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My Lady Judge - The First Burren Mystery

Author
Cora Harrison
Genre
Media
Book
Publisher
MacMillan
ISBN
9780330445993
Reviewer
Vicky

Synopsis
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...

Photograph of Author

Cora Harrison May 2007

Review

I absolutely loved this book,not just because it is so well written but for me Cora's writing enabled me to visualise so well the atmosphere of the times she was writing in. Her many characters felt very real and I found myself empathising with Mara - a very newly appointed judge.

But what completely foxed me was that one of the suspects in the murder had what appeared to be classic signs of autism! Which for me definitely added spicetothe story. Cora has woven into her story how the people of Brehon treated people with special needs and it was a lot better than we do in the 21st Century!

As a children's writer Cora Harrison has very successfully jumped into adult fiction and I do highly recommend this book. It certainly had me gripped from page one and I look forward to more books in this series.

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