TryDisciples.org - Twelve Ordinary Men Stories

A Picture of Times and Ways Long Forgotten   February 2, 2001

Overall, "Shroud for the Archbishop" is a solid mystery, not too challenging yet enlightening. Whatever the text lacks in verisimilitude or accuracy, it makes up for by painting an interesting picture of Rome in those long-forgotten times. I plan to read the whole series.


Ellis Peters he(?) is not   January 18, 2001
  3 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you are a fan of Ellis Peters work, prepare to be disappointed. If you want to read a really good medieval mystery, prepare to be disappointed. If the choices are reading this or People magazine, pick this up. While better than some others I've read, the ending is so contrived as to be ridiculous. I won't give it away but suffice it to say that it relies on a Deux et Machina twist so hamhanded that it made me regret wading through till the end.

Oh, and I agree with those who call Sister Fidelma a self-righteous prig. She certainly is one.


Revealing a Confession is a wrong plot for Irish monks.   October 9, 1999
  13 out of 18 found this review helpful

Sister Fidelma is an Irish nun who very intelligently solves mysteries. The background for this mystery is Rome, and there is some confustion. According to "The Antiphonary of Bangor," "The Lorrha-Stowe Missal" (also known as the Gospel of St. Maelruain), the Rule of St. Columba, and the Rule of St. Maelruain, Sister Fidelma would be singing Matins nightly as an all-night vigil from about midnight to dawn. The fact that she sleeps so much, and follows a much later Roman custom and rule is surprising. She says that the Irish cannot absolve a man for murder, when the Rules state that Absolution is only forbidden in certain crimes such as incest, beastiality, or sex with the dead. Furthermore, at a time when meditation is commonly practiced, along with teaching the classics of the entire world, there is mention of suppression of certain meditation practices. So, this is an historical novel that has some reality to it, but not in the realm of the religious habits of Ireland. The fact that Sister Fidelma is knowledgable about Brehon law is very reasonable, as women could receive an education and also be employed in Ireland. It is also accurate that Sister Fidelma would have expected no servant, as Roman Bishops who visited Ireland could find themselves cleaning stables to fulfill their obligation as monks first, especially if they tried to throw their weight around. Sister Fidelma, to be believable as a nun, should be stopping about every three hours in modern time to sing a few Psalms. At noon she would not be saying an "Angelus" but "May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may He cause the light of His countenance to shine upon us; and may He have mercy on us..." and also "O God, come to my assistance: O Lord, make haste to help me..." and "I have believed, therefore have I spoken: but I have been humbled exceedingly," interspersed with the Antiphon, "Cause the Light of Thy Countenance to shine upon us, O Lord and have mercy on us." (The daytime Hours are recorded in "The Navagatio" of St. Brendan of Clonfert, also known as "The Navigator.") This distinction is important, because Sister Fidelma would have considered herself a nun first, and secondly an interpreter of Brehon law, and thirdly an investigator of crimes. This distinction is also important because the rhythm of the day would have been different, and also the plot would have been very very different. There is a fourth crime which cannot be absolved in old Irish monastic law, and that is for anybody to reveal what is said to them in a Confession. This is a key to this story, and yet Sister Fidelma is more shocked by the murders than by the revelation of a Confession. Back then, the murders would have been considered a much lesser crime.


Could have been so much better!   July 10, 1999
  10 out of 14 found this review helpful

The trouble with this, as with the other Sister Fidelma books I have read, is that the author, while providing what appears to be a solid historical base for his work, makes numerous mistakes and skews the facts to support his own thesis, i.e., that the Celtic church was purer and more just than the Roman church. Actually neither was better than the other, they were simply different, in the same way that the Roman and Eastern churches were and are different. Further, I find very little evidence of the quiet, scholarly,nature-oriented monasticism reflected in the poetry and art of Irish monasticism nor of the true nature of such monastic cities as Clonmacnoise and Kildare itself nor of the fierce, confrontational and exploratory monasticism of Columcille, of Brendan or of the monks who established their monastery on the bare and terrifying Skellig Michael or certainly not those who undertook exile from Ireland to spread the Gospel among the barbarian invaders and founded such Continental monasteries as St. Gall in Switzerland or Bobbio in Italy.

Much is made also of the difference in position of women in Ireland and in the Romanized world. These differences, while real, are not reflections of the differences between their differing churches. Rather, they were part of the inheritance from the pre-Christian era of both cultures. Neither the semi-mythic Maeve nor the historical Boadicia could ever have existed in the Roman world. Christianity greatly raised the position of women in the Roman world, though not perhaps to the level achieved by Celtic women in either pre-Christian or Christian Ireland. Indeed, in traditional Irish culture, even today, there remain vestiges of the old status of women that differ from that in America, England or the Continent of Europe.

It concerns me as an Irishwoman that people who read these books will come away from them with a false image of the issues, history and milieu of this important formative era in European history. Add to this a priggish, short-tempered and arrogant heroine and you have a very disappointing mix. What is sad is that it could have been so much better.


Ugh   May 9, 1999
  2 out of 5 found this review helpful

While this book is, at its best, interesting, it is mainly a mire of predictability and has an overpowering sermonic bent. Sister Fidelma is written as being almost superhumanly righteous. It's quite difficult to like her. The adoration of her ethnic background is heavy-handed. The behaviour of the characters is definitely a bit modern for the time setting. Sister Fidelma is apparently a 17th century Catholic, but her views really seem to differ quite strongly from the religious standard of the day. Peter Tremayne, however, shows some promise as a writer. The book was quite readable, just improbable, and irritating at times.