** spoiler alert ** 
 I got this book out of the library because my partner recommended it to me. He said that given how much I enjoyed the monastic mystery solving in the Cadfael Chronicles, I would probably enjoy this as well. 
 I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. The plot is good. The characters are wonderful. The style, however, annoys me. I don't mind the fact that the book is written from the point of view of one of the characters when he's grown old. I do object to the first section that sets up the whole "OMG! I found a really old manuscript!" thing that so many books seem to do. Sometimes it works, most of the time it just irritates (me). There are long ponderous sections that drag on and seem uninteresting. Was the heretic/inquisition side-plot necessary? All it did was increase my ire towards organised religion. Was the 'all women are evil' dialogue really necessary? I understand that many religious people in the Middle Ages may have felt that way, but this book was written in a time when attitudes are supposed to have changed. There's no need to have the attitudes of the Middle Ages changed, but there's really no need to explicitly state their views on the worthlessness and iniquity of women. 
 Like I said, I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. But you should probably read it anyway.