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Last Rituals
By Yrsa Sigurdardottir
It has been fun the last few years reading mysteries from foreign lands, notably Italy, Sweden, Norway Japan and China. England doesn't count since that's where it all began! However, a mystery from Iceland is something new and I was intrigued.
This book does what most foreign mysteries do, as far as giving an insiders view of life, landscape and everyday activities of the residents.
Last Rituals is extremely explicit about a grisly murder that takes place at a university in Reykjavik.
The circumstances involve a group of students that are interested in witchcraft prevalent in the 1500's and 1600's. Self-mutilation, forked tongues, eyes plucked out - for a while I wasn't sure I wanted to turn one more page! I have noticed a trend lately in other mysteries to be ever more inventive with violence and graphic in the nasty details of witchcraft and murder itself.
However, this Icelandic mystery has a few saving graces -- namely in the main character, Thora, a struggling lawyer,and a single mother with two children. When a wealthy German family asks her to look into the murder of their son, with a large fee involved, the action begins. The young man arrested was a friend of the victim and the family is not sure he is guilty.
Because of tis case, Thora is involved with a new associate, Matthew, and the two characters make an interesting team. Also, the intricate plot leads the reader on, along the tangled trails of medieval manuscripts, Irish monks that took refuge in Icelandic caves, and bishops that took part in torture and witch hunts ( which in Iceland involve arresting men instead of women). The band of students involved in the present murder are fairly good students, but easily led by the rich victim, Harald Guntlieb. Drugs, liquor, smoking, partying, all paid for by Harald are part of the scene. I found myself involved with solving the mystery, despite the macabre circumstances and interested in Thora and her family.
Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a civil engineer directing one of the largest hydro construction projects in Europe. She is also an award-winning author of five children's novels; an unusual combination. When she is not working onsite construction six months of the year, she lives with her family in Reykjavik.
Yrsa is also working on a second novel, starring Thora Gudmundsdottir. Last Rituals was first published in the U.S. in 2007 in England by Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.
Published: Verold Publishing
HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
Copyright: © 2007 Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Reviewed: 01/15/08 - 239
Copyright: © 2008 by Joan G. Smith
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