3,000 copies later, THEY ARE ALL SIGNED. 

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THE FIFTH FÉILE FIDELMA, 2014

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TO BE HELD IN CASHEL, Co.TIPPERARY 

The 5^th three-day gathering of international enthusiasts of the bestselling historical crime series ““ The Sister Fidelma Mysteries by Peter Tremayne ““ will be held in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, from Friday, September 12, to Sunday, September 14, 2014. The venue will be The Cashel Palace Hotel.

This year’s event will be opened by Irish Minister of State Alan Kelly TD of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Spot.

The series, which has appeared in 18 languages, is set in 7^th Century Ireland whose sleuthing heroine is Fidelma, sister of King Colgú of Munster. With her companion, a Saxon, Brother Eadulf, she is an advocate of the Brehon Laws of ancient Ireland. There are now 25 books in the series.

Booklist (Journal of the American Library Association) has called it: “˜The most authentically detailed medieval mystery series currently being published.’ The Irish Examiner has also called it “˜the most detailed and vivid recreation of ancient Ireland.’  The Belfast Telegraph comments: “˜This is masterly storytelling from an author who breathes fascinating life into the world he is writing about.’

The organisers of the Féile Fidelma are a sub-committee of the Cashel Arts Festival Committee. The Féile Fidelma was first held in 2006 and has become an important part of Cashel’s literary world. This will be an extra special event as it will coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first ever Sister Fidelma novel ““ Absolution by Murder in 1994.

An impressive program has been arranged. Among expert speakers is Professor Ed Rielly from Maine, USA, who is co-editor, with David Wooten, of the academic collection of essays The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: The Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne (2012).

Professor Pádraig Ó Riain of University College Cork, who is Ireland’s leading scholastic expert of the Fidelma’s period, will be talking about the Eóghanachta (Fidelma’s family) and the earliest writings at Cashel.

Dr Ann Buckley of Trinity College Dublin, a leading expert on liturgical music in Fidelma’s time and Dr Regina Sexton, University College Cork, leading expert on food in Fidelma’s time will be talking on their subjects.

A talk on horse breeds in Fidelma’s period, coinciding with a visit to the famous Irish Stud, Coolmore, will be given by equestrian expert Noel Mullins. He has not only authored two books about the origin of horses in Ireland, as well as countless articles in equestrian journals, but he is a expert advising and appearing in many films and television shows on the subject. In 2005, for example, he played a huntsman in the remake of “˜Lassie’ with Peter O’Toole.

David Wooten, the founder of The International Sister Fidelma Society, its director and editor of its thrice yearly journal The Brehon, will be introducing and chairing the evening with the author, Peter Tremayne. He will also be winding up the event on Sunday with his usual look at the state of Fidelma’s World. He will be reflecting on the Society’s thirteen years of existence (it was founded in 2001 and The Brehon was launched in February, 2002). And, of course, he will be examining the Féile Fidelma past and present and future.

The ever popular “˜Voice of Fidelma’, Irish actress Caroline Lennon who reads the UK Sister Fidelma audio books published by Soundings, Isis Publishing Ltd. Audible in the US will soon be issuing all the Fidelma Mysteries read by Caroline. Caroline is also well known on stage and screen. For nine years she played the character “˜Siobhan’ in BBC Radio’s popular soap “˜The Archers’.

On-line registration has already started from March 1, 2014. If you now register before May 1, 2014, there is a 10% discount at US$195 or currency equivalents. From May 1 the full registration amount of US$225 or currency equivalents comes into force. This covers entry to all the talks, the visit to the famous Coolmore Stud farm, the reception, coffee and biscuit breaks over the weekend and the gala dinner at the Cashel Palace Hotel.

Online registrations are made by credit card or PayPal at https://cashelartsfest.com/content/Buy-Tickets.html

Fidelma Society director, David R. Wooten says: “˜When registrations opened on March 1, we were highly delighted with the immediate response. Within three weeks, groups of fans for nine countries had registered and we are still a long way from September 12.  Obviously, the Sister Fidelma enthusiasts believe this is an event that is far too exciting in the calendar of Fidelma’s World to miss. We intend to make it the biggest and most successful Sister Fidelma Mysteries gathering yet.’

