Cadfael

Brother Cadfael has settled down to a quiet religious life at Shrewsbury Abbey after an adventurous, and far from monastic, youth. But the normal tranquility of the Abbey is disrupted when Shrewsbury becomes caught up in the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud.

When Shrewsbury's goldsmith is robbed and left for dead, the locals launch a witch hunt. Pursued by the mob, the prime suspect, a young juggler who performed at the wedding of the goldsmith's son, seeks sanctuary at the Abbey. But as Cadfael investigates, a second body is found floating in the River Severn.

A great wedding is to take place at the Abbey between a beautiful young girl and a powerful baron. But this is no love match, and when the baron disappears before the wedding, Cadfael is on the case.

After a wealthy landowner cuts his stepson out of his will to leave his inheritance to the Abbey, he is found poisoned. When Cadfael is called in to investigate, he is shocked to discover that the man's wife is his childhood sweetheart, whom he has not seen for forty years.