Brother Walter Books In Order

Publication Order of A Brother Walter Mystery Books

Brother Walter series by Stephen Wheeler

Author Stephen Wheeler writes the “Brother Walter” series of historical mystery novels. The series began publication in the year 2014, when “Unholy Innocence” was released.

The series stars Brother Walter, who is the physician at St. Edmund’s Abbey. The books follow his adventures, while he plays amateur sleuth. The books are set late in the 1100s to early in the 1200s.

“Unholy Innocence” is the first novel in the “Brother Walter” series, which was released in the year 2014. May of 1199. Richard the Lionheart has died and John, Richard’s brother, is crowned King of England.

John goes to St. Edmund’s abbey in Suffolk to give thanks for his accession. This visit coincides with the killing of a twelve year old boy whose corpse shows the marks of martyrdom and ritual sacrifice. It is not the first time such a thing has happened. Eighteen years before another kid in the town was killed under similar circumstances.

Abbot Samson has to find out if this was one more martyrdom or just ordinary murder and has Master Walter, the abbey’s physician, to investigate. Walter finds corruption as well as a web of intrigue that involves some of the highest in the land. Unbeknownst to him, his own past has secrets of its own it is holding onto that is going to put his life in danger before the solution is revealed.

Readers find Brother Walter to be a fun character to read about, with his witty and inquisitive mind that he has. This was a good book from beginning to the finish and had many turns and twists to it. The author does an excellent job making you think you have solved the mystery, before you find out that you were wrong.

“Abbot’s Passion” is the second novel in the “Brother Walter” series, which was released in the year 2014. Easter in the year 1201. after a treaty between King Philip of France and King John, England is at peace, finally. The same cannot be said of Saint Edmund’s Abbey, though. The pope’s new legate has shown up, and is determined to stir up some controversy.

For Abbot Samson this gives him the chance of a new ally against an old enemy. His intrigues, however, lead to a disaster with Brother Walter being put into mortal danger, as well as a full-scale battle in Lakenheath, a village nearby.

In the middle of everything, the legate’s clerk is killed, with a London merchant getting wrongly accused. In desperation, the man gets granted sanctuary at the shrine of the abbey, but it is just a brief respite. All of the weight of both the church and the judiciary are going against him. With religious bigotry, rape, and trial by combat, Walter must find the real killer before a terrible justice can be done and the wrong guy gets hanged.

Stephen is an author with a way with words and is able to take his readers on a merry chase. The stories move quickly, and feature some moments that make you laugh out loud. The mysteries are tough to unravel and are intriguing.

“Walter’s Ghost” is the third novel in the “Brother Walter” series, which was released in the year 2016. Summer of the year 1206. Bury St. Edmunds was called Bedricksworth after the old family that used to live there, before it was renamed. Arulf, the final surviving member of the Bedrick family, wants an heir to carry on the name of the family. He marries for a fifth time, and this is his final chance to accomplish his goal. Arnulf has got a secret.

In New Year’s Day 1903, a celebrated writer of ghost stories, M. R. James is digging up graves of five medieval abbots from Bury. In one of these graves he finds something that really should not be there.

How are these events connected? What could the secret be that is found buried in the abbot’s grave? Over everything hovers Brother Walter’s ghost, who is driving the investigation forward to solve a seven century old murder mystery as well as one in the twentieth in the only way Walter is able to.

“Monk’s Curse” is the fourth novel in the “Brother Walter” series, which was released in the year 2016. December 1211. Samson is dying, after being abbot of Saint Edmund’s for thirty years. Before he takes his final breath, he calls Walter to his bedside so that he can tell the tale of the Green Children of Woolpit. It is a well-known local legend about two kids that were found half a century back wandering around a Suffolk field.

Samson tells that he has been visited recently by a mysterious female that says a killing will take place soon. Walter is unable to find out about the woman or anybody else that has seen her. Is she real, or she, like the green children, just one more product of a dying guy’s imagination?

Walter is reluctant to get involved, but when he begins investigating, he sees that there is more to both stories than first appears. He eventually unmasks a story of corruption and abuse that goes to government’s very core.

Will Walter finally be able to solve the mystery of the Green Children of Woolpit and stop a killing from happening, or is he too late already?

Once more, the author takes you on a merry journey with a ton of turns and twists in it. These are some absolutely funny, fast paced, and intriguing mystery novels.

“Blood Moon” is the fifth novel in the “Brother Walter” series, which was released in the year 2016. November 1214. King John has gone back to England after losing his empire to King Philip of France. Desperate for support and humiliated, he goes to Bury St. Edmunds where Abbot Samson has just died and there is a fight raging on among the monks over who is going to be his successor.

With all of this going on, a young couple and their maid show up, what seems to be inconsequential arrival. The wife is very pregnant and gives birth during the night to a girl.

The maid is mysteriously killed and it is quickly obvious that the family is not what it appears to be. Rebellion looming, Walter of Ixworth is quickly pulled in again to investigating a killing and a conspiracy that threatens to sink the country into a civil war. It leads to the final foe that is Magna Carta and Runnymede.