Freeman, Philip

Highly recommended for readers interested in women's studies and/or the poetry of ancient Greece.

This novel is a bit darker, but like its predecessor shows a good knowledge of early Ireland. There's less time spent on character development here, but the plot is well paced and the mystery deeper than it first appears. Readers who enjoyed the first volume will want to pick this up. Fans of Peter Tremayne's "Sister Fidelma" series might also be interested in following Deirdre's adventures.

Fans of Tremayne's "Sister Fidelma" series will want to give this a try. It may also be of interest to those who like series set in Roman and pre-Roman Britain, such as those by Kelli Stanley or Ruth Downie.

Freeman ignores many conventions of modern historians: he never locates events in contemporary geography; if the classical source (always unreliable on numbers) says 100,000 soldiers, he generally accepts the number. Despite a persuasive epilog on the problems of sorting legend from fact, he rarely discusses his sources. It's a cliché-ridden biography, at times even reminiscent of the old Landmark Books some may remember from their childhood, likely to please neither the uninitiated nor the learned adult. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]