Condemned to Death: A Sixteenth-century Burren Mystery

Cora Harrison has created an intriguing character in Mara, the Brehon of the Burren.  Sounds like she should be in a science fiction novel, doesn't it?  But in reality, Mara lives and works in the Kingdom of the Burren, on the western coast of Ireland during the early 1500s.  Her post of Brehon requires her to investigate the unexplained death or murder of anyone within the kingdom, pronounce judgment and levy punishment and fines as laid out in the ancient Gaelic laws among her duties.  She also runs a law school for aspiring scholars of the law, which is open to all qualified candidates, be they male or female.  In fact, in Mara's world, women are equally respected in the professions, since they have to meet the same rigorous standards and exams as their male counterparts.  That life is only gradually changing around them as the English wrest control of the Irish kingdoms from the kings and clans, and women are increasingly restricted to solely domestic roles.

In Condemned to Death (#484), a body of a stranger is found in a boat lacking sails and oars on a beach in a small fishing village south of Galway.  The manner of death is that of one who has been judged guilty of fingal, the murder of a member of his or her immediate family.  At first, no one in the village will admit to recognizing the man, but the closer Mara looks at the situation, the more her suspicions are aroused that the villagers know more than they are telling.  With the help of her scholars, she slowly but surely tracks down his identity and the truth of the manner of death of the man in the boat.  In the sad and shocking aftermath, Mara must deal with bearing the burden of uncovering the truth at all costs.

A series well worth discovering.  Cora Harrison introduces each chapter with Gaelic laws of the period pertinent to the on-going investigations.  I wish a few of those laws (regarded as barbaric by the English) were still in effect today.  I'd be bringing complaints against a few of my neighbors who don't clean up after their dogs - I'd never have to buy butter again!  You don't have to read this series from the beginning, but it's helpful if you have a choice to understand the various relationships.