Many historical events are described or referred to in the books. The stories are set between 11, during the Anarchy, the destructive contest for the crown of England between King Stephen and Empress Matilda (also known as Empress Maud). His worldly knowledge, although useful, gets him into 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. Abbots call upon him as a medical examiner, detective, doctor and diplomat. He is inquisitive and energetic, and has an innate though obviously modern sense of justice and fair play. He is a skilled observer of human nature and a talented herbalist, a skill he learned from Muslims in the Holy Land. His experiences have given him an array of talents and skills useful in monastic life.

Unlike many monks who entered the monastery as children, Cadfael is a conversus, having entered the cloister in his forties after being both a soldier and a sailor.

Pargeter's Cadfael Chronicles are sometimes credited for popularizing a genre known as the historical mystery novel. Many of the books have been adapted as both radio episodes, in which Ray Smith, Glyn Houston and subsequently Philip Madoc played the monk, and a television series starring Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. Pargeter herself died shortly after its publication, following a long illness. Pargeter apparently planned the 20th novel, Brother Cadfael's Penance, as the final book of the series, and it brings together the loose story ends into a tidy conclusion. Each draws on the storyline, characters and developments of the previous books in the series.

In all, Pargeter wrote twenty Cadfael novels between 19. Set in the 12th century during the Anarchy in England, the novels focus on a Benedictine monk, Cadfael, who aids the law by investigating and solving murders. The Cadfael Chronicles is a series of historical murder mysteries written by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter (1913–1995) under the name 'Ellis Peters'.

A morbid taste for bones