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Dead Man's Ransom is the ninth book in the Brother Cadfael series by
Ellis Peters, the pen name of Edith Pargeter. In this book, Sheriff Gilbert Prestcote is captured in a three-way battle between the Empress Maud's forces, King Stephen's forces, and the Welsh. Some time afterward, a young Welshman on a raiding party to Godric's Ford finds himself unexpectedly captured by a coalition of local nuns and woodsmen and turned over to Hugh Beringar, Prestcote's deputy. When it is discovered that the young man is related to the Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd, Beringar attempts to arrange his exchange for Prestcote (assuming Gwynedd's people have him), but before the prisoner exchange can take place,
Prescote is found murdered. As in the first eight of the Brother Cadfael books (A Morbid Taste for Bones, One Corpse Too Many, Monk's Hood, St. Peter's Fair, The Leper of St. Giles, The Virgin in the Ice, The Sanctuary Sparrow, and The Devil's Novice), Pargeter/Peters weaves an engaging murder mystery filled with appealing characters and historical details (although occasionally she mixes up her medieval times). Anyone who enjoys reading mystery stories and/or has an interest in the early Middle Ages will probably enjoy this series. Pargeter also wrote a number of books set in other time periods under the name Ellis Peters, as well as some books under her own name. Pargeter/Peters died in 1995.
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