Hemlock at Vespers

Sister Fidelma-an Eognacht princess and sister to the king of Cashel, a religieuse of the Celtic Church and an advocate of the Brehornn court-is one of the most interesting and compelling figures in contemporary mystery fiction. In this collection of short mysteries, Tremayne fills in many of the background details of Fidelma and seventh-century Ireland not found in the novels, and weaves his always-beguiling mix of history and mystery.

Peter Tremayne is the fiction-writing pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, the leading Celtic scholar. Born of Anglo-Irish parents in Coventry, England, and taking his degrees in Celtic studies, he has published over a score of books in the field of Celtic studies. These include The Ancient World of the Celts (1998), The Celtic Empire (1990), Celtic Women (1995), Celt and roman (1998), Hell or Connaught: the Cromwellian Colonisation of Ireland (1975), A Dictionary of Irish Mythology (1987), The Celtic Chronicle: Retellings of Celtic Myths and Legends (1999) among others. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, which has been translated into more than a dozen European languages as well as Japanese.

He began writing fiction as peter Tremayne in 1977, mainly in the field of heroic and supernatural fantasy, using Celtic myth and legend as background. His Lan-Kern sword and sorcery trilogy (1980-1983) and books such as Raven of Destiny (1984), Ravenmoon [US title: Bloodmist] (1988) and Island of Shadows (1991) secured his reputation in the genre. No less than half a dozen of his short stories have been chosen to appear in collections of Great Irish Stories and his own collection of stories, Aisling and Other Irish Tales of Terror (1992), won high literary praise. He began to write Sister Fidelma mysteries in 1993 primarily to illustrate the role of women as lawyers in seventh-century Ireland. The stories have attracted to a wide following on both sides of the Atlantic and in translation.