Originally published in 1989. Ellis Peters (a.k.a. Edith Mary Pargeter 1913-1995), a British author, wrote 23 books in the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, a monk who solves murder mysteries. This is book #17, but is the first book I've read in this series. It takes place in medieval town of Shrewsbury, in the 12th century.

Very hard to get into because of the writing style. The author is British, and therefore, her writing style is a little hard to follow. Also, this is a very Catholic-type novel with the use of all their authority figure heads, which I know nothing about. A potter’s wife is discovered buried in his field after he is admitted into the priesthood, or monkhood. He was believed to be the killer, but as the investigation proved him innocent in the end, it turned out a very prominent man in the county, who was now dead, was the actual killer. Just a downright boring story! ( )

Sometimes I am able to guess the truth before Cadfael, and, delightfully, this was not one of those times. ( )

The abbey receives land from another abbey & as they prepare the land, a body of a woman shows up. A monk, a novice, & a noble lady are in the center of the mystery. As Cadfael presses to save a young man from being hanged for a crime he didn't commit, he discovers a long buried secret never meant to be told. ( )

The remains of a woman are uncovered as an unused field is being plowed. Was she the estranged wife of a man who recently took vows to become a monk? The weave is tangled in this one, indeed, and I wasn't sure whodunit until the end, when I discovered how wrong I was. Good twisty mystery. ( )

A potter's field is generally thought of as a graveyard for the unknown or the indigent. Not so in this novel - the field is one that had belonged to a potter. When the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury obtained the field, they decided to use it for planting crops. What they discovered were the bones of a young woman. The potter has come to the Abbey as a novitiate and his abandoned wife was believed to have gone off with a lover. So who is this woman? We are introduced to another young monk fleeing from the terrible war between Empress Maud and King Stephen and his mother as well as various other characters. A mystery to savor. ( )