Our Lady Of Darkness by Peter TremayneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
cw: sexual assault
Tremayne seems to have hit his stride with this tenth installment of the Sister Fidelma series. Brother Eadulf faces the noose for a crime he did not commit and Sister Fidelma must race against the clock to prove his innocence. The red herrings are plentiful here, some more obvious than others. As with Valley of the Shadow, if memory serves, evil is spread far and wide, not just focused on one person. There are helpers, of course, along the way, but sometimes they are a bit too implausible, such as the Apollo-like entrance of the Cashel guards near the end. Where these book still falter for me is the ever-present "court" scene being the centerpiece and method for Fidelma's revelations. I get that she's a dalaigh, but in this particular instance it was particularly frustrating because she does an "almost" reveal in a different location (with an audience far more interesting than the typical peanut gallery), but then no...we have the formal (and formulaic) grandstanding that appears in every novel. I'm just waiting for something more interesting to happen, but I think I will be disappointed.
Outside the Fidelma-a-la-Perry Mason aspect, however, this is probably the strongest book of the first ten in the series. I will say that more recent audiences should be aware that sexual assault plays a very big role in this book, so consider that a content warning.
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