Last Rituals: Thora Gudmundsdottir, Book 1

Þóra Guðmundsdóttir #1

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

The first Thora Gudmundsdottir novel from Yrsa Sigurdardottir—'Queen of Icelandic crime'.

A young man is found brutally murdered, his eyes gouged out. A student of Icelandic history in Reykjavik, he came from a wealthy German family who do not share the police's belief that his drug dealer murdered him. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is commissioned by his mother to find out the truth, with the help—and hindrance—of boorish ex-policeman Matthew Reich. Their investigations into his research take them deep into a grisly world of torture and witchcraft both past and present, as they draw ever closer to a killer gripped by a dangerous obsession....

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Nordic Noir, Scandinavian Literature, Mystery Thriller

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

AKA: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic writer, of both crime-novels and children's fiction. She has been writing since 1998.
Her début crime-novel "Last Rituals" published in the US in 2007, and the UK in January 2008 was translated into English by Bernard Scudder, and is book 1 of the Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir graduated from high-school in 1983, finished a B.Sc. in civil engineering from the University of Iceland in 1988 and M.Sc in the same field from Concordia University in Montreal in 1997.

Yrsa now works as a civil engineer for the company Fjarhitun, as well as being a writer.

In 2000 the Icelandic department of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) awarded Yrsa for her book Við viljum jólin í júlí (We Want Christmas in July).

Yrsa lives in the Reykjavík suburb of Seltjarnarnes. She is married with two children.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a wealthy young German, Harald Guntlieb, is found dead in a Rekyavik university, the cops are quick to pin it on a drug dealer with whom he associated. Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is a thirty-something single mother of a lawyer struggling to get by. When Harald’s mother offers Thora impressive money to look into her son’s death, she teams up with the family’s representative in Iceland and the hunt is on. As Thora learns, Harald was no ordinary spoiled rich kid. He was into some pretty strange stuff. This is a fun read, with an interesting mystery and enough local color to matter.


Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - from http://www.literaturpflaster.com/

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir continued the series with five more books featuring Thóra. She also writes books for children.

The author's FB page

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The grotesque murder of a doctoral student from Germany is what the last rituals of the total is about. Apparently the student was interested in the persecution of witches and the rituals the villagers practised to make sense of their brutal existence in the Middle Ages in Europe and his studies led him to Iceland.

His body was left in a bizarre state of butchery with symbols carved into his skin and his eyes removed. The young man had other things done to his skin called scarification that he did voluntarily. Also, while alive, he had an operation to get his tongue forked. The murder victim was one sick cookie.

A youngish lawyer Thora, a native of Reykjavik, and a banker named Matthew from Germany team up, at the parents' request, to see if they can find out what happened to the youth as the police seem to have bungled the investigation. What was interesting is why this rich, handsome young man would destroy his good looks with self-mutilation and a drug-fueled, debauched lifestyle. Family dynamics explain a lot in the book, as in real life.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first in a series starring a lawyer named Thóra. She is divorced. She has two children: a 6-year old girl and a 16-year-old boy. She falls into a "private investigator" role in this book, solving a gruesome murder for reasons that escape me.

The murder victim is a German grad student named Harald. He is strangled to death with some sort of belt-like object, and his eyes are gouged out. No one has found the eyes. A Satanic symbol (one assumes) is carved into the body. I'm thanking Sigurðardóttir for including a picture of the symbol in the novel - we don't have to imagine it.

It turns out Harald was a very screwed-up young man, heavily into dark magic and the occult. I found Sigurðardóttir's handling of the murder to be very good. It was gruesome, but she doesn't go into too much detail or make it unnecessarily disgusting. It was well-done. A note to the squeamish, though: the dark magic/occult rituals and talismans in this book are very nasty. A lot of skin, a lot of body parts, a lot of "a virgin's menstrual blood," etc. I found a lot of the occult/dark magic/devil worship stuff in this book to be very disgusting. Witch trials and torture are also a main theme, and it can get pretty gross. I don't like reading about stuff like that, and this book has it in spades. So if you have a sensitive stomach - I'd avoid this book - not for the murder! - but for the history of torture and also dark magic rituals that are portrayed in it.

