The Potter's Field nestles into the category of comfortable detective story that titillates just enough to keep the reader interested, but throughout reaffirms warm, safe, hearth and home values. Although this was the first Brother Cadfael novel I've ever read, it is actually book 18 of 21 in a series that definitively ended with the death of the author, Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters is a pseudonym).
Pargeter was an accomplished historian and linguist. Any hopes I had of language playing a role in the mystery were disappointed. However, the detective plot is inseparable from its historical setting, and that inseparability is a hallmark of how successfully Pargeter blended mystery and historical fiction.
Certainly this Brother Cadfael novel pales next to it's monastic medieval mystery cousin, The Name of the Rose. But taken for what it is, The Potter's Field is a pleasant, logically satisfying, and harmless read.
The Potter's Field is currently unavailable on amazon.com in either print or Kindle format. The audio book is available at audible.com.
