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Sunday, June 05, 2016

Library Notes by Melissa Oleen



bu Melissa Oleen Rowan Public Library               
               Everyone has very specific genres they love.  Lately, I have been enamored of historical mysteries, pre-1500 with a nun/monk as the sleuth.  Good writers in this genre treat the reader to interesting historical facts, insights into the lifestyles of early religieuse and puzzling mysteries in which the reader is given everything they need to know to solve the crime on their own.  In a period where the common person had few of the luxuries we enjoy today, why would anyone wish to commit to a lifestyle where unless you were one of the top ranking members, you would experience even fewer?  Obviously religious beliefs are the prime reason but social and political intrigues often played a part as well – and these reasons combined with differing religious philosophies can lead to some good mysteries.  Add close living quarters, limited freedoms, lots of sin and you’ve got plenty of criminal motivations.
                You may already be thinking of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.  Set in an Italian Abby in 1327, Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate allegations of heresy and then murder.  Besides an excellent whodunit, the reader receives an education in Middle Ages religion and the histories of various sects. A reviewer once wrote that reading a novel by Eco instantly raises your IQ by a couple of points.  If Name of the Rose seems a little much for summer leisure reading, try the Sister Fidelma and Brother Cadfael mystery series.
                Sister Fidelma is a young “brilliant and beguiling” heroine-sleuth with green eyes and red hair who lives in 7th century Ireland.  British author and Celtic scholar Peter Tremayne inserts plenty of historical information about the Roman church and how it was overcoming the Celtic church.  Readers get an idea what life was like in Celtic Ireland.  There were still mixed sex monasteries, monks and nuns were allowed to marry and women could become lawyers and judges.  Sister Fidelma, a practical, no-nonsense woman and wise beyond her years, is also a qualified dalaigh, an advocate of the ancient laws of Ireland.  She is often joined on her adventures by her friend and ideological opposite, Anglo Saxon Brother Eadulf.  Absolution by Murder is the first title in this series that now includes over 25 novels and short stories.  Penance of the Damned will come out this July so you have plenty of time to catch up.
                Author Ellis Peters (pseudonym of Edith Pargeter) set her historically accurate mysteries in the first half of the  12thcentury.  Her wily Brother Cadfael, was a soldier who fought in the crusades and then sea captain on the coasts of the Holy Land before taking orders at the Benedictine abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul near the Welsh boarder in Shrewsbury.  Brother Cadfael, a little less reserved than Sister Fidelma, is a “squat, barrel-chested, bandy-legged veteran of 57” with a healthy sense of mischief.  Morbid Taste for Bones is the first title in this 20 title series.
Already familiar with the series covered here but would like to discover more clerical detectives?  I recommend you visit www.detecs.org for a very comprehensive list of clerical detectives.

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