I have now read several of these medieval mysteries featuring Fidelma of Cashel, and this is one of the best. Fidelma, sister of King Colgu of Cashel, and her Saxon partner Eadulf (from Saxmundham in Suffolk, England) are about to be married following a long trial period living together and the birth of a baby boy (who was kidnapped in a previous book, The Leper's Bell).
All the important men of Ireland are there, kings and chieftains, bishops and abbots, judges and advocates. And, tagging along, a few women: the consorts of kings, and some nuns who are there merely as scribes to record the words of their masters the abbots and bishops.
No wonder that the, to say the least, big-mouthed and opinionated Lady Fidelma (for "Lady Fidelma" she is here, rather than "Sister") upsets so many people (not least her soon-to-be husband, as we have seen in previous books). (Though MBG seems to have fallen for her - see his review of Master of Souls.)
One of those who find her most offensive is an abbot from the north of Ireland. Ostensibly in Cashel as a wedding guest, he has in reality two quite other purposes, both of which will cause trouble.
Firstly, he wants to stop the marriage, on the grounds that Fidelma and Eadulf are members of religious orders. This monk, Ultan, is an advocate of celibacy and of separate monastic houses for men and women and is fanatically opposed to the mixed communities which had always been the norm within the Celtic Church.
Secondly, he is attempting to impose the authority of his master, Bishop Ségéne of Ard Macha, as heir of St Patrick, Archbishop and primate of all Ireland, and thus entitled to tribute from all the religious establishments in the country. Few bishops or abbots, at least there in the south, accept this claim.
Meanwhile, in a sub-plot, a beautiful young poetess commits suicide by jumping from a cliff after her beloved has been forcibly separated from her and died / been killed. It transpires that the man responsible for this double tragedy was the same Abbot Ultan.
Then, predictably, Ultan is murdered. No one, apart from his henchman Brother Dron and one of the two nuns accompanying them, seems very upset. On the contrary.
'Then you have other suspects for the slaying of Abbot Ultan, and not only the king of Connacht?'
'Suspects?' Fidelma gave a wry smile. 'That is the one thing I am not short of, cousin, for it seems that everyone hated the man and everyone wished him dead.'
A great setting, an excellent story, lots of memorable and well-rounded minor characters.
Why then is it that every time I read a Sister Fidelma novel I have the feeling that I am reading not an example of Historical Fiction but of something else altogether, namely the Alternative Universe genre? It is all so civilised, so - so unbelievable. Not in the sense that fantasy is unbelievable, but in the sense that someone is trying to put one over on us.
I have said before (see eg my reviews of Badger' Moon and The Leper's Bell), and I say again, that 7th-century Ireland (and of course 7th-century Britain, which was then in the throes of becoming Scotland, Wales and England) must have been much less civilised, much more as depicted in, for example, Kate Horsley's Confessions of a Pagan Nun. And the setting of Juiet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy (Daughter of the Forest, etc) which is overtly fantasy in the sense that it is full of magic, is far more authentic and historically accurate than the setting of the Fidelma novels.
JM
