How long does it take to read Dead Man's Ransom?
Dead Man's Ransom by Ellis Peters takes about 4 hours 6 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Book 9 of The Cadfael Chronicles
Previous: The Devil's Novice Next: The Pilgrim of Hate
About 4 hours 6 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1984. 224 pages, about 61,600 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 51 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 6 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 34 minutes |
The page count is the median across 35 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In February of 1141, men march home from war to Shrewsbury, but the captured sheriff Gilbert Prestcote is not among them. Elis, a young Welsh prisoner, is delivered to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to begin a tale that will test Brother Cadfael’s sense of justice—and his heart. By good fortune, it seems, the prisoner can be exchanged as Sheriff Prestcote’s ransom. What no one expects is that good-natured Elis will be struck down by cupid’s arrow. The sheriff’s own daughter holds him in thrall, and she, too, is blind with passion. But regaining her father means losing her lover. The sheriff, ailing and frail, is brought to the abbey’s infirmary—where he is murdered. Suspicion falls on the prisoner, who has only his Welsh honor to gain Brother Cadfael’s help. And Cadfael gives it, not knowing the truth will be a trial for his own soul.
Subjects: Fiction, Herbalists, Monks, Brother Cadfael (Fictitious character), History, Fiction, mystery & detective, general