Thóra is on this case with a man named Matthew, who works for the murder victim's family. He is German. They start out as co-workers but end up in a romantic relationship..

WHAT I LIKED:
- The mystery is well-crafted and well put-together. I didn't guess who did it.

- I liked the translation.

- I liked learning some things about Iceland and I liked hearing tons of Icelandic names. I have no idea how to pronounce any of them - but I liked them.

- Thóra has a shining instance of being a kick-ass mother. When her 16-year-old son turns out to have accidentally gotten a girl pregnant, she is amazing. She stands up for her son against his father, and the girl's parents. She makes sure he knows she still loves him and supports him and supports and welcomes the baby. Great job there and one of the best scenes in the book.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

- Thóra. I didn't like her. I thought she was mean, rude, childish, and shallow. It's hard to read a book where you don't think the main character is awesome and the author obviously does. Here's some quotes to show why I didn't like her:

"What does she know about horses?" Thóra was flabbergasted.
"She's a horse lover, didn't you know?"
"No, actually I didn't." She could only pity the horse that had to bear Bella's weight. "What kind of horses does she have? Cart horses?"

Wow. Or this:

Matthew smiled sweetly at Thóra. "Your coat is great. I mean it. It's just so... huge."
"You didn't let that stop you from flirting with Bella. She's huge too - so huge that she has her own center of gravity. The paper clips at the office go into orbit around her."

Seriously. You want me to be rooting for and cheering on this woman? She's horrible. And that's just her personal life! What about professionally? Here she is with a client:

She stood up. "See you later, baker boy. I'll find you a lawyer if you want."

She's very unprofessional. She's also rather childish (as in selfish and concerned with getting her own way and what others think of her). I didn't like her AT ALL.

And if you kept being told by your 6-year-old daughter that she doesn't like being babysat by her older (16-year-old) brother because "I can hear him jumping on his bed in his room and making strange noises," would you actually believe that's what he was doing?!?!!? No. You wouldn't, because you are not a moron. You would instantly conclude that he's having sex with somebody. I can't believe how dumb Thóra is in regards to that. I don't like to call people stupid, but this was glaringly obvious.

2.) Matthew. He's the secondary main character in this book and I didn't like him either. He really grated on my nerves. I didn't like the way he acted with suspects/clients:

Thóra turned to Matthew and told him they could continue in English. Without a moment's hesitation he leaned forward and spoke. "Hugi, you can start by sitting up straight and facing us. Get rid of that whining voice and act like a man, if only for the short while that we're here."

Some people say he has a point, and he does - but I didn't like how he handled this kid at all.

But this is NOTHING compared to his horrible, creepy-beyond-belief flirting. Here he is with Thóra in a museum about the dark arts. The museum is filled with skin from corpses, blood, etc. Tons of creepy stuff. They are listening to the guide, who is giving them a private tour around the museum:

"It had to be caught in a net made from a virgin's hair."
Thóra felt Matthew running his hand down her long, loose hair. Stifling a giggle, she brushed his hand away inconspicuously.

Ew. One, such a creepy place/situation to hit on a woman. Two, such a creepy way to do it. SHE seems to like it, though. They definitely deserve each other. But he's really just such a creeper. All his flirting was so awkward and also creepy. He calls her up one night and says:

"Sorry to call so late, but it occurred to me that you might be thinking about me," Matthew said calmly after they'd said hello. "I decided to let you hear my voice."

Thóra was flabbergasted - she could not tell whether Matthew was mad, drunk, or joking.

I think the author was trying - hard - to make him funny and charming, but she failed miserably. It was awkward and uncomfortable to see these two flirt with each other. But like I said before, I found them both to be despicable, and so I wasn't fussed - they can have each other for all I care.

3.) Like I said earlier - some of the dark magic/occult stuff gets pretty graphic and disgusting. I could have done without some of those images in my brain.

...

In conclusion:

I initially thought I was going to love this because I have found that I love books that come out of Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. I find the writing style from these countries to be amazing. Perhaps it's the way it sounds when translated in English? I don't know. But I'm quite a fan of the bare-bones, simple, elegant style that is used in books that come out of that part of the world.

