A Burren Mystery
10 primary works • 16 total works
Book 6
Book 7
Book 9
When clan leader Garrett MacNamara's dead body is found on the road after a herd of cows has escaped, it is initially assumed that he tried to prevent the cows escaping and got squashed to a pulp in the ensuing melee. As dictated by the clan's Brehon law, Mara investigates the accidental death as a matter of routine before pronouncing the new leader. However, when one local claims they saw a chain attached to the mutilated body, which has now disappeared, it seems that maybe the death was not an accident at all.
Mara and her scholars must now investigate a growing list of suspects, made more complicated by the sudden return of Garrett's popular younger brother Jarlath after years at sea and the appearance of a woman whose son is Garrett's one and only rightful heir. Was Slaney, Garrett's wife, threatened by these new arrivals or is she being blamed for his murder to clear the way for a new leader . . .?
Book 10
When a holy relic is destroyed and a community threatened, it is up to Mara to uphold the law of the land . . .
When Mara attends mass at Kilnaboy Church, it is just another duty in her busy life as Brehon of the Burren, responsible for the maintenance of law and order in the kingdom. The church holds an important relic: a piece of the true cross itself, housed inside a round tower and heralded by the huge two-armed stone cross on the church gable. Hence, on this special day, the church is packed with locals, as well as pilgrims from all over Europe.
But when fire attacks the tower where the precious relic is housed, and Mara then discovers that one of the pilgrims is a disciple of Martin Luther and a hater of such sacred relics, a Spanish priest threatens the might of the Inquisition and a German traveller takes refuge in the church. However, the next morning, a naked body is found dead, spread-eagled in the shape of a cross, on top of one of the tombs on the hill behind the church. Was it one of the true pilgrims who killed him? Or perhaps the priest of the parish, helped by his grave digger? Or was it even the innkeeper, whose business has been ruined now that the relic, which attracted visitors from all over Europe, has been destroyed?
Once again, it is Mara's task, along with that of her law-school pupils, to investigate and uphold the power of the law . . .
Book 11
Verdict of the Court: A Mystery Set in Sixteenth-Century Ireland
by Cora Harrison
Book 11
A festive celebration turns into a fight for survival when Mara and her clan come under attack . . .
Christmas 1519 is the twentieth anniversary of King Turlough Donn's reign over the three kingdoms of Thomond, Corcomroe and Burren, so Mara and her scholars are spending the festive period in her husband's principal court, the castle of Bunratty in Thomond. However, in the midst of celebrations, the Brehon of Thomond is found dead, slumped across a table with a knife protruding from below his shoulder blade, while all around him Turlough's relations and friends dance and feast.
Mara's difficult task in probing the motives of the multiple suspects, made worse by her suspicion that someone near and dear to her is involved, is interrupted by a dramatic attack on the castle. Turlough's cannon has been sabotaged and now a trebuchet batters the castle with huge rocks and the lives of all are at risk. Has this treachery and betrayal anything to do the mysterious death of the Brehon, but most importantly how will Mara's husband answer the call for surrender . . .?
Book 12
Mara, Brehon of the Burren, judge and lawgiver, investigates the death of a man suspected of kin-murder in this compelling medieval Irish mystery.
When Mara, Brehon of the Burren, is summoned to the sandy beach of Fanore, on the western fringe of the kingdom of the Burren, she sees a sight that she has never witnessed before during her thirty years as law-enforcer and investigating magistrate: a dead man lying in a boat with no oars.
Immediately her scholars jump to the conclusion that the man has been found guilty of kin-murder. The Brehon sentence for this worst of all crimes is that the murderer be towed out to sea and left to the mercy of wind and waves and the ultimate judgement of Almighty God. But Mara notices something odd about the body, something which arouses her suspicions. And something familiar about the boat in which he lies.
Soon she has embarked on a full-scale murder investigation. And gradually suspicion dawns that someone near and dear to her is involved in the murder.
Book 13
Book 14
An unfairly harsh judge meets a gruesome end in the latest intriguing Burren mystery.
It was a macabre ending for an unjust judge: his throat slit by a sharp knife; his body stuffed into a lobster pot and left beneath a powerful jet of water shooting up through the cliffs from the turbulent Atlantic.
