I read my first Peter Tremayne (aka, Peter Berresford Ellis) mystery in 2014. It was Absolution by Murder (you can read my review here). I enjoy medieval mysteries like the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters (aka, Edith Pargeter). But Sister Fidelma is very different.

Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma series is set seven hundred years before the Brother Cadfael series. It’s been my intention to get ALL the Sister Fidelma books on my shelves and read the entire series in order. There are 36 books in the Sister Fidelma series so far. I own most of them so it’s just a matter of tracking down the handful of books I lack.

As you might expect of such a long-running series, Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma has a lot of fans. David Robert Wooten asked Peter Tremayne if he could put up a Sister Fidelma web site and Tremayne agreed. In addition, there’s The International Sister Fidelma Society (https://sisterfidelma.com/fidelma-related-books/) where fans can interact and buy merchandise!

If you haven’t read any of Peter Tremayne’s wonderful Sister Fidelma mysteries, you’re missing out on one of the most entertaining series in the medieval mystery genre. This compendium supplies plenty of information and answers a lot of questions. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Foreword by Peter Tremayne
• Introduction by David Robert Wooten
• The Sister Fidelma Phenomenon
• Fidelmania! – Livres Hebdo
• Was Sister Fidelma a Real Historical Person?
• The History We Weren’t Told
• Why Fidelma is Not a Nun: A Review of Fidelma’s Character
• Whence Cometh Brother Eadulf?
• Brehon Law: The Background to The Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• About Peter Tremayne
• The Novels – Synopses (including Principal Character listings for each title)
• Sister Fidelma Short Stories
• Peter Tremayne: Master of the Short Story
• Chronology of The Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• Fidelma – A Life in Dedications
• Sister Fidelma in “Alternate” Editions – (International/Non-English Language, Large Print, Graphic Novels, AudioBooks)
• Fidelma Goes Graphic
• Why Cashel?
• Historic Cashel
• Fidelma’s Rock? Wait an Ostint. Not Quite…
• Tremayne is NOT a Druid!
• The Fascination for Sister Fidelma
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Peter Tremayne: Murderer–Detective–Defendant–Judge–Jury–Executioner
• Is There an Historical Model for Fidelma?
• Fidelma and Flann Fína
• A Reflection on Princes, Chiefs, and Chieftains
• Reading Fidelma (including an interview with “The Voice of Fidelma,” actress Caroline Lennon)
• A Succinct Review of the Series
• Pronunciation Guide
• An Interview with Peter Tremayne
• The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: What’s the Agenda?
• Successful Time Travel – Peter Berresford Ellis and Writing Historical Detective Stories
• Fidelma: A Model Lawyer
• Smoke in the Wind and the Kingdom of Dyfed
• What the Press Has to Say About Peter Tremayne and the Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• Fidelma: The Critics Chime In
• Sister Fidelma: A Study of a Clerical Detective including Reviews of Each Fidelma Novel
• A Checklist of the Works of Peter Berresford Ellis
• The International Sister Fidelma Society
• Addenda
• Fidelma’s World (Map of the novels’ locales – Ireland & abroad)
• Towards A Bibliography of Books Relating to Cashel and by Cashel People
• The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne, Edward J. Rielly and David Robert Wooten, Eds. – Review – Elizabeth Blakesley
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments