Name: Last Rituals
Rating: 3.75 (10 reviews)
ISBN: 9780061143366

Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder

Last Rituals

Attorney Thora Guomundsdottir and her new partner, Matthew Reich, journey to a remote corner of Iceland to investigate how the murder of a German student may be connected to the victim's interest in witchcraft.

With a rating of 3.5 out of 5, this novel is worth reading for both Nordic noir fans and those interested in the intersections of crime and culture. It provides an engrossing narrative with a number of its own flaws, thus raising some quite thoughtful questions about tradition, identity, and the nature of justice. Being the first, it allows room for growth and development in the books that follow; many readers will be very eager to see how Thora's journey will continue.

Doyenne

Janice Hopper

Another Nordic mystery. A student is dead, and he was mutilated after death. He was a history student, interested in past German and Icelandic witches and witch hunters. He had a group of friends that were supposedly interested in black magic. Is there something weird going on here? His wealthy parents don't think the person arrested for the murder did it. They send a representative to enlist an Icelandic lawyer to help investigate. She finds stuff out.

This one may have some infelicities due to the translation. I thought some of the language was a little clumsy. For the rest of it, I didn't find the characters particularly compelling or interesting. It's actually a pretty straightforward mystery, not very exciting or compelling, to me at least.

Maria

для скандинавского детектива, наверное, недостаточно мрачно, но тру скандинавские я и читать не могу, у меня потом эти сцены годами стоят перед глазами. а тут прямо нормально - и ведьмовские ритуалы, и без кишок особо. и героиня симпатичная

A young man is found brutally murdered, and his parents don't share the police's belief that a drug dealer murdered him. they hire Attoney Thora Gudmundsdottir and Matthew Reich to find the truth. Their investigation takes them deep into a grisly world of torture and witchcraft as they draw close to a killer gripped with obsession.

Jan Jackson

Sean West

Darice de Cuba

At a university in Reykjavík, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest. Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim's family isn't convinced that the right man is in custody. They ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate. It isn't long before Thóra and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student's obsession with Iceland's grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions. And for two suddenly endangered investigators, nothing is quite what it seems . . . and no one can be trusted.

Last Rituals An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder

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