Search - Badger's Moon (Sister Fidelma, Bk 13)

13th in the Sister Fidelma series. Excellent historical mystery, well researched and presented.

Fidelma of Cashel, sister to one of the kings of Ireland, religeuse of the Celtic Church, and dalaigh or advocate of the law courts of 7th century Ireland, is now struggling with a new role - that of wife and mother to an infant son. (In that time celibacy was a new movement and not yet imposed on the clergy.) Living in her brother's castle, Fidelma is restless with her new responsibilities and when her cousin arrives to request her assistance in solving the mystery of a serial killer that attacks every full moon, Fidelma agrees to leave her child with a wet nurse for a few days to lend a hand. Once again she and Eadulf team up to unravel a convoluted tangle of lies and deceit with characteristic sharpness. Tremayne's setting never overwhelms his mysteries, and although I figured out one angle the identity of the killer still came as a surprise to me. However I was disappointed that this book went so little into the issue of Fidelma's new relationship with Eadulf and her post-partum depression, and put her child in the background. I would have liked to get deeper into Fidelma's feelings about motherhood, and was also disappointed that her entire pregnancy period was skipped over. I'm hoping the next book will deal more with that. Those minor flaws aside, the mystery is as good as ever and Tremayne's last few volumes have included a nice cliffhanger at the end that makes one eager for the next book.