Brother Donnchad has been found dead in his cubicle with stab wounds to
his back.l at the abby of Lios Mor. The confounding thing is that his
cell was locked from the inside. The abbot requests that Sister Fidelma
be sent to investigate. She readily agrees. However, the king agrees
to send her on the condition that she take Brother Eadulf to aid with
the investigation. The two had recently had disagreements and had gone
their separate ways.
Eadulf reluctantly agrees to go along. The king assigns Gorman to
travel with them as a guard. It is fortunate that he does travel with,
because he prevents them from being killed in an ambush.n later at the
abbey, Fidelma learns that the steward, Brother Lugna, was not in favour
of her being sent for. He is sure that the monks could have handled
the situation by themselves.
One of the first things of note at the abbey is the new construction of
stone buildings. Eadulf and Fidelma wonder where the funds for such a
building project has come from. In the course of the investigation,
they find out that the steward has told the monks to limit the amount of
information that they pass on to the pair of investigators.
Soon after that a visitor comes to Lios Mor, requesting Fidelma
arbitrate in a robbery of books. As the group returns to his community,
they see warriors leaving and shortly thereafter see that the library
is on fire. Is this a precursor to all out war amongst the tribes of
this part of Ireland? Will Fidelma and Eadulf be able to resolve this
crisis and solve the murder before things escalate? In order to solve
this conundrum, Fidelma needs to find the key evidence.
Author Peter Tremayne has written an excellent murder mystery set in the
first millennium at a time when the church was still finding its way.
Potential suspects are thrown up to the reader with the real culprits
left to the very end of the story. Well worth the read.
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