dell'animo umano, il compito di risollevare questo 'mistero doppio', salvando così una vita umana, ma soprattutto evitando uno scandalo nel quale il buon nome e la rispettabilità dell'intero Ordine benedettino verrebbero coinvolti. E ben presto Cadfael si accorgerà che esistono segreti che dovrebbero rimanere sepolti per sempre, domande che non dovrebbero mai essere formulate, e persone che non dovrebbero essere ritrovate...