Shropshire

Peters's mysteries, both modern and medieval, are set in Shropshire. The author of the enormously popular Brother Cadfael series here brings the grace and intensity of her prose to this finely detailed look at her home shire in western England. Peters (the pen name of Edith Pargeter) explains that when she was young her family activities and her later education were based in her home county, noting that the area is in her blood and that ``the blood gets into the ink.'' Several specific sites utilized in her novels are illustrated among Ray Morgan's 55 lush, full-page color photos, including Long Mountains in The Heaven Tree and the Shrewsbury abbey of the Brother Cadfael chronicles. She discusses the region's history and geography in a casual yet satisfying way and gives care to describe the destruction and rebuilding of ancient churches. Readers who follow Peters as she moves from one medieval market town to the next, comments on the Welsh influence and describes Roman sites, will wish an area map had been included. (Mar.)