The Rose Rent - Ellis Peters

the rose rent
ellis peters
c. 1986
240 pages
completed 6/18/2009

read for: brother cadfael chronicles

*may contain spoilers*

Set in the spring of 1142, The Rose Rent is a mystery revolved around the young widow Judith Pearle, the house she bequeathed to the Shrewsbury Abbey for a rent of an annual white rose from the garden, and the murder of the young Brother Eluric who was in love with Judith. Brother Cadfael and Hugh Berringar work together to uncover the murderer. However, the mystery is intensified after the disappearance of Judith and the death of another young man of her household.

Slowly but surely I am making my way through these books. It's nice that I get to go back and forth between ones where I am familiar with the story since they were made into episodes for the TV series and ones that are completely new. This installment is one I have seen many times. It's a little hard to review the books that I've seen the movie for...

This one is good. It's an interesting and somewhat romantic mystery, what with the rent being a single white rose. There were some changes/additions to the story when the movie was made. Unfortunately since I saw the movie first, I was disappointed to not find those things in the book. Niall Bronzesmith is a little bit of a question mark in the movie, a little angry and bitter and a possible suspect, but in the book he's sweet and incredibly caring. The climax of the movie is a little more intense with the murderer setting the house and rosebush on fire and trying to burn himself and Judith unless she agrees to marry him, but that does not happen at all in the book. Other than those little discrepancies that disappointed me a bit, this installment was very enjoyable. And I guess I can't really fault the book for not having those bits.

4/5