Rating: 
Summary: Skip the first book, read the later ones.
Review: Sister Fidelma's first outing is disappointingly predictable even for someone like me who doesn't try particularly hard to guess the murderer. I recommend "The Subtle Serpent" as a better introduction to the series, which does indeed have more redeeming features than are evident from "Absolution By Murder."
Rating: 
Summary: A plodding swamp marsh of tedium.
Review: Sorry, but the opening chapters left a bad taste in mouth and perhaps that tainted my feelings against the entire book.The introduction to the main character, Fidelma, attempts to paint a picture of a self-assured, female esquire/nun prancing merrily through the Middle Ages without equal. She's all that and well proportioned too! Sadly, she comes off as a swaddled, "sister-superior" who should have been killed in the opening chapter. (It would have been a mercy killing on behalf of the reader). Furthermore, it appears that Peter Tremayne (the author) must be thrilled with his own trite descriptions of the lady lawyer donned in sack cloth. "Rebellious strands of red hair steaked from beneath her headdress..." I know I read that in chapter one and then again a little later in the book word for word. Yawn. And like Elton John's Your Song, we still don't know if Sister Fidelma's eyes are green or blue as they are so changeable with emotion. As the book rambled along, I must confess that I had repeated urges to break out in a song from Mary Poppins.
"Our daughter's daughters will adore us
And they'll sing in grateful chorus
Well done sister suffragettes!" Truly, I expect medieval story to be flavored with phrases and words of the era. However, I read to relax and be carried away, not to labor through an encyclopedia written in a quasi-foreign language extolling the virtues ad nauseum of feminism. Only read this one, if you have exhausted all other options.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing backdrop all but ruined by wooden prose
Review: The historical setting of this book with the conflict between Celtic and Roman Christianity was intriguing and realistic. You get a genuine sense for the time and place. The downfall, and it is quite a fall, is the wooden prose. I have never seen so many characters grimace. Tremayne uses the word "grimace" frequently, conspicously, and awkwardly. In addition, Sister Fidelma's character is one-dimensional. She isn't a medieval feminist from an enlightened society; she is just a grouch. If she isn't angry, she's irritated, impatient, insulted, or otherwsie bothered. Once in a while she is pleasant, but then she grimaces and your back to square one. The plot is crafted well enough, though the murderer wasn't hard to guess. In sum, this might be worth a single read, but I wouldn't search for the hard cover version.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: The setting, a religious counsel in the year 664 C.E. gathered to debate conflicts between the Church of Ireland and the Church of Rome, promises much. A better story and a better story-teller are needed, however. The characters are paper thin, unconvincing, umsympathethic. The plot becomes entangled in itself and looses coherence. Most distasteful to this reader is the homophobia that underlies the plot. There are two homosexual characters, both unattractively portrayed and, of course, both doomed. I tried this book because I enjoy medieval settings, but this is a series I'll skip. There are much better medieval mysteries available, and one doesn't have to scrape this book from the bottom to get a taste of medieval life.
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining Historical Novel
Review: The synopsis has already given the basic outline of the story. I found the novel to be entertaining and informative. I also found it fascinating to watch the inter-cultural power politics of the time take precedence over faith and theology in the formation of the early Roman Church. This is a nice book to read after having read the author's more academic works such as "The Celtic Revolution: A Study in Anti-Imperialism" ISBN 0 86243 096 8, "The Druids" published by Eerdmans 1995, and "The Celtic Empire: The First Millenium of Celtic History 1000BC-51AD" ISBN 0-89089-457-4. For those who speak no Irish or Gaelic a copy of Focloir Poca, ISBN 1-85791-047-8, might be a handy pronunciation guide.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate, but Unremarkable
Review: There are better uses for your reading dollar than this book. It is a mystery using an important religious summit as a backdrop. As a mystery, it is not very satisfying. I guessed who the murderer was almost immediately, and never really got caught up in the plot or the characters. The viewpoint changes fairly frequently, probably more frequently than necessary. And the constant descriptions of how sophisticated, enlightened, and egalitarian Ireland was remind me of something published by a local Chamber of Commerce. They became tiresome. I won't be looking for the other books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Not too Bad for a First Effort
Review: This book wasn't too bad for a first effort. The era is an interesting one, and there is some pretty good history here if you're interested in early Christianity and Ancient English history. Sister Fidelma is no Brother Cadfael, and her tame puppy partner (Brother Eadulf) is not Brother Michael (Susanna Gregory's secondary character), but there is something here that bears reading at least another in the series. I found that I had the murderer long before the unveiling, but I still enjoyed reading how they were going to prove it. The motive was also pretty apparent. I will reserve judgement until after I've read one or two more in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Not too Bad for a First Effort
Review: This book wasn't too bad for a first effort. The era is an interesting one, and there is some pretty good history here if you're interested in early Christianity and Ancient English history. Sister Fidelma is no Brother Cadfael, and her tame puppy partner (Brother Eadulf) is not Brother Michael (Susanna Gregory's secondary character), but there is something here that bears reading at least another in the series. I found that I had the murderer long before the unveiling, but I still enjoyed reading how they were going to prove it. The motive was also pretty apparent. I will reserve judgement until after I've read one or two more in this series.
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