Hemlock at Vespers: Fifteen Sister Fidelma Mysteries - Softcover

PETER TREMAYNE is a pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a renowned scholar who has written extensively on the ancient Celts and the Irish. As Tremayne, he is best known for mysteries of Ancient Ireland featuring Sister Fidelma of Cashel, beginning with Absolution by Murder. He lives in London.

Fifteen more times in these Sister Fidelma stories, Tremayne's Celtic sleuth hits the road and sorts out crime in seventh- century Ireland. Does the peripatetic investigator ever go home? Never, in six published novels; once, in the title story of a collection that takes her from apprenticeship as a Brehon advocate through disillusionment with her House of Blessed Brigid to worldly fame as the King's smart sister. Newcomers to the series (Valley of the Shadow, Mar. 2000) will be fascinated by a utopian presentation of unfamiliar social and religious history. Fans will learn little new about either Fidelma or her Ireland and may groan over repeated descriptive epithetsfrom her urchin grin to strands of her rebellious red hairbut theyll also be amazed by how the short form forces Tremayne to economize on detail and prune subplots. While too many clues are clumsy (``Holy Blood''), marring otherwise clever plotting (``The Horse That Died for Shame''), and too much talk (``Tarnished Halo'') has to compensate for too little character development (``A Canticle for Wulfstan''), the best stories economically evoke Fidelmas world as they illustrate her creators debts to Agatha Christiefor example, in the twisted ends of ``Invitation to a Poisoning'' and ``At the Tent of Holofernes.'' The latter, the best in the collection, dramatizes a complex mesh of betrayals that also catch up the sleuth, exploiting both Fidelma's strengths and vulnerabilities. More predictable than experimental, with the mechanical elements diluting some genuine pleasures. Still, Fidelmas fans will welcome this first-ever collection, many stories of which are appearing here for the first time. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.