{"id":6180,"date":"2016-11-12T13:56:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-12T18:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=6180"},"modified":"2021-11-28T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T19:02:04","slug":"absolution-by-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6180","title":{"rendered":"Absolution By Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Absolution By Murder<\/a><\/em> (1994) Peter Tremayne<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in England in 664<\/p>\n

I’d read these years and years ago, and had been looking for the eBook versions to go on sale, but no joy, so I broke down and bought the first two ebooks.<\/p>\n

Sister Fidelma follows the Celtic Christian tradition, but more importantly to the story, is a legally trained scholar and a d\u00e1laigh<\/em> of the Brehon courts of Ireland. And also important is the fact that Celtic women had pretty much the same rights as Celtic men–quite modern rights compared to the rest of Christendom at that time. <\/p>\n

The story is set in the synod of Whitby, which was to determine whether the English churches would follow Rome or Celtic rule.<\/p>\n

\u2018Easter?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u2018The Saxons have accepted most of our teaching of Christian faith but as for the Paschal feast they insist on naming it after their pagan goddess of fertility, Eostre, whose rituals fall at the time of the Spring equinox.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My favorite part of this series is the backdrop of history, which I can understand might not appeal to all readers, but I love these bits.<\/p>\n

Clergy, even bishops, took spouses; even the religious of houses, whether mixed or not, could have wives and husbands, under Brehon law and custom. But the position of an abbot and abbess was in a different category for they were usually bound to celibacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even the end notes were fascinating to me.<\/p>\n

By the fifth century Rome had forbidden clerics from the rank of abbot and bishop to sleep with their wives and, shortly after, even to marry at all. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don’t get me wrong, the mystery itself is interesting, as are the characters, even if it is somewhat difficult to keep track of the various Saxon and Celtic names.<\/p>\n

I wanted to know everything. I tried to devour knowledge like the bee devours nectar, flitting from one flower to another but never staying long. I am no specialist but have a little knowledge of many things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do like this series, and wish the rest of the series would go on sale in eBook format.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Minotaur Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absolution By Murder (1994) Peter Tremayne Set in England in 664 I’d read these years and years ago, and had been looking for the eBook versions to go on sale, but no joy, so I broke down and bought the first two ebooks. Sister Fidelma follows the Celtic Christian tradition, but more importantly to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,48,33,8,41],"tags":[549,325],"class_list":["post-6180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-female","category-historical","category-mystery","category-reread","tag-high-middle-ages","tag-peter-tremayne"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1BG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6183,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6183","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":0},"title":"Shroud for the Archbishop","author":"Michelle","date":"November 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shroud for the Archbishop (1995) Peter Tremayne Set in Rome in 664. The second Fidelma mystery finds Fidelma and Eadulf in Rome, where Eadulf is secretary to Wighard, Archbishop designate of Canterbury and Fidelma is to present various items to the Bishop of Rome. Again, Fidelma suffers culture shock as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Shroud-Archbishop-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":85,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/85","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":1},"title":"Whispers of the Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Whispers of the Dead (2004) Peter Tremayne When I first came across the Sister Fidelma mysteries I was almost certain I was going to like them. Sister Fidelma is a nun and a lawyer in 17th century Ireland. Written by an Irish scholar, the stories are full of wonderful historical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Whispers-Dead-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11774,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11774","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":2},"title":"Suffer Little Children","author":"Michelle","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Suffer Little Children (1995) Peter Tremayne Set in England in 665 Sister Fidelma has been summoned by the dying King of Muman, to act as an advocate to see who killed the scholar Dacan, who had been visiting the Abbey of Ros Ailithir. The matter is important, because Fearna is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Suffer Little Children","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/Books\/images\/Suffer-Little-Children.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3876,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3876","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":3},"title":"The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction","author":"Michelle","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction (2011) edited by Mike Ashley Introduction: Return to the Crime Scene by Mike Ashley Archimedes and the Scientific Method by Tom Holt Something to do with Diana by Steven Saylor Eyes of the Icon by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer Night of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"mammoth-book-hsitorical-crime-fiction","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mammoth-book-hsitorical-crime-fiction-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/69","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":4},"title":"Emerald Magic","author":"Michelle","date":"May 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Emerald Magic (2004) edited by Andrew M. Greeley This book first caught my eye because I didn't expect to see Andrew Greeley's name in the fantasy section. Then I looked at the list of authors who wrote in this anthology: Charles de Lint, Diane Duane, Elizabeth Haydon, Morgan Llywelyn, Judith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/Emerald-Magic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19809,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19809","url_meta":{"origin":6180,"position":5},"title":"Celtic Myths Series","author":"Michelle","date":"February 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Celtic Myths series (2021) A. L. Lester These are stories based upon various Celtic myths, shifted, twisted, and retold. Surfacing Again (2021) Lin (Malinda) is now spending her Christmas alone, after a blow-up with the friend with whom she was supposed to be vacationing with. The subtext was that she\u2019d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"As the Crows Fly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/As-the-Crows-Fly.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}