Ellis Peters

Louis Stevenson is convicted of murder but protests his innocence. A young couple are determined to unmask the real killer before he strikes again.

Three BBC radio dramatisations of Ellis Peters' much-loved medieval murder mysteries featuring monk-cum-sleuth Brother Cadfael.

A onetime Crusader turned Benedictine monk Brother Cadfael is a most unusual detective. Living a quiet life as a monastery herbalist he spends his days ministering to his brothers using the medical skills he acquired in the Holy Lands - but his worldly knowledge and wide experience of human nature are frequently called upon when there is a murder to solve...

Starring Philip Madoc as Cadfael with supporting casts including Michael Hordern Michael Kitchen and Susannah York these thrilling tales of murder mystery and intrigue bring the turbulent world of 12th Century Shrewsbury superbly to life.

The Civil War takes a step closer to Cadfael when he discovers that his own son, born as a result of a brief encounter thirty years earlier, has been taken prisoner. Cadfael decides to break his monastic vows and do everything possible to find and release his son. 20th Cadfael mystery.

December, 1142. A brother of Shrewsbury Abbey suffers a fall that almost kills him. He makes a shocking deathbed confession to Brother Cadfael. When the man recovers Cadfael accompanies him on an arduous journey to redeem his past sins.

Sheriff Prestcote is murdered in the Abbey’s infirmary and suspicion falls on Elis, a young Welsh prisoner, who is in love with the Sheriff’s daughter. Cadfael agrees to help him prove his innocence but the truth proves difficult for him.

A priest goes missing outside the Abbey walls and a novice, Meriet, is soon linked to the crime. Only Brother Cadfael believes in his innocence and he has to employ all his powers of detection to save the boy from the noose.

August 1141 and two monks ride into the Abbey with the news that the war has destroyed the town of Winchester and their priory. Cadfael senses a powerful link between them and he faces a test of his discretion and beliefs as he unravels a secret which could wreak destruction.

George Felse investigates the murder of a Nazi land-worker in an English village just after the Second World War. His son discovers a clue to the killer’s identity and thus puts his own life in danger.

Elave, the young attendant to William of Lythwood, returns to Shrewsbury to bury his master in the Abbey and to deliver a dowry to William's adopted daughter. He is arrested for expressing heretical views and when the Lythwood family clerk is stabbed to death, Elave is accused of the murder.

The year is 1142, and all England is in the iron grip of a civil war. And within the sheltered cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, there begins a chain of events no less momentous than the political upheavals of the outside world. First, there is 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. Supported by the Abbot Radulfus, the boy refuses to surrender his new 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 Hycacinth, befriends Richard. Despite his reputation for holiness, Cuthred's arrival heralds a series of mishaps for the monks. When Richard disappears and a corspe is found in Eyton forest, Brother Cadfael is once more forced to leave the tranquility of his herb garden and devote his knowledge of human nature to tracking down a ruthless murderer.

It should have been a wonderful holiday, but the four young people travelling to Venice are shocked when an elderly travelling companion is brutally attacked.

The abbey of Ramsey in the Fens is in a dilapidated state and an appeal is made to all Benedictine houses for help in restoring it. Two monks come to Shrewsbury seeking funds and while they are there a flood occurs, forcing the monks from the Abbey to relocate their treasures. Not long afterwards it is discovered that a theft has occurred.

With Brother Mark tending the sick in the lazar house, Cadfael must train a new assistant. In the town there is concern over the proposed marriage of a young woman to a much older man. When the bridegroom is murdered, Cadfael must investigate, but can Brother Oswin be trusted as the herbalist's assistant?

In 1138, Brother Cadfael's workshop contains medications for every kind of ailment. When Gervase Bonel is poisoned with one of them, suspicion falls on someone who Cadfael is certain is innocent. 3rd Cadfael mystery.

In the 12th-century Benedictine monastery of Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has settled down to a quiet life in charge of the herbarium. It is fortunate his prowess as a herbalist is matched by his detective skills - and when his prior acquires the bones of a saint, the obstacles include murder.

In the Summer of 1138, after a bloody battle between royal cousins squabbling over the English throne, Brother Cadfael, performing funeral rights, discovers an extra body. One death among so many seems unimportant to all but the good Benedictine. He vows to expose the truth and sets out to find the murderer.

Three vintage tales of medieval intrigue and treachery featuring the author's monastic sleuth Brother Cadfael. The stories show the chain of events that led him into the Benedictine Order and, evoking Shropshire backgrounds and his understanding of the frailties of human nature, show him at the height of his detecting skills.

When the unpopular new priest of the Holy Cross is found drowned in the millpool, Cadfael and the sheriff, Hugh Beringar, find themselves investigating an extraordinary mystery.

In 1142 someone is plotting to prevent the Abbey making an annual payment to a young widow. Cadfael must find out who and why?

At the annual fair of St Peter in Shrewsbury a quarrel breaks out between the local burghers and the monks over who shall benefit from the money raised by the fair. A riot breaks out, after which a merchant is found dead and Brother Cadfael must once more employ his skills as a detective.

In the gentle Shrewsbury spring of 1140 the midnight matins at the Benedictine abbey suddenly reverberates with an unholy sound - a hunt in full cry. Pursued by a drunken mob, the quarry is running for its life. When the frantic creature bursts into the nave to claim sanctuary, Brother Cadfael finds himself fighting off armed townsmen to save a terrified young man. Accused of robbery and murder is Liliwin, a wandering minstrel who performed at the wedding of the local goldsmith's son. But his supposed victim, the miserly craftsman, is still alive, although a strongbox lies empty. Brother Cadfael believes that Liliwin is innocent, but finding the truth and the treasure before Liliwin's respite in sanctuary runs out may uncover a deadlier sin than thievery - a desperate love that nothing, not even the threat of hanging, can stop.

Cadfael accompanies his young friend, Brother Mark, on a mission to Wales and finds himself caught up in a royal feud between Owain Gwynedd and his brother Cadwaladr. Cadfael is captured, together with a young woman seeking to escape an arranged marriage.

A BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation featuring crime-solving medieval monk, Cadfael. Winter, 1139, and Brother Cadfael's tranquil life at Shrewsbury monastery is once again interrupted by violent, mysterious happenings. As civil war rages close by, two orphans of a great family and their companion, a nun, disappear in the woods. Cadfael sets out to find them.

During the bitter November of 1139, civil war brings refugees to Shrewsbury in search of sanctuary. But two orphans and their companion, a nun, do not arrive from Worcester as planned, and Brother Cadfael is despatched from the Abbey to try and locate them.