Suffer Little Children

A Sister Fidelma Mystery

De: Peter Tremayne

Narrado por: Caroline Lennon

Sister Fidelma returns in another spellbinding story of murder and intrigue in seventh-century Ireland - when the murder of a high cleric threatens to result in a bloody war between two of Ireland's kingdoms.

In AD 644 the Venerable Dacan, a respected scholar of the Celtic Church, is murdered while on a visit to the Abbey of Ros Ailithir in the Irish Kingdom of Muman. Dacan, unfortunately, was the close confidant of the hotheaded young king of the neighboring kingdom of Fearna, who is using Dacan's murder as an excuse to provoke war.

Sister Fidelma, an advocate of the Brehon courts, is summoned by the dying king of Muman to solve the brutal killing and to prevent the incipient war between the two kingdoms. But at the remote abbey, Fidelma soon discovers there are far more sinister forces than mere political intrigue at work behind the mystery of Dacan's death. She must quickly unravel a most complicated mystery if she is to prevent the coming war - and preserve her own life as well.

With a mix of historical detail and deft characterization, Peter Tremayne once again brings ancient Ireland to full, vivid life.

©1995 Peter Tremayne (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Brother Cadfael meets Prime Suspect (sort of)

I’m already buying the next in this series.
I enjoy the history and the mystery and the strong female lead. And in general I enjoy the narrator’s style, tone, and pace.

But there is a bit of a repetitive pattern developing about the murderer. Part way through I recocognized the way a certain character was written and guessed (correctly) the murderer. There are lots of great twists and turns about side plots and specifics so it still kept me engaged. Another disappointment in that Fidelma makes a really poor choice at one point.
The narrator doesn’t attempt significantly different voices for the characters, which is fine in general, but there were times I lost track of which character was speaking.

There’s enough to like that I’ll probably binge on through the series, but I did notice the above issues.

Glimpse into Medieval society and life

This mystery series is highly recommended for anyone interested in the early medieval time period, and this one in particular for someone interested in the history of Ireland. I really felt I had a glimpse into what life would have been like.

The narration is excellent, and she does a wonderful job of creating characters and helping me understand the pronunciation.

Greqr story line!

With each book I try to figure out the clues to see if I can figure it out, but so far the author has managed to stump me! I continue my quest with Book 4...bring it on!

Love this series

Be forewarned! Once you start listening you cannot stop. If you have an annual membership you will go through all your credits - sister Fidelma is inspirational - you will love these books.

Great Audio except....

We love the Sister Fidelma stories, and this was the best so far. The plot was very convoluted so we didn’t find out the murderer until the end. We also enjoy allusions to ancient Irish Law and topography, as we have seen Skellig Michael in our travels to Ireland. However, we encountered a technical problem at the end of Chapter 10. An important clue is supposed to be revealed, but the audio skips ahead into Chapter 11. Very frustrating!