The Spider's Web (Sister Fidelma Mysteries Book 5)
A heart-stopping mystery set in Medieval Ireland
-
-
4.2 • 6 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Irish super-sleuth Sister Fidelma is faced with a challenging and disturbing case to investigate in THE SPIDER'S WEB, Peter Tremayne's fifth unputdownable Celtic mystery.
PRAISE FOR THE SISTER FIDELMA SERIES: 'The background detail is brilliantly defined . . . wonderfully evocative' The Times, 'A brilliant and beguiling heroine. Immensely appealing' Publishers Weekly
Ebert is not a man to make enemies. He is a chieftain with a reputation for kindliness and generosity. Yet, one night, his household is aroused by a scream from his chamber. The servants burst in to find Móen, a young man to whom Eber had extended his protection, crouched over the bloody body of the chieftain. Móen's clothes are drenched in Eber's blood and he is clutching a bloodstained knife in his hand.
There seems no doubt of culpability, but why did Móen kill the gentle and courteous Eber? The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Móen himself cannot tell them - for he is deaf, dumb and blind...
Sister Fidelma, advocate of the ancient Irish law courts, is compelled to begin an investigation of the killing in order to present an argument on Móen's behalf before he is condemned. Assisted by Brother Eadulf, Fidelma finds that the path to truth twists and turns with the sinister forces of primitive passions and subtle ambitions - and leads inexorably to a final, stunning denouement.
What readers are saying about THE SPIDER'S WEB:
'Another great read, full of interesting insight into the times, the prejudices and superstitions, whilst playing out the complex details of the plot'
'Peter Tremayne has woven a very clever story with as many paths as the web of a spider. Beautiful'
'The Sister Fidelma mysteries are absolutely the best'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rich with Irish lore, Tremayne's fifth entry in his Sister Fidelma series (following The Subtle Serpent) introduces readers to further Celtic law, religion and mores in a multilayered search for a cold-blooded killer. In A.D. 668, Fidelma, an advocate in the law courts of Ireland, is sent by her brother, the king of Muman, to investigate the murder of a Celtic chieftain. Though a blind, deaf mute named M en was found holding a bloody knife near the chieftain's corpse, Fidelma and her Saxon friend Eadulf are not convinced that the man is guilty. For one thing, M en is also supposed to have killed the chieftain's sister, who raised M en since he was a babe, and Fidelma finds it hard to believe that in one night the blind deaf-mute would slay the two people in his compound who had befriended him. As Fidelma and Eadulf scrutinize the evidence, they cast about for other suspects among the chieftain's family and subjects. They find a daughter who hated her father and quickly took power after his death, a wife who scorned her husband, a cleric whose religion leans toward Roman practices and a wealthy cousin who assumed that he was the chieftain's heir. Despite several threats to their lives, the sleuthing sister and her sidekick persist and finally ferret out the culprit. In painstaking detail, Tremayne follows Fidelma's careful analysis of the facts while spicing the narrative with asides on the battle between Roman Catholic and Celtic views of theology and law. Though the secondary characters lack complexity, Fidelma's own is strong enough to carry the story, albeit slowly, to its finale.
