Ook in het oude Ierland in de tweede helft van de 7e eeuw zijn er fanatici die het nieuwe geloof te vuur en te zwaard verdedigen. Als daar dan ook nog gekwetste familie-eer en moederliefde bij komen, kan dat een dodelijke mix worden. Fidelma legt alle puzzelstukjes weer vakkundig in elkaar, samen met Eadulf, met wie het huwelijk niet helemaal gladjes verloopt.

I've been reading Sister Fidelma mysteries for years. I have always enjoyed reading them and always feel like I've been transported back to ancient Ireland. I have been disappointed with the last couple, not because they were bad, but just that I felt they didn't stand up to the previous books. I am happy to report I think this was an excellent one and is well worth the read.

Fidelma and Eadulf have been separated since the end of the last book (approx. 6 weeks) and her brother the King has asked her to resolve a locked door mystery of a murder at a nearby Abbey. He has one condition, that she take Eadulf along as her partner is solving the mystery. It is a tricky mystery and there are quite a few clues. The funny thing is I suspected the culprit almost immediately, but the partner went right over my head. Great mystery, Fidelma is pushed to her limits and Eadulf saves the day. But can they resolve personal their differences? ( )

Elsewhere I have extolled the Sister Fidelma mystery series, which Peter Tremayne has set in ancient Ireland. It provides an educated glimpse into an exotic time and place, Ireland in the AD 600s, a place with a more advanced and enlightened (to 21st century sensibilities) social and legal system than any country near it, and maybe beyond. Mr. Tremayne has invented a nun in her mid-to-late 20s, who serves as a dálaigh (pronounced ‘dawley’), or court prosecutor, and who roves the Five Kingdoms of Ireland tackling conundrums and bringing miscreants to justice.

One bewitching surprise is that Fidelma is married and has a young son. She has taken Eadulf, a Saxon monk (with his endearing ‘everyman’ quality) as her husband, as the Church has not fully adopted the Roman edict of celibacy. Far from it. And herein lies one of the chief charms of the series: we get a historian’s (whose real name is Peter Berresford Ellis) best attempt to find the tenor of a very fluid time in Church history, and he captures the tension created when encroaching Roman orthodoxy inexorably supplants ancient native traditions. This is a theme in all the entries of this series, but Mr. Tremayne turns it up a couple of notches for “Chalice of Blood,” and this qualitative change is why I’m giving this book space of its own.

The murder victim in this story, a scholarly monk, has returned from his researches in the Holy Land in a state of crisis. He has reviewed documents that shake his faith, and knows that in following his conscience he will risk censure and excommunication as a heretic, and thus bring disgrace to his abbey. So here the author lets the historian in him come to the fore – praise be! – and we get chapter and verse on major treatises in the debate. A second-century Greek philosopher, Celsus, challenged what he thought was the unfounded Christian view of humans as resembling God. After all, why shouldn’t God, if it had taken the absurd step of manifesting itself on Earth, have assumed the form on an insect, bird, or horse? He also takes to task the Hebrew tradition that they are the chosen people, finding it egocentric and preposterous. His texts do not survive, but were taken seriously enough that the pre-Nicene Church Father, Origen, felt compelled to take him on and aver the Church position, point-by-point. It is from Origen that we know Celsus. Mr. Tremayne has turned a lovely trick and served his readers superbly with this plot device.

So here we have, in addition to well-plotted and -paced mystery, a tantalizing hint of the sweeping nature of the early Christian debate, and some of the work that comprised it. “Chalice of Blood” delivers, very gratifyingly, on every promise.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2011/12/chalice-of-blood-by-peter-tremayne.ht... ( )

This murder mystery story is set in ancient Ireland. The investigation of the murder pulls in other plot threads so the mystery widens. It's fairly involving, but not brilliant. One slight annoyance is that we kept on being told the Irish word for lots of different things, which felt a bit unnecessary. Although this book is the first I've read and is several books through the series I didn't feel like I couldn't understand what was going on. The characters are interesting people and there are references to some of the previous stories.

Overall though this is a good read. ( )

I truly do enjoy this series, and each book is always a page-turner with many murders and various suspects and some real red herrings thrown in to confuse the issue. So even though these books are solidly historical, they are wonderful "who-dunits" too. For those who don't know Fidelma, be prepared for a supremely intelligent and strong woman who does not suffer fools gladly. Her husband Eadulf is also a wonderful character who is very realistic and a wonderful foil for Fidelma and her passions. Medieval Ireland never seemed so real to me until I began reading this series. When Fidelma and Eadulf are asked to look into the mysterious murder of an eminent scholar in an abbey, they uncover a plot that is beyond belief and a madness and a zealousness that leaves a path of destruction in its wake. I truly do recommend this series, but my opinion is that it must be read as a series in order to receive a full appreciation of the magnitude of Tremayne's work. ( )