When Mara attends the Feast of the Holy Cross at Kilnaboy Church, it is just another duty in her busy life as Brehon of the Burren, responsible for upholding the kingdom's ancient laws. But this special day has drawn the faithful of Ireland and pilgrims from across Europe, for Kilnaboy Church holds a prized relic-a piece of the true cross-inside its tower. When the tower catches fire and the relic is destroyed, chaos breaks out, and Mara begins...

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...