Let’s forget all this nonsense about whether or not it is historically true (of this universe!) and, as Tremayne himself puts it, “enter Fidelma’s world” and enjoy it.

Tremayne has created a wonderful – and I do mean wonderful – alternative universe and a wonderful character – person – in Sister Fidelma. And (just one example of many, many): “The Irish laws gave more rights and protection to women than any other western law code at that time or since.” Not in this universe. She was the youngest daughter of Failbe Fland, the king, who died the year after her birth … etc.” Not in this universe.

In a Historical Note at the beginning of Suffer the Little Children (the third in this series), Peter Tremayne writes “Fidelma was born at Cashel, capital of the Kingdom of Muman (Munster) in southwest Ireland, in AD 636. 'The story moves forward with Fidelma weaving her way through to the end with skill and intelligence.A novel of Ancient Ireland featuring Sister FidelmaĪll good novels describe and recount what actually happened in some alternative universe. 'I was transported back in time Peter Tremayne brought the location and characters to life' Read this and you will certainly want to read the rest of this excellent series' 'Superb storytelling from a usually neglected era. What readers are saying about ABSOLUTION OF MURDER: Can the solution to the mysteries avert such a conflict? More gruesome deaths follow and the friction among the clerics could end in civil war. However, the two are so unlike that their partnership is described as that of a wolf and a fox - but which is which? As an advocate of the Brehon Court, she is called on to investigate the murder with Brother Eadulf, of the Roman faction. When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic Church, is found murdered suspicion inevitably rests on the Roman faction.Īttending the Synod is Fidelma, of the community of St Brigid of Kildare. Conspirators plot an assassination, while mysterious, violent death stalks the shadowy cloisters of the Abbey of St Hilda. Even Brother Cadfael might have tolerated her' Kirkus ReviewsĪs the leading churchmen and women gather at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD to debate the rival merits of the Celtic and Roman Churches, tempers begin to fray. PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTION BY MURDER: 'In the simultaneously sharp-tongued and full womanly figure of Sister Fidelma, Tremayne has created a heroine whom many readers will willingly follow. Click here to purchase from Rakuten Kobo ABSOLUTION BY MURDER is the brilliant and evocative first novel in Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series, bringing 7th-century Ireland vividly to life.

Absolution by murder