When Mara, Brehon of the nearby kingdom of the Burren, comes to investigate, she knows that her first suspects have to be the five young men who had received such savage sentences for minor crimes. But there are others in the frame: the nephew of the former Brehon, a man with the power of the Tudor court behind him. The child bride who hated her husband. The ill-treated apprentice.
And who was it who was seen on that moonlit night by the confused and elderly Fergus Mac Clancy?
Book 14
An unfairly harsh judge meets a gruesome end in the latest intriguing Burren mystery.
It was a macabre ending for an unjust judge: his throat slit by a sharp knife; his body stuffed into a lobster pot and left beneath a powerful jet of water shooting up through the cliffs from the turbulent Atlantic.
When Mara, Brehon of the nearby kingdom of the Burren, comes to investigate, she knows that her first suspects have to be the five young men who had received such savage sentences for minor crimes. But there are others in the frame: the nephew of the former Brehon, a man with the power of the Tudor court behind him. The child bride who hated her husband. The ill-treated apprentice.
And who was it who was seen on that moonlit night by the confused and elderly Fergus Mac Clancy?
In the sixteenth century, as it is now, the Burren, on the western seaboard of Ireland, was a land of grey stone forts, fields of rich green grass and swirling mountain terraces. It was also home to an independent kingdom that lived peacefully by the ancient Brehon laws of their forebears.
On the first eve of May, 1509, hundreds of people from the Burren climbed the gouged out limestone terraces of Mullaghmore Mountain to celebrate the great May Day festival, lighting a bonfire and singing and dancing through the night, then returning through the grey dawn to the safety of their homes.
But one man did not come back down the steeply spiralling path. His body lay exposed to the ravens and wolves on the bare, lonely mountain for two nights . . . and no one spoke of him, or told what they had seen.
And when Mara, a woman appointed by King Turlough Don O'Brien to be judge and lawgiver to the stony kingdom, came to investigate, she was met with a wall of silence . . .
The autumn has come to the Burren, it's a time of harvest: of gathering for the winter to come. The end of summer for most and the end of life for others.
When Mara attends the funeral of a local priest of the Burren, the last things she expects is another corpse to be found on the church steps - a man stung to death by bees. Sorley the silversmith was a greedy and distrusted man: there would be no shortage of people who wanted him dead but who really stood to profit from his murder?
As Mara investigates she must use all her cunning and prowess as a lady judge to bring the sting of justice to a killer with hatred in their hearts and murder on their mind.
Mara, Brehon of the Burren returns in another wonderful historical tale of murder and intrigue.
The Michaelmas Fair is a time for the people of the Burren to gather together, buy and sell their wares, and give tribute to the lord of their clans. This year there's an undercurrent of anger - the new lord of the MacNamara clan has raised the tribute and his greedy steward Ragnall MacNamara, is not making himself a popular man. When his body is found in the churchyard Mara has is called to investigate. Was it revenge, greed or something more sinister?
Then another body is discovered, apparently a suicide. But Mara is not convinced and it's up to her, as the judge and lawgiver, to uncover who the killer is before they strike again...
1510. A great feast is being held. Into a crowd listening to the story of Balor, the one-eyed god, come two strangers. The younger of the two, Larla, bears a letter that claims that the wealthy Ardal O'Lochlainn is his true father, which Ardal vociferously denies. So when Larla is found dead, with one eye missing, some think he was killed by the god, but most suspect Ardal. Mara, the Brehon of the Burren, is called to investigate.
"Harrison, like Peter Tremayne in his Sister Fidelma series, provides a superior brand of historical mystery" Booklist
February, 1512. Mara, Brehon of the Burren, judge and lawgiver, has been invited, along with her pupils, to the magnificent and imposing city state of Galway, which is ruled by English laws and operates under a royal charter originally granted by Richard III.
While in the city, Mara and her students sit in on a hearing for a man from the Burren who has been caught stealing a meat pie. He cannot speak English and has no means to defend himself, but the penalty for such a theft is death. Can Mara use her legal knowledge to save the poor man's life?
However, events in the city take a dramatic turn when the mayor's son is charged with a heinous crime. Mara is sure there is more to the case than meets the eye and sets out prove his innocence, before he too is sent to the hangman's noose .