Last Rituals: A Novel of Suspense (Thora Gudmundsdottir Book 1)

I picked this book because it is set in Iceland and I wanted a change of pace from my usual locals. I know next to nothing about Iceland. The story and the mystery were okay, not much different from many other mystery/crime books on the market. I actually found myself getting a bit anxious for it to end. The first half of the book moved along better than the second for me.

The story is interesting. A very wealthy German young man is going to college in Iceland. He has a special interest in the history of witches and the black arts. He is found in the history department, murdered and mutilated. His wealthy family hires a not very prosperous female Icelandic attorney to investigate the murder because they are not happy with the local police. She is aiding the family's proper and male private investigator. She is also divorced and has two children. Her teenage son is a hot mess, which is a secondary story line. The attorneys and the PI work together and eventually solve the murder. Naturally they are attracted to each other and have sex. Didn't see that coming!

The mystery is decent and the writing is basic. This did not seem any different from thousands of other crime procedurals. And we never find out why this particular attorney was chosen by the family. I was hoping for some interesting reason behind that. It may just be my mood today, but I am tired of the predictable hook-ups in some books. Is there some reason that adults cannot work together without having sexual tension and then sex? My interest in the book was flagging toward the end. The murderer was a person I had considered as a possible suspect, so no big surprise or twist there. On the plus side, the book is quick and easy to read. The Ritual is the first in a series starring the female attorney. I will not be reading any of the sequels.

This author may have won prizes for children's books, but this book is so poorly written I could barely read it. She created a main character that acted and spoke like a 14 yr. old. The plot regarding the mystery and investigation was foolish and contrived and the plot regarding her private life was really goofy. No wonder she is divorced and her kid is getting someone pregnant at 16. I've been addicted to "eurocrime" and have not been disappointed until now. The problem may, in part, have been that she wrote the book in English. If not (and I couldn't find a translater listed) the translation may have been at fault. Who knows?

This is not your typical Nordic/ Icelandic noir. Even though there is just about every trouble in the world covered here, the book is written with a very subtle sense of humor.
A wealthy foreign student who came to Iceland to study witchcraft is murdered. The murder is gruesome. The police have their suspect in custody. The victim's family contacts Thora, a lawyer, to undertake a separate investigation. They feel that the suspect couldn't be the killer. As Thora gets involved, she is working with the family's chief of security.
Along with the investigation we also get to learn about Thora's personal life and witness a parallel drama that unfolds in that realm.
I would classify the genre as a police procedural but it is a very light read, written with a sense of humor, sans noir.

I am a loss to understand how a successful writer of children's books could enter the world of adult mysteries and fail so abjectly. Puerile is the word that best describes every aspect of this book. The characters are either so one dimensional like Thora's son or the professor that this would not pass muster in a introductory writer's class. The motivation of the characters is not focused. Are we to believe that a divorced mother of two lawyer falls into bed with a man whom she barely met more that a few days ago and expresses her remorse with all the sophistication of a Barbie doll. No there is to much to criticize and to be blunt, the book is not worth it.

Her grasp of Icelandic history is flawed whether it be pre-Reformation Catholic clergy or witchcraft. The characters are only surpassed in triviality by the depiction of Icelandic life which may be that there is nothing unusual or unique about it. I will admit that the two interesting facts she states, and I assume there are correct, is that parking is tough in the cities and Icelanders do not like to walk.

Read it to learn how not to write a good book.

My wife and I had the pleasure of spending some time in Iceland. It is a beautiful place and we can't wait to go back. I was excited to try some of their literature. I don't think suspense is the correct term for this novel. Fiction is a better term. Started pretty good, but I must confess it was a real chore to finish. Don't think I'll try another Thora story. Maybe some other author.

I used to read Nordic Noir quite a bit. Last Rituals is my first in a long time and I found nothing special in it. Noir for sure, a complex and gruesome mystery is methodically unraveled. A bizarre seemingly ritualistic murder of a equally bizarre young man unites attorney Thora Gudmndsdottir and a family friend of the deceased Harald to find the killer. As reconstruction of Harald’s activities in Iceland proceed, horrific details of the torture of witches in 16th century Iceland and Germany, black magic, and creepy spells are uncovered along with body mutilation in the methodical though repetitive and at times
boring investigation. The backstory of Thora’s private life add filler to the book and, I suppose, some insight into her uninteresting character but add little interest. The final revealing of the killer and the epilogue lack credulity. I don’t regret reading it as the complexity of the plot is worth it.
Three stars is the best I can offer.

Although I read this Book 1 after having read Book 2, I found this one to be just as chilling as MY SOUL TO TAKE. The love felt within the family is warm, but everything else is downright chilling. You're going to need your Icelandic sweater to get through this one!!!

Sorry to offend anyone in Iceland but it seems to be a strange country. Relatively good mystery, typical. Easy to put down, anxious to finish to start something new.

A fascinating plot--but so poorly written and edited that it was sometimes painful to read. The writer needs a ghost writer.

This is a fairly typical contemporary crime/mystery novel, meaning that it can't do without gross mutilation and sexual weirdness (but manages not to have any incest, at least). There is also a lot of strange historical stuff, and the murder in the present has its roots in perverse goings-on in the past. Whatever happened to the straightforward, well-written novel in which a murder is committed by some unknown person and solved by a clever detective?
The ethnographic content, praised by some reviewers, struck me as rather dull (certainly not the kind of description that might lure me one day to Iceland). The characters are neither interesting nor well-delineated - and making some of them gross or weird is not an adequate substitute for this. The "broad-shouldered" male sex interest teeters on the brink of being a cliche figure out of a Mills & Boon women's romantic novel. The murderer is sign-posted early on as an unpleasant type of the sort that the novelist probably dislikes personally!
But the greatest weakness of this novel is that it lacks real suspense, or any sense of danger. The plot is detailed (or meandering), but unconvincing. Of course you read on to find out whodunit, and the text slides down easily enough, but do you really care? No.