Death of a Heretic
-
-
4.0 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
The suspicious death of a foreign bishop brings trouble to Sister Fidelma and the kingdom of Muman.
Ireland. AD 672. The abbey of Muman at Imleach Iubhair is being renovated when its guests' hostel burns to the ground. There is one fatality: Bishop Brodulf of Luxovium, a distinguished visitor and cousin to the King of Franks. Sister Fidelma is asked by Abbot Cu�n to investigate the unfortunate incident and soon finds that the bishop had been stabbed to death before the fire had even started.
Thrown into a world of treachery and jealousy, where religious beliefs are vehemently disputed, Fidelma and her companions, Eadulf and Enda, face a barrier of deceit. The abbey, a leading ecclesiastical teaching institution as well as a conhospitae, housing both men and women, is divided into factions. Can Abbot Cu�n trust Prioress Suanach, who is in charge of the sisterhood? Can the professors trust each other as well as their students? Moreover, can suspicion be levelled at the builders working on the abbey under their dominant Master Builder, S�tae? As more deaths follow, Fidelma must use her wit and ingenuity to unravel the complexities of this intricate mystery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Tremayne's superior 33rd mystery featuring seventh-century Irish law advocate Sister Fidelma (after 2021's The House of Death), tragedy strikes the abbey of Imleach Iubhair, one of the kingdom's most influential religious centers. An abbey guesthouse has just burned down, and its sole occupant, Bishop Brodulf, was found dead inside it. The cleric had been visiting from a region in Burgundy that has adopted the Roman Empire's edicts concerning the only proper way to practice Christianity. Those doctrines have met resistance in Ireland, and Brodulf traveled to the abbey apparently to see how the faith was taught there. Despite the initial belief that he died from the fire, the discovery that he was stabbed through the heart before the conflagration gives Fidelma a homicide to solve. There's no shortage of suspects, given Brodulf's abrasive personality and the possibility that he came to the abbey to search for a noncanonical gospel stored in the abbey's library. Tremayne juggles the different possibilities expertly, and the reveal is satisfying. This is an impressive achievement for a decades-old series.
