A Morbid Taste for Bones - Ellis Peters

This is the "1st Chronicle of Brother Cadfael" or the first of a series that appears to be 20 or so strong.

In the 12th century, a monk in a Benedictine Abbey in Shrewsbury England had a dream that Saint Winefred wanted them to bring her sacred remains to their abbey. At this particular time in history, it seems having famous relics at your church brought you glory and a better standing to compete for donations. So the monks - Brother Cadfael among them - set off to a remote Welsh mountain village called Gwytherin.

The monks and their proposal were not warmly welcomed and when Lord Rhyart - who led the opposition - is found murdered, the monks are viewed even less hospitably.

Brother Cadfael was once a crusader and his experiences have left him with a deep sense of morality and wisdom and a calm, compassionate, and pragmatic manner. And the ability to solve crimes. While he is an obedient monk, he gets most things done by side-stepping all the power struggles and staying just out of the radar. By not bringing attention to himself, he is not recognized as being as intelligent as he truly is.

The other characters are sufficiently developed that you feel you know them - some you like and some you don't. It's an excellent mystery in that you change your mind several times about "who done it" prior to finishing the book. It does however, have a good bit of descriptive text, which slows the book down a bit. If you don't like that sort of thing, you won't like the book.

All in all, it's unique setting and characters make it a great read and I will definitely move on to the other books at some point.