Review
“Sister Fidelma would be delighted with her sleuthing ‘descendant’---a new female Brehon named Mara. Mara solves her cases under the ancient Irish laws in sixteenth-century Munster, nine centuries after Fidelma held legal sway there. Well researched and written.” ---Peter Tremayne, author of The Sister Fidelma Mysteries
“An excellent historical novel with a most original leading character. Cora Harrison has wonderfully recreated the Celtic culture of Ireland in its mysterious twilight at the end of the Middle Ages. A true Celtic feast with a most sympathetic and believable leading character, Mara, a judge, who enters the mysterious world of her country to bring a just solution to a compelling mystery.” ---P. C. Doherty, author of The Assassin of Isis
“A lovely, balanced blend of historical detail and good storytelling. This book is appealing in every way: a likeable protagonist, a clever mystery, and a richly textured rendering of sixteenth-century Ireland with its fascinating legal system.” ---Brenda Rickman Vantrease, author of The Mercy Seller
Product Description
In the sixteenth century, as it is now, the Burren, on the western seaboard of Ireland, was a land of gray stone forts, fields of rich green grass, and swirling mountain terraces. It was also home to an independent kingdom that lived peacefully by the ancient Brehon laws of their forebears.
On the first eve of May, 1509, hundreds of people from the Burren climbed the gouged-out limestone terraces of Mullaghmore Mountain to celebrate the great May Day festival, lighting a bonfire and singing and dancing through the night, then returning through the gray dawn to the safety of their homes. But one man did not come back down the steeply spiralling path. His body lay exposed to the ravens and wolves on the bare, lonely mountain for two nights . . . and no one spoke of him, or told what they had seen.
And when Mara, a woman appointed by King Turlough Don O’Brien to be judge and lawgiver to the stony kingdom, came to investigate, she was met with a wall of silence . . .
About the Author
Cora Harrison taught primary-school children for twenty-five years before moving to Kilfenora, County Clare, to live on a small farm where there used to be an Iron Age fort. She has published twenty-five children’s historical novels. This is her first novel for adults. Please visit her Web site at www.coraharrison.com.
