Ellis Peters, the chosen nom de plume of British novelist Edith Pargeter, is best remembered for bringing to life the world of the middle ages in her popular chronicle of the later life of the likeable Brother Cadfael. A crusader-turned-monk and herbalist, Brother Cadfael appears in a series of novels and short stories that combines historical facts, a touch of romance, and a healthy dollop of detection into a popular mix. Setting her novels on the Welsh border near the abbey town of Shrewsbury where she herself made her home, Peters positions her characters back in time during the tumultuous reign of Stephen of England, when skirmishes between the man who claimed the throne and his cousin the Empress Maud waged continuously throughout the realm.

Prior to writing the "Brother Cadfael" novels that would occupy her until her death in 1995, Peters wrote a series of thrillers that focus...