Customer Reviews

Valley of the Shadow: A Celtic Mystery (Celtic Mysteries)

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In 666 AD, Chieftain Laisre rules over Gleann Geis, an isolated valley where the people revere Druid Priests. Over the years, many of the villagers married outsiders, which has allowed Christianity to gain a foothold in the area. The Christians demand their own church and school, which forces Laisre to ask his liege, the King of Mumar to negotiate with the Church. The King sends his emissaries, Sister Fidelma and Brother Eadulf to Gleann Geis.

However, a few miles from the village, the traveling duo comes across the grim sight of thirty-three dead men laid out according to a pagan death ritual. Sister Fidelma, an advocate of the Ireland law courts, wants to know who executed these people. The villagers swear they know nothing about the abomination. They want the Sister to begin negotiation instead of starting her own investigation. However, Sister Fidelma quickly concludes that an evil lurks in the valley, but before she can prove her charges, another murder occurs. The evidence points towards Sister Fidelma. To clear her name and stop a potential bloody battle from turning a happy valley into the valley of death, Sister Fidelma begins to search for the malfeasance that covets power at all cost to others.

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW is a work rich in Irish myths that allows the audience to catch the beauty of seventh century Ireland. The charcaters are well drawn, seem genuine, and make the era appear before the audience,s eyes. The fast moving plot provides a wonderfully designed mystery interwoven inside a meticulously researched history that brings insight into the past. Sub-genre fans will fully enjoy this tale and the other works of artist Peter Tremayne

Harriet Klausner

One of the best things about Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma mysteries are the well-drawn plots. This installment certainly lives up to expectations. Valley of the Shadow is a book steeped in Irish history and the different opposing religious and ideological factions that existed in that era. The author combines a deeply textured and fascinating background with multi-dimensional characters and a fast-paced, twisting plot in which you can't guess the solution to the mystery until the very end. I especially found the historical background very interesting. Tremayne has obviously done a great deal of research for this book. I greatly enjoyed reading Valley of the Shadow, and I suggest it as a wonderful read for any history buff or mystery enthusiast out there- and even if you are neither, I think you will find this novel intriguing.

While a bit over-written for my taste, British author Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series paints a vivid, surprising picture of seventh century Ireland and England. Ireland, recently converted to Christianity, had a highly evolved system of laws and education and an elected monarchy. Women enjoyed personal and professional freedoms they would not see again for more than 1200 years.

In this latest, Tremayne, pseudonym for Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis, sends Sister Fidelma to an isolated Druidic outpost as an emissary for her brother, the King of Muman, to negotiate the construction of a Christian church and school in the pagan village. But near the village, Fidelma (who is also an advocate of the law courts, a combination lawyer and investigator) and her series companion, the Saxon Brother Eadulf, come upon a grisly sight. Thirty-three slaughtered men lie naked in a sunwise circle, killed and arranged according to ancient pagan ritual.

Before the mystery is solved, several more people will die and Fidelma herself will stand accused of murder. Full of historical detail about ancient law and life, with a quick-witted heroine, Tremayne's seventh should please old fans and win new ones.

Quick, ladies, name three male authors who can write convincingly from a woman's viewpoint. Gentlemen, feel free to vote all you wish, but your votes won't be counted for this unofficial poll.

Stumped? Me, too. And Peter Tremayne with his emotionless, sexless Sister Fidelma certainly doesn't deserve a place in the list. In fact, the viewpoint in Valley of the Shadow wanders erratically between the Irish nun, her besotted Saxon priest sidekick, secondary characters and even the random goat on the hillside, making it nigh unto impossible to develop a bond with any of them. Except, maybe, the goat.

In A.D. 666 -- pun intended, no doubt -- Fidelma travels to the secluded Gleann Geis at her brother the king's bequest to negotiate the establishment of a Christian church in this notorious Druidic and vigorously anti-Christian stronghold. Near the end of the journey, she and her companion discover the grisly remains of 33 monks, slaughtered identically and arranged in a circle like points on a sundial. The whys and wherefores of this ritualistic murder, interpreted as a particularly nasty "Christian, go home" statement, consume Fidelma's energies for the remainder of the book.

Never mind the fact that the deeply spiritual Celts embraced Christianity because its evangelists, like Patrick and Columba, cleverly assimilated the tenets of older religions rather than coming into conflict with them. Never mind the fact that, by the 7th century, Druidic philosophy lived only in folk memory, as in the phrase "knock on wood" and the practice of kissing under mistletoe. Despite heavy reliance upon these common misconceptions, Valley of the Shadow promises an exciting setup but delivers a frightfully boring resolution.

Sorry, Fidelma fans, but any novel wherein the major plot point in the first half of the book is the sidekick's hangover holds no interest for me. By the time anything serious befalls Our Heroes (about two-thirds of the way into the story) I ceased to care about their fates. I do give Tremayne a point for not falling into the "all Christians are evil, all non-Christians are good" trap, or its converse -- although this book does contain a few irritating religious caricatures.