For reasons I can't quite discern, the front matter (often essential for a Fidelma book) is put at the end of the Kindle edition. This was rather unfortunate as this fifth installment in the series definitely benefits from a preview of the Principal Characters. Not unfitting for the "web" Tremayne sought to create, but a headache for readers--particularly those for whom medieval Celtic names are rather foreign.

The beauty of the valley provides a fitting contrast to the evil operating within Araglin. As with several Fidelma stories, there is a character who stands accused of two murders (just two of the five in the book), and we know at the outset that Sister Fidelma will exonerate him, because that's what she does. But Tremayne starts weaving his "web" before we even get there with what, initially, seems to be an unrelated land dispute over which Fidelma is presiding. I don't want to give away spoilers, but suffice it to say that modern readers would not be surprised if the book came with a content/trigger warning if it was published today. "Evil" is a word Fidelma uses several times in the book to describe the people of Araglin (many of them anyway), and here it seems more apt than the typical Christian binary moralities. Tremayne uses this to his advantage, manipulating us into momentary solidarities and conflicts with different characters. As with other books, Fidelma's "enlightened" Christianity is on full display, particularly as it butts heads with the local Father Gormán, whose hellfire and brimstone seems to have a stranglehold on many people.

In the end, however, I had trouble keeping interest as there were just too many characters, including some that we never meet but are in fact essential to the story. At times it felt as though new characters were created to steer a path back to some sort of connection when a thread of the story started to unravel. Sister Fidelma's standard "big reveal" is a bit tedious for that reason, and I was disappointed that the accused did not have more opportunity to "speak" for himself (he is deaf, mute, and blind--but can communicate, we come to find out), and Fidelma is less-than-likeable at times in this book. In later volumes she becomes more sympathetic, but the haughty "I'm an advocate of the courts" attitude was grating at times. Eadulf, too, is still in his occasional nincompoop phase, needing Fidelma to explain the obvious or he's foaming at the mouth about his Christian beliefs.

In retrospect, having read several volumes that come after this one, it is valuable to be reading them in order now because Sister Fidelma does grow and whether or not her more "youthful folly" is intentional in these early volumes, it is a relief to know that it doesn't last for the entire series.
If you are interested in reading the series for this reason (or others), go for it. If you want a really great installment of the series to try it out--skip this one for now. ( )

En el año 666, en una pequeña aldea rural de Araglin, durante una oscura noche, un joven pastor, Moen, es hallado con un cuchillo en la mano frente al cadáver del jefe del poblado. Aparentemente, se trata de una evidencia incuestionable, pero el hecho de que Moen sea sordomudo complica las cosas lo bastante para que sor Fidelma decida incoar una investigación más detallada de lo que el caso parece requerir.

Fidelma wordt geroepen om twee moorden op te lossen in een afgelegen vallei. Eadulf vergezelt haar. Tegen de tijd dat Fidelma ontrafeld heeft wat er gebeurd is en wie de spin in het web van haat en hebzucht is, zijn er nog drie moorden gepleegd en zijn Fidelma en Eadulf ternauwernood aan de dood ontsnapt.

Well researched and well written mystery about a life and time little known. The dialogue, liturgical quotes and old Irish place names give this series splendid authenticity matched only matched by Fidelma's logical processes for solving crimes. Sherlock beware! ( )

After adjudicating a land case, Sister Fidelma is asked to go to Araglin, where the disputants came from, to ensure proper procedure is followed in the investigation of the murder of the local chieftain. The locals are convinced that the victim's sister's adopted son is the culprit, but he is blind, deaf, and mute. Could he really have committed the crime?

Another intriguing mystery. Fidelma is forced into awareness of her feelings for Eadulf when he eats some poisonous mushrooms. I still find the author's attitude to Catholicism dubious. ( )