An attack by a pirate ship flying the sign of the dove is only the beginning of Sister Fidelma’s latest adventure.
Plucked from the sea by Brother Metellus, a Roman cleric, Fidelma, an advocate of the law courts in seventh-century Ireland, and her husband Brother Eadulf (The Council of the Cursed, 2009, etc.) are shocked by a slim, white-clad figure’s brutal murder of Fidelma’s cousin and the ship’s captain. Taken to a nearby abbey, they soon move on to the fortress of Brilhag, where they meet Macliau and Trifina, son and daughter of the absent lord. The pirate ship that attacked them was sailing under the flag of the dove, the symbol of the Brilhags, but the family deny any involvement and indeed claim that all the attacks being made in the area are designed to ruin their good name. Though Eadulf is eager to return home to their son, Fidelma is delighted when the newly arrived Riwanon, wife of the King of the Bretons, asks her to investigate. With Metellus helping as translator, she digs deeply into the affairs of the kingdom and the relationships of the ruling families. It will take all her many skills to bring “The Dove of Death” to account.
Fidelma, a native of ancient Ireland, has to battle as hard as any contemporary female to balance the career she loves with motherhood.
