Deed of Murder (Burren Mystery)
Peter Tremayne fans who can't get enough of his feisty seventh-century Irish sleuth, Sister Fidelma, will find Harrison's 16th-century Irish "judge and lawgiver," Mara, a more than acceptable substitute. At the start of the seventh entry (after May 2011's Scales of Retribution), Mara and her husband, King Turlough Donn O'Brien, are holding a belated christening party for their baby son, Cormac, at their castle in western Ireland. Then three of the guests go missing: flirtatious Fiona MacBetha, a law student of Mara's; another law student, Fachtnan, who's sweet on Fiona; and 26-year-old lawyer Eamon, Fachtnan's rival for Fiona's affections. Later, farmer Muiris O'Hynes finds Eamon's dead body in a flax shed. O'Hynes recently caused a stir by winning a bid for a land lease that historically always went to a large local family, but the deed formalizing his right to work the property has disappeared. As usual, Harrison makes combining a whodunit with the subtleties of Irish law look easy. -- Publishers Weekly Starred Review, October 10, 2011Brehon Mara returns in an all-new adventure steeped in Irish history and fascinating legal arcana. As a judge and investigating magistrate, and as the wife of King Turlough, Mara occupies a unique position in the Burren, an independent kingdom in western Ireland. After three of her law students disappear and one turns up dead, Mara is determined to get to the bottom of a mystery that may have far-reaching consequences for both her husband and his entire realm. Utilizing her keen intellect and her razor-sharp powers of deduction, she exposes a treasonous plot with tangled roots in the court of King Henry VIII of England. Intrigue, deception, and age-old feuds between neighboring kingdoms culminate in a suspensefully clever conclusion. Mara, like Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma, exemplifies the fairly independent status accorded to professional women in medieval Ireland. --Booklist, November 1, 2011