An Ensuing Evil and Others: Fourteen Historical Mysteries
Book Tracking
Sign up to add this book to your recommneded, reading, or planned reading list.
Book Covers
Multiple editions, click to view covers:
Book Details
Written by Peter Tremayne.
Buy this on Amazon
($14.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
User Reviews (1) Login or create an account to write a review.
Dale Brayden thinks this book is Nothing Special.
An Ensuing Evil is a collection of short mysteries by Peter Tremayne, author of the Sister Fidelma series of historical mysteries set in 7th century Ireland. There is only one Fidelma mystery in Ensuing Evil. The rest are mostly set in late Elizabethan England, near the Globe theater, or are Sherlock Holmes stories, or are alternate takes on Shakespearean stories.
I am not a fan of short fiction, and I'm sure that accounts in part for my overall lack of enthusiasm for this book. Short fiction has the virtue of highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of an author. Tremayne has a marked tendency towards pedantry (he is an acknowledged expert on Celtic history and culture). It isn't much of a problem in a 300 page novel, but in a 20 page short story, excursions into Celtic grammar or social structures are an unwelcome distraction.
Interestingly, the pedantry actually works well in the Holmes stories - Conan Doyle had many of the same tendencies, and transferred them to the Holmes character. For an amateur such as myself, it would be hard to distinguish the Tremayne Holmes from the Conan Doyle Holmes.
In all, it was an OK book for reading on the bus, but I think most people would find it all a bit disappointing.