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A new voice came roaring out of British Columbia a couple of years ago and blew the crime reading public out of the water.  The Professionals was an amazing debut with a fresh conceit, a startling band of outlaws and an unusual odd couple for detectives.  The razor sharp plot and the page turning execution led to huge sales and many awards.  The affable and handsome young lion of an author took the reading public with him for his second book, Criminal Enterprise, and let everyone know that there would be no sophomore slump from this Canuck.  It has been a long wait but Mr. Laukkanen’s new book is finally here.

Kill Fee brings back the odd pairing of Carla Windermere, a black female FBI agent and Kirk Stevens, a married father and Minnesota state cop.  How they come to be working  together is skillfully portrayed in a slam-bang opening scene.  The book once again features a novel idea ripped from the headlines.
What do we do with our damaged soldiers who are returning from a fruitless war. How do we treat the psychic wounds they carry with them?  This problem is cunningly “solved” in an unexpected way by the author.

Like an action film that never lets up, Kill Fee wends its way through a labyrinth of clues as the two detectives find themselves embroiled in a Manchurian Candidate nightmare.  As the tension builds they find unexpected feelings rising between them and how they deal with these only keeps the pages turning.  This is a police procedural and a first-rate thriller. Do not miss it.

reviewed by STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

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What would you do if a young man you knew only vaguely started work at your office, and asked you to share a picnic lunch? How would you feel if he then started to bombard you with gifts, emails and phone calls? At just what point would you decide that this was more than a crush… and needed to be regarded as serious stalking? Questions like these are the starting-point for Names of the Dead, a recent crime thriller by Katia Lief. This author is best-known for the Karin Schaeffer private eye series, but the heroine of her standalone novel, Darcy Mayhew, is an investigative journalist at the New York Times. That means the book will appeal to anyone who enjoys reading novels set in newsrooms, such as Julie Kramer’s Delivering Death, recently reviewed here at Poisoned Fiction.

A 30-something widow who has moved from Martha’s Vineyard to the Big Apple to rebuild her life, Darcy is an appealing heroine. Anyone who enjoys the whole female private eye style of fiction will immediately be sucked in by her wry, humorous first-person narration, which is compulsively readable. However, as Darcy finds her home life with her young son Nat under threat from a stalker, the appropriately-named mailroom worker Joe Coffin, the book also has strong elements of the “domestic suspense” genre, highlighted in the LA Times.

The novel is quite short, so it can almost be read at a sitting ““ and it might be a mistake to pick it up if you have to do something urgent in the next couple of hours. The newsroom atmosphere is convincingly created, and, refreshingly, Darcy actually has to work on more than one story at a time ““ unlike many fictional journalists who can spend weeks at a time on one investigation without their bosses batting an eyelid! All the same, most of her effort becomes focused on one particular scandal, after a whistle-blower approaches her with a story which carries deadly undertones. As she becomes increasingly obsessed by this investigation, it’s all too easy to ignore Joe’s obsession with her, and to convince herself it doesn’t matter all that much. Maybe he was outside her door by coincidence ““ and maybe leaving a bagel and coffee at her desk for breakfast was just a friendly gesture. Maybe.

The book builds up the tension well, with little details adding together to make Joe an increasingly scary figure. In the UK, the novel is published under a different title, focusing more on the threat he poses ““ Watch You Die. However, the US title is more true to the book’s main theme, because this is a novel with dark underpinnings, focusing on bereavement and grieving. Darcy is struggling to come to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, Hugo, and to allow herself to love again. Her own emotions also give her an insight into the suffering of her parents, who were both Holocaust survivors. Meanwhile, as she gains a greater understanding of her mother’s feelings in the past, she has to face up to the risk of losing her in the present, as she is a victim of advancing Alzheimer’s Disease. These are grim themes and there is a danger that the piling up of misery could get a bit much, yet somehow the novel never feels depressing. This is mainly because of the witty prose style ““ and also because there are lighter sections woven in, such as Darcy’s vivid memories of her life in Martha’s Vineyard, and her tentative second-time-around romance with her son’s gorgeous teacher.

It’s not just this novel which goes by more than one name. The author, who is a creative writing tutor, has herself published under three different names. Her first books were issued under her maiden name, Katia Spiegelman, next she wrote her first thrillers using a pseudonym, Kate Pepper (the surname was borrowed from a pet cat) and then she started writing her married name, Katia Lief. She has written a lighthearted essay asking “What’s In a Name?”, where she admits that at times she has ended up confusing herself. Many of her heroines also have similar names, adding to the muddle. It all means that, if you get hooked on this author’s style and want to catch up with her various books, you’ll have to do quite a bit of searching to find them all.

Reviewed by Anonymous