Customer Reviews

Act of Mercy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Act of Mercy is set in the year 666. The novel's protaganist, Sister Fidelma finds herself on a pilgrimage to the Iberian Peninsula. While on the journey, a series of murders are commited on the high seas that Fidelma must solve. In addition, her ex-lover Cian is also traveling with the group of pilgrims and becomes a prime suspect in the crimes. Fidelma must overcome her personal feelings towards Cian if she if to find the true culpret to the crimes, and bring them to justice.

This novel does a great job balancing history with murder, adventure and internal struggle. Some of the high points of Act of Mercy include the Historical Note at the beginning of the book that explains some of the events, people, and circumstances that surround the characters involved in the story. The descriptions and focus on the religious and political climate of the era is also a high point for this novel. In addition, there are a few scenes in this book where the author brings together all the suspects into one room for interogation. This form of detective work done by Fidelma is indicative of such classic novels written by the likes of Agatha Christie and Ngao Marsh.

The plot of this book was solid, but one of the deaths was a bit unconvincing. Also, the romantic angle of the book was a bit tiresome at times. Too often mystery writers feel the need to give their characters a love interest as a means of exploring that characters personal life. Quite frankly, the trick is over-used and there is nothing remotely orginal or engaging about Fidelma's love life. Tremayne does a much better job of fleshing out Fidelma when she is focused on her choice of career, her duty the church, and her passion for seeking the truth in crimes. This is not to suggest that she should not have a love life, but many readers who are fans of historical mysteries are more interested in reading how the characters act and react to the setting in which the author has placed them, not affairs of the heart.

Overall, Tremayne is successful at having his characters act and react to the historical setting he has placed them in. The shotcomings of this book are common to many mystery novels, but not so severe that it ruins the book. In fact, the novel was quite good and gives promise to the rest of the series.

About my grading system: I interpret Amazon.com's five-star ranking system as follows: 1 star = far below standards, 2 stars = below standards, 3 stars = meets standards, 4 stars = exceeds standards, 5 stars = far exceeds standards.

My wife bought about 30 books for a few bucks at a church yard sale. Many of Peter Tremayne's books were in with the ones she purchased. Several months later I began reading them. They were good.
I enjoy the mysteries. I love Tremayne's viewpoint on the Irish Catholic Church. His characters are broad, but nonetheless enjoyable.
However I found Act of Mercy to be the best title so far. It moves quickly and engages the reader better than the previous books. This is not great literature, but it's pretty darn cool to read.

I highly recommend this book to lovers of ships and Celtic history. The writing style is a significant improvement from Tremayne's Shroud for the Archbishop - those who were disappointed with the quality of the writing and characterization in that book may now want to give the series another try. Although the author's biases still come through at times, they are more often hinted than shouted (which was a problem for Shroud), and the characters are considerably fuller and richer.

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Act of Mercy is the eight novel in the Sister Fidelma series. Sister Fidelma of Cashel, a town in Ireland, lived in the seventh century A.D. Although most of Europe was suffering the Dark Ages, Ireland was a progressive land where gender discrimination was rare. In Ireland any citizen could aspire to any profession. Sister is a very talented and accomplished woman. Fidelma has a graduate education where she earned the degree of anruth, similar to a masters degree today. Fidelma works as a dalaigh, an advocate in the courts. As an advocate she investigates problems and crimes and advises both church and civil authorities. A dalaigh may prosecute, defend, or even serve as judge in a criminal proceeding. Fidelma is a strong independent woman.

This story is set almost entirely on a voyage to a pilgrimage. Sister Fidelma begins a "retreat" to a shrine of Saint James in Iberia. Sister feels she needs the retreat to sort out her feelings toward her vocation and her life.

Shortly after departure of the pilgrims, Sister Muirgel, disappears and a bloodstained robe is found in her cabin. Under the authority of the ship's captain, Murchad, Fidelma investigates the mystery.

Sister's investigation faces great difficulties. Is there a murder or suicide, how can one be certain without Muirgel's body? Her fellow passengers seem to resent Fidelma's questions and doubt her authority. She receives shallow and sarcastic answers. What happened to Sister Muirgel? Is Muirgel dead? Did she fall overboard? Did someone push Muirgel overboard?

Her passengers provide little clue to the mystery. Is Sister Crella, Muirgel's cousin and best friend involved? Is Brother Cian, Fidelma's former lover, who recently split with Muirgel part of the mystery? Is it young Brother Guss, Muirgel's most recent lover? Possibly Sister Ainder was involved. Ainder considered Muirgel to have lose morals and a danger to the spiritually of the abbey. Maybe Brother Tola, who quickly dismisses Fidelma as inferior because she is female. Even Sister Gorman, who Ainder believes to be saintly, could be a suspect. All the passengers had motive and opportunity.

