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A review by morgandhu
Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne
3.0
This week I felt a need for some light but still interesting reading, which brought to my mind a series I’d gotten interested in through reading several short stories, but had not gotten around to reading any of the novels. That series is Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma books, set in the seventh century British Isles (primarily Ireland) and featuring an Irish religieuse and lawyer of noble blood and deep perceptions.
The first novel of the series is set in 664 AD, during the Council of Whitby at the abbey of Streoneshalh, run by Hild (St. Hilda), relative of King Oswy of Northumbria, a powerful woman in her own right. At this time, there was a great deal of antagonism between the Roman and Irish/Ionian churches, which were different in a number of small, and not-so-small ways. The Council of Whitby was convened to present arguments before King Oswy for which church should be given royal sanction in Northumbria. Sister Fidelma is present as an advisor on legal matters to the Irish delegation.
On their way to the abbey, Sister Fidelma’s party encounter a grim sight, the hanged corpse of a fellow brother of an Irish church order, and learn that he was killed because his defense of the Irish church was taken as an insult by the local lord, Wulfric. This violence pales, however, before the crime that Fidelma is called upon to investigate - the murder of Etain, abbess of Kildare, and a major proponent of the Irish church. In order to remove all suggestion of possible investigative bias, due to the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the crime, Fidelma is asked to conduct her investigations jointly with a young Saxon monk of the Roman church, Brother Eadulf.
The book follows the standard format of the mystery/ crime procedural, of course. Fidelma and Eadulf observe the crime scene, arrange for an autopsy, interview witnesses, suspects and other persons of interest, gather clues, develop timetables and theories, and so on. What makes the novel particularly interesting to me is the wealth of research into legal and social conventions, monastic life and the variations of Christian doctrine that Tremayne employs in building the background and atmosphere. Details of clothing and patterns of monastic life, differences between Saxon and Irish law, arguments over the correct way to determine the date of the Paschal feast (which the Saxons call Easter after their goddess Oestre), all these things help to make the characters and situations real and interesting.
Of course, as with all historical fiction, Tremayne has made some creative alterations to the bare accounts of the events of the Synod of Whitby. There are no records of an abbess of Kildare named, but then the early records of Kildare are a little sketchy, and Etain, in the novel, had only been abbess nine months before her death. And since Etain dies before the Synod is opened, there would have ben no record of her presence there if she had existed. The death of Archbishop Deusdedit of Canterbury is another bit of creative supposition. One would have expected Deusdedit to speak at the Synod, but he does not appear in the records. He is known to have died around the time of the Synod, probably of plague. It is within the realm of possibility that he did go to Whitby, but fell ill and died without participating.
I enjoyed the short stories I’d read, and I’ve enjoyed reading this novel. I look forward to the rest of the series.
The first novel of the series is set in 664 AD, during the Council of Whitby at the abbey of Streoneshalh, run by Hild (St. Hilda), relative of King Oswy of Northumbria, a powerful woman in her own right. At this time, there was a great deal of antagonism between the Roman and Irish/Ionian churches, which were different in a number of small, and not-so-small ways. The Council of Whitby was convened to present arguments before King Oswy for which church should be given royal sanction in Northumbria. Sister Fidelma is present as an advisor on legal matters to the Irish delegation.
On their way to the abbey, Sister Fidelma’s party encounter a grim sight, the hanged corpse of a fellow brother of an Irish church order, and learn that he was killed because his defense of the Irish church was taken as an insult by the local lord, Wulfric. This violence pales, however, before the crime that Fidelma is called upon to investigate - the murder of Etain, abbess of Kildare, and a major proponent of the Irish church. In order to remove all suggestion of possible investigative bias, due to the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the crime, Fidelma is asked to conduct her investigations jointly with a young Saxon monk of the Roman church, Brother Eadulf.
The book follows the standard format of the mystery/ crime procedural, of course. Fidelma and Eadulf observe the crime scene, arrange for an autopsy, interview witnesses, suspects and other persons of interest, gather clues, develop timetables and theories, and so on. What makes the novel particularly interesting to me is the wealth of research into legal and social conventions, monastic life and the variations of Christian doctrine that Tremayne employs in building the background and atmosphere. Details of clothing and patterns of monastic life, differences between Saxon and Irish law, arguments over the correct way to determine the date of the Paschal feast (which the Saxons call Easter after their goddess Oestre), all these things help to make the characters and situations real and interesting.
Of course, as with all historical fiction, Tremayne has made some creative alterations to the bare accounts of the events of the Synod of Whitby. There are no records of an abbess of Kildare named, but then the early records of Kildare are a little sketchy, and Etain, in the novel, had only been abbess nine months before her death. And since Etain dies before the Synod is opened, there would have ben no record of her presence there if she had existed. The death of Archbishop Deusdedit of Canterbury is another bit of creative supposition. One would have expected Deusdedit to speak at the Synod, but he does not appear in the records. He is known to have died around the time of the Synod, probably of plague. It is within the realm of possibility that he did go to Whitby, but fell ill and died without participating.
I enjoyed the short stories I’d read, and I’ve enjoyed reading this novel. I look forward to the rest of the series.