An Ensuing Evil and Others: Fourteen Historical Mysteries

Excellent! Packaging was great - received order prior to expected delivery date. Recommend.

As usual, Peter Tremayne's stories are "entertaining" and enthralling. Even though I prefer his novel length books, it is "refreshing" to be able to read one short story at a "convenient" time and set the book aside not worrying about coming back to the a storyline and "raking one's memory" to review the "series of events to a 'particular point'" before continuing.

Peter Tremayne, as he is known, has become a better writer with each new Sister Fidelma novel. He still reminds me a bit of the late Isaac Asimov, in that his characters tend to be wooden and 2-dimensional, described largely in quick familiar strokes -- if not cliches -- and seeming to exist only to serve the machinations of the plot. In Asimov's case, the science was the foundation (no pun intended), and in Tremayne's it is the history. Their expertise is, in my opinion, the best part of their storytelling. However, Tremayne has gradually found more ways to convey the personality and feelings of Fidelma beyond the perpetually wayward bit of red hair that signals her basically boundary-testing and fiery personality. This collection of stories takes us beyond the setting of ancient Ireland into other territories in the past. Tremayne's skill at setting out the mystery as a puzzle for the reader to solve before it is revealed is as strong here in tighter conditions as it is in his novels. The only real problem I have with these stories is his attempt to stuff a novel's worth of information into a much smaller space. This leads to sentences such as this one, which ought to get some sort of literary award: "MacBeth, son of Findlay, the Mor-mhaor or petty king of Moray, which was one of the seven great provincial kingdoms of Alba, answering to no man except the High King, whose capital was south in Sain, stared down with a grim face." There are 35 words between the name of the person who did the action and the action itself! In those words, we are told who Findlay is, what Moray is, and where the High King lives. Oh, my. In Fidelma's Irish, the sentence would have begun (more or less) "Stared down with a grim face Malcolm . . . " so you would have known what was going on before you got the geography lesson. And that is not the only such convoluted sentence in this respected historian's collection of clever mysteries. I recommend this book to you highly nonetheless, as I do all of Tremayne's other fiction and, for that matter, just about all of Asimov's. But I warn the reader that there may be bits such as the one cited above at which you will burst out laughing for reasons that have nothing to do with the story itself.

Peter Tremayne is a master of historical murder mysteries, as is amply demonstrated by this delightful collection of short stories previously published in other mystery anthologies. The 14 stories range in setting from 7th Century Ireland to 8th Century Scotland, Victorian England, India in the day of Rajahs and even a present-day 747 in flight. Populated by such real and fictional characters such as Sister Fidelma - Tremayne's best-known creation - Macbeth, Charles Dickens and Sherlock Holmes, they are a wonderful smorgasbord of mystery and mayhem. To be honest, I almost gave this title a 4-star rating. The book includes five Sherlock Holmes stories, three of which involve aspects relating to Holmes' Anglo-Irish background. I didn't find that backdrop all that interesting in one story, let alone three. However the book deserves a 5-star rating. The opening story, featuring Macbeth, is a wickedly delicious murder mystery that twists and turns until the ending where the reader discovers how evil people can be. Other stories in the anthology such as those featuring London Constable Hardy Drew, another one set on a Royal Navy sloop and the aforementioned India tale are top-of-the-line page-turners as well. As this anthology demonstrates, Tremayne is a wonderful writer. His stories resound with memorable characters, masterfully evoked settings and compelling mysteries that leave the reader chuckling at story's end. If you love whodunits, you'll enjoy this book!