Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
In the year of our Lord 664, the Irish Church and the Church of Rome taught different Christian doctrines. Seeking to reconcile these interpretations, the King of Northumbria chose a magnificent abbey and a wise council to decide the people's religious future, inviting priests, elders, and scholars from Ireland and Rome. Outspoken, sharp of both wit and eye, the young Sister Fidelma of Kildare was among those asked to attend; trained as an advocate of the Irish courts, she was to rule on issues of law. Instead she was plunged into unholy murder.

Dead was the Abbess Etain, a leading Celtic speaker, her throat horribly slashed. With the council in uproar and civil war threatening, the desperate king turned to Sister Fidelma for help. Fidelma of the Celts and her Roman counterpart, Brother Eadulf, had to find the killer with all haste... and with little to go on but Fidelma's keen mind and her faith in the truth...

Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder. A Mystery of Ancient Ireland. Signet, ISBN: 0451192990 (September, 1997), 272 p., $5.99.

Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
In A.D. 664, King Oswy of Northumbria has convened a synod at Whitby to hear debate between the Roman and Celtic Christian churches and decide which shall be granted primacy in his kingdom. At stake is much more than a few disputed points of ritual; Oswy's decision could affect the survival of either church in the Saxon kingdoms.

When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic church, is found murdered, suspicion falls upon the Roman faction. In order to diffuse the tensions that threaten to erupt into civil war, Oswy turns to Sister Fidelma of the Celtic Church (Irish and an advocate for the Brehon Court) and Brother Eadulf of the Roman church (from east Anglia and of a family of hereditary magistrates) to find the killer. But as further murders occur and a treasonous plot against Oswy matures, Fidelma and Eadulf soon find themselves running out of time.

Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder. A Sister Fidelma Mystery. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312139187 (January, 1996), 272 p., $21.95.

Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
As the leading churchmen and women gather at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD to debate the rival merits of the Celtic and Roman Churches, tempers begin to fray. Conspirators plot an assassination, while mysterious, violent death stalks the shadowy cloisters of the Abbey of St Hilda. When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic Church, is found murdered suspicion inevitably rests on the Roman faction.

Attending the Synod is Fidelma, of the community of St Brigid of Kildare. As an advocate of the Brehon Court, she is called on to investigate the murder with Brother Eadulf, of the Roman faction. However, the two are so unlike that their partnership is described as that of a wolf and a fox - but which is which?

More gruesome deaths follow and the friction among the clerics could end in civil war. Can the solution to the mysteries avert such a conflict?

Peter Tremayne: Absolution by Murder. A Celtic Mystery. Headline, ISBN: 0747246025 (January, 1995), 274 p., £5.99.