The Cadfael Chronicles is a series of historical murder mysteries written by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name "Ellis Peters". [1]

In all, Pargeter wrote twenty Cadfael books between 1977 and 1994. Each draws upon the storyline, characters, and developments of previous books in the series. Pargeter apparently planned the 20th instalment as the final book of the series; Brother Cadfael's Penance brings together the loose story ends into a tidy conclusion. Pargeter herself died shortly after its publication, following a long illness.
As a character, Cadfael is an unusual monk, only entering the cloister in his forties after being both a soldier and a sailor; this experience gives him an array of talents and skills useful in monastic life. He is a skillful observer of human nature, a talented herbalist, which skill he learned in the Holy Lands and while a prisoner of the Muslims. He is also inquisitive by nature, energetic, and has an innate, although modern, sense of justice and fair-play. Abbots call upon him as a medical examiner, detective, doctor, and diplomat. His worldly knowledge, although useful, gets him in trouble with the more doctrinaire characters of the series, and the seeming contradiction between the secular and the spiritual worlds forms a central and continuing theme of the stories.

The stories are set between about 1135 and about 1150, during The Anarchy, the destructive contest for the crown of England between King Stephen and Empress Maud. Several true historical events are described or referred to in the books. For example, the translation of Saint Winifred to Shrewsbury Abbey is fictionalised in the first chronicle, A Morbid Taste for Bones, and One Corpse Too Many is inspired by the siege of Shrewsbury Castle by Stephen in 1138.

Cadfael novels
A Morbid Taste for Bones (written in 1977, set in 1137)
One Corpse Too Many (1979, set in August 1138)
Monk's Hood (1980, set in December 1138)
Saint Peter's Fair (1981, set in July 1139)
The Leper of Saint Giles (1981, set in October 1139)
The Virgin in the Ice (1982, set in November 1139)
The Sanctuary Sparrow (1983, set in the Spring of 1140)
The Devil's Novice (1983, set in September 1140)
Dead Man's Ransom (1984, set in February 1141)
The Pilgrim of Hate (1984, set in May 1141)
An Excellent Mystery (1985, set in August 1141)
The Raven in the Foregate (1986, set in December 1141)
The Rose Rent (1986, set in June 1142)
The Hermit of Eyton Forest (1988, set in October 1142)
The Confession of Brother Haluin (1988, set in December 1142)
The Heretic's Apprentice (1990, set in June 1143)
The Potter's Field (1990, set in August 1143)
The Summer of the Danes (1991, set in April 1144)
The Holy Thief (1992, set in August 1144)
Brother Cadfael's Penance (1994, set in November 1145)