The Trinity Cat and Other Mysteries

Best known for her creation of the Medieval sleuth Brother Cadfael, Ellis Peters (the pseudonym of Edith Pargeter, 1913-1995), also wrote many novelettes and short stories full of atmospheric settings and, as Martin Edwards says in his introduction, characters "with the warmth and humanity that was her hallmark." During the 1950's she wrote long stories for the British magazine market about decent young women and men caught up in mystery and suspense, sometimes with archeology as the background, sometimes with ancient manuscripts, and sometimes set in the mountains of Italy or southern France. A decade later, she contributed short-short, twist-in-the-tail, stories to American newspaper supplements. Even at only a few hundred words, she created a variety of settings and plots. These were followed by her greatest period, with stories set in English villages, including the classic title story about the clues produced by a cat. The book concludes with "The Man Who Held Up the Roof," a previously unpublished biter-bit tale.