Sunday, November 22, 2009
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Murder/Mystery and Thriller Book Reviews

Peter Tremayne: The Spider's Web: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland (A Sister Fidelma Mystery)

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The Valley of Araglin is an affluent and peaceful Celtic town situated in the Irish mountains. Which is why Sister Fidelma (the Celtic equivalent of Sherlock Holmes) and Brother Eadulf are surprised to be summoned there to deal with a double homicide. The Celtic chieftain, Eber, has been murdered a long with his sister and the locals believe the deaf, dumb and blind mute, Moen, is the culprit as he was found with the bloody knife in his hands.

Sister Fidelma and Brother Eadulf have their doubts about his guilt though, in part because he was brought up by Eber's sister and in part due to his apparent timidity. So as Fidelma investigates family and friends she uncovers that Eber is not the well-loved chieftain that everyone would have her believe. His daughter and wife obviously hated him, to the extent that Eber and his wife even slept in separate beds and houses, others as well had reason enough to kill him.

Tremayne takes a fairly detailed and often dry look at Fidelma's proceedings as she looks and checks and crosschecks all the facts. Spice is added to the pot though as he presents the arguments that must have existed between the Roman Catholic and Celtic views of law and Christianity (this is a time when many of the Celts had taken to Christianity). And the air of mystery that surrounds the story and its inhabitants adds interest to what would otherwise be very a dull read indeed.

You should also probably note that the ending to the book is shockingly bad. For one it's fairly obvious by that point who the culprit is, but then you have to slog through (or at least it felt like it) the type of narrative that runs: but then I knew it wasn't Mrs Red with the candlestick so my attentions went to Mr White with broom handle, then I realised it couldn't be Mr White... etc. etc. (anyone remember Cluedo?)

If Tremayne had written a better ending it would have gone a long way to improving the book, and I probably would have been scoring it along the lines of 3 or possibly 4 stars (if it was excellent).

Readers who are interested in the Celts and in particular Irish Celtic history and law will find this interesting. And if you like the murder/mystery genre then it's probably worth giving it a go. However, I'd recommend looking at your local Amazon website (see the links top and bottom), or bookshop to see if you can pick up a second hand copy. From looking around I've noticed that his other books in the Sister Fidelma series are much better received so really, I'd recommend getting one of them instead.

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