"God's reach is longer than man's; it had better be, otherwise we are all lost."The Sanctuary Sparrow is a Brother Cadfael mystery. I enjoy medieval settings and Brother Cadfael circuitous solving of mysteries, plus seeing the hand of God in the solution. Ellis Peters, the author, manages to provide me with many hours of enjoyment with her Brother Cadfael mysteries.
In The Sanctuary Sparrow the protagonist is described as a hunted sparrow. He is a small, delicate man who races into the abbey, pursued by an angry mob intent on hanging him. The poor man races up the sanctuary steps and grabs hold of the altar cloth.
"...the great parish door suddenly hurled open to crash against the wall, and something unseen came hurtling and scrabbling and gasping down the length of the nave, reeling and fumbling and fending itself off from wall and pillar, heaving at breth as though run to death already...All Cadfael could see of the quarry was a thin arm and a fist hardly bigger than a child's that reached out of the chaos to grip the edge of the altar cloth with life-and-death desperation."
What the hunted man, Liliwin, was accused of was theft and attempted murder. As the story progresses, it certainly looks like he is guilty. There is romance too. In fact two romances are entertwined in the mystery, but one is ill fated. It is Cadfael's intuition and persistant investigatory techniques that lead to solving the crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment