this is the fourth in the Sister Fidelma series. There is a lot of historical detail in these novels, set in the 7th century, mostly in Ireland. As much as I enjoy these, I do wish that Tremayne would make a little less use of copy/paste in his word processor. He tends to use the same stock phrases over and over again. But that's a minor gripe. Reading these novels gives one a sense that the 'dark ages' were not uniformly dark and that there was significant political change and turmoil during that period.