Behold a Pale Horse

May 28, 2012
Tremayne’s enjoyable 22nd seventh-century historical featuring Sister Fidelma (after 2011’s The Chalice of Blood) is, despite the subtitle, a sequel to the second Fidelma mystery, Shroud for the Archbishop (1995), set in Italy. On her journey home to Ireland, in a deserted Genoa street, Fidelma sees two cloaked figures assault an elderly religious with cudgels. After intervening to save the man’s life, Fidelma learns that the intended victim was from the Abbey of Bobium, where her former tutor, Brother Ruadán, resides. To her dismay, Ruadán is at death’s door after being attacked by adherents of the heretic Arius, who have rejected the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Her decision to visit her old mentor while she still can plunges her into the midst of a complex murder mystery. The writing and sense of place are as assured as ever, as is Tremayne’s ingenuity at crafting a traditional whodunit. Agent: Charles Schlessiger, Brandt & Hochman.

June 15, 2012
In a flashback to the days before she married, Sister Fidelma of Cashel has a wild adventure in A.D. 664 Italy. Sister Fidelma is returning from Rome, where she solved a murder for the Pope. While stranded in Genua, she saves Magister Abo of Bobium from an attack and learns that her old teacher Brother Ruadan is at the Abbey of Bobium. Determined to visit Ruadan before he dies, Fidelma rides with Abo and his companions, Brother Faro and Sister Gisa, toward Bobium. On the way, they are again attacked and rescued by Wulfoald, commander of troops for Radoald, Lord of Trebbia. Fidelma barely arrives in time to speak with her mentor, who's been badly beaten and left for dead, apparently by a faction that opposes the teachings of Abbot Servillius of Bobium. Several local lords who have religious differences are struggling for power, and Fidelma is soon caught in the middle. Since she doesn't speak the local language, she seeks help from Brother Eolann, the librarian, who's also from Ireland. A hidden treasure may hold the answers to many of her questions, but they won't be disclosed until Brother Ruadan has been attacked again, this time fatally, and Fidelma herself kidnapped while trying to solve the murder of a young goatherd. Once again, Tremayne (The Chalice of Blood, 2011, etc.) presents a detailed, readable depiction of life in ancient times with a clever mystery neatly woven into the plot.

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June 1, 2012

In her most dangerous outing yet, Sister Fidelma tries to break up a conspiracy in Italy. A standard-bearing historical series (The Chalice of Blood) that's been running since 1994.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
Tremayne takes a chronological detour in the twentieth Sister Fidelma mystery, reaching back into the past to immediately follow the events set forth in Shroud for the Archbishop (1996), the second installment in the Fidelma canon. After departing from Rome, a shipwreck strands Fidelma in the port city of Genua (Genoa). Waylaid for an indeterminate number of days, she decides to visit the Abbey of Bobbio in the Apennine Mountains, hoping to arrive before the imminent death of her former tutor, Brother Ruadan. Attacked along the way and arriving at her destination in the middle of what appears to be a regional war waged between feuding factions of the faithful, she senses that evil is on the loose in the abbey. Utilizing the deductive skills she honed as an advocate for the Brehon courts in Ireland, she exposes a vicious conspiracy with roots in the rivalry between followers of the Nicene and the Arian Creeds. Power, politics, and religion form an unholy trinity as Tremayne embeds the intricacies of medieval church history into a compulsively readable whodunit fronted by one of the most reliably intriguing characters to grace the pages of the genre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)