"Black Is the Color of my True Love's Heart"

Mystery readers may be familiar with the work of Ellis Peters, who wrote the marvelous books, set in 12th-century England and Wales, featuring the detective work of Brother Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk. Many of the Cadfael stories were made into TV movies, starring Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael.

But before writing the Cadfael mysteries, which began to appear in the late 1970s, Ellis Peters had written another series of excellent classic mysteries set in contemporary England, and featuring Detective Inspector George Felse. They are written with the same passion as the Cadfael novels, for Peters was quite good at creating powerful, believable three-dimensional characters and forcing the reader to care very deeply about them.

One of these was "Black is the Colour of My True Love's Heart," which first appeared in 1967. It is a beautifully-told tale of love and hate, set at an English folk music seminar. It is also a classic puzzle mystery, with clues generously provided and well-camouflaged. You can hear a complete review on this week's Classic Mysteries podcast. Suffice to say that, if you have enjoyed any of the Brother Cadfael mysteries, you will almost certainly enjoy this book and the other mysteries starring Inspector Felse.