The voyage itself is very authentic. The navigation and the description of sailing tasks by the crew seem very real. During a storm scene, I could feel the motion of the ship, the rise and fall, the sliding, the feeling of uncontrolled motion.

The characters are entertaining. Sister Ainder and Brother Tola are strict conservatives that judge Fidelma as not sufficiently religious. Sister Crella is very protective of her relationship with Muirgel and becomes suspicions of Fidelma.

One character, Brother Cian, is a surprise to Fidelma. Ten years ago, Cian was Fidelma's lover. He keeps Sister off balance and stimulates her daydreams. Fidelma relives the pain of her lost love, which challenges her maturity and reaction to men.

This is a good story with non stop nautical action and an intriguing mystery. It is a joy to observe Fidelma stubbornly seek the truth.

As I confessed in my review of another Tremayne "Sister Fidelma" novel, SMOKE IN THE WIND, I am not widely read in the genre of mystery fiction, although that novel did somewhat disappoint me in that it followed the precise formula of Agatha Christi's "Hercule Poirot" mystery novels. Not wanting to judge an author by a single book, however, I was eager to read ACT OF MERCY to see if it was predictably similar to SMOKE IN THE WIND.

There some quite entertaining aspects to ACT OF MERCY. The story line is replete with on-going action, including storms at sea and pursuit by Viking raiders, not to mention a veritable series of gruesome murders that continue to occur despite Sister Fidelma's active investigation. On the other hand, the story line remains formulaic, although the action in the tale tends to conceal this a little bit better than in SMOKE IN THE WIND. The established formula being followed by the author is clearer in retrospect than when one is in the midst of the story, which, to my mind at least, is an improvement.

In fact, I found ACT OF MERCY so much more enjoyable than SMOKE IN THE WIND that I was very close to characterizing it with four Amazon stars, except for one exceptionally annoying trait--the author's ignorance of basic English grammar. Now, why do I feel that this is significant? I do not object to "bad grammar" or even profanity in the mouths of fictional characters if such language is characteristic of their social, cultural, and educational status. To be "good," fiction should be believable in the mind of the receptive reader, and to be believable, the characters must speak and act as one would expect them to. In ACT OF MERCY, however, we find some quite well educated characters speaking as if they had no knowledge of correct grammar.

Specifically, there are pronoun - antecedent agreement errors throughout the text. A very few examples will illustrate the point:

"Truly said, but in my experience the sufferer reflects on their pain either too much or too little." (Page 85) The antecedent noun "sufferer" is singular, while the pronoun referring to it, "their," is plural.

"And once the killer knows you are on their track..." (Page 95) "Killer" is singular, and to refer to a singular noun with the plural pronoun "their" is neither grammatical nor logical.

"The only solution to the mystery was if the killer had noticed the trail they were leaving and had managed to wipe the blood from their feet before they departed from the area." (Page 241) Again, "killer" is singular but is followed in the sentence by no fewer than three plural pronouns!

If the reader wishes additional examples of especially egregious examples of this error, he will find them on pages 98, 269, 271, 272, 283, 287, and 288. This inferior usage does not fit with the other cultural characteristics of the characters who are speaking and materially weakens the verisimilitude of the story. Reading any book requires an investment--no, an expenditure--from the reader in terms of hours out of his or her lifespan. Many books, fiction included, are well worth that expenditure, but I fear that Tremayne's mystery novels may not be among them.

On the other hand, if one finds mystery novels relaxing or diverting, then the action in this one should make ACT OF MERCY enjoyable reading, and I wish such a reader great pleasure with the book. As for me, however, I believe that I have now explored Tremayne's fiction writing sufficiently to conclude that it is not my cup of tea.

I like reading old time mystery. Sister Fidelma is my new favorite besides Sherlock Holme and Hercule Poirot.

Peter Tremayne is the fiction pseudonym of a well-known authority on the ancient Celts, who has utilised his knowledge of the Brehon law system and 7th-Century Irish society to create a new concept in detective fiction.

The Sister Fidelma novels are taking on almost cult proportions and are becoming ever more popular with each offering from the author, whose obvious knowledge of the times and subjects he writes about shines out like a beacon on the shore.

It is the autumn of the year AD666 and Sister Fidelma has set out on a pilgrimage, her main task and thoughts are to reflect on her commitment to the religious life. Her work has to a degree isolated her from the life that a normal Christian Sister would live within the church.

However on the first night aboard ship a pilgrim is washed overboard, but was it an accident or a deliberate act of murder. Fidelma find herself involved in attempting to solve the mystery . . .