The mystery was good and satisfying.

But I detested the two main characters. I found Matthew to be aggressive and creepy. Thóra was mean-spirited, selfish, and unprofessional. This ruined the book for me.

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first in a series of six by this Icelandic author. It’s a gritty mystery with some gore, almost grisly I’d say. There’s a lot going on with drugs and satanic rituals. A lot of body parts turn up. Classic Nordic noir.



Harald, a young German student, was studying history in Iceland at a Reykjavík university. On a Monday morning his body is discovered in a campus hallway. His eyes have been cut out and strange symbols were carved on his chest. Harald had been obsessed with studying medieval Iceland witchcraft and its history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. In Iceland, most of the witches accused and executed were men.

Harald had gathered around him a group of young male and female students who practiced satanic rituals and had a lot of weird sex. Harald himself was a poster child for body piercings – he even had his tongue surgically ‘forked.’ The police immediately arrest a young man in this group who appears guilty but the reader knows that’s not the way murder mysteries are solved.

Harald’s very wealthy family back in Germany feels that the police have the wrong man. They send their lawyer/public relations man, Matthew, to investigate. Matthew knows very little of the Icelandic language or of Icelandic police procedures, so his family hires Thora to help him.

Thora becomes our main character. She’s a top-flight lawyer. She’s good-looking, divorced, two kids.

Naturally a romance starts to develop between Thora and Matthew, even though Matthew is a prickly kind of guy not above making fun of Thora and even insulting her at times.

The story revolves around three themes. We learn a lot about the history of European witchcraft, books and authors, and the Church’s attempts to stomp out these practices and writings.

Little by little we learn about Harald’s traumatic upbringing and we get some psychological insight into what may have made him ‘this way.’

And we have the slow-starting romance between Thora and Matthew interspersed with Thora’s troubles at home. She’s trying to bring up a moody teenage boy and a six-year-old girl with hardly any support from her ex-.

All in all, a good story, a lot about the history of witchcraft and some local color of Iceland.



The author, b. 1963, has written about 20 novels, almost all available in English. She also writes children’s books. The book reviewed above is the first of six in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series (that’s a mouthful!). The author is also a civil engineer.

Top photo of Reykjavik from kayak.com
The author from nordicstylemag.com

[Bren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empecé esta serie por el tercer libro y aunque lo disfruté enormemente, no saben cuanto me arrepiento, esta primera entrega es fenomenal, además de que muestra perfectamente la personalidad de Þóra y como se conocen Mathew y ella.
El caso es realmente una pasada, no solo el asesinato en sí, que ya es bastante intrigante, sino también todo lo que lo rodea, todo el tema de la historia de la brujería y la caza de brujas es realmente fascinante, la autora hizo un trabajo fenomenal de documentación al respecto y a la hora de presentar los hechos históricos relacionados con el tema, todo ello envuelto en la fascinación u obsesión con la misma brujería.
El personaje de Harald, que es a quien asesinan, esta lleno de matices, raro, extravagante, inteligente, obsesivo y sin embargo también lo muestran como buen amigo y hermano, un contraste interesante.
Tal vez podría molestarme un poco que hay situaciones que no se dicen explícitamente, solo se insinúan y me ha parecido muy extraño, ya que al tratarse de un libro de este género no suelen tocarse ciertos temas con pinzas, por ejemplo, se habla de modificaciones corporales como si fuera algo demasiado malo y extraño, al punto que a pesar de haber descrito un escenario del crimen bastante desagradable, la autora no se atreve a describir exactamente cuales son dichas modificaciones, solamente las insinúa o en algunas practicas sexuales lo mismo, se hacen más insinuaciones que descripciones, no se si esto sea debido a la traducción o bien para la autora estos temas son mucho más fuertes que describir un asesinato sangriento.
A diferencia del otro libro que he leído, en esta entrega la autora si que nos cuenta mucho más sobre Þóra, su personalidad y su vida personal, como he dicho también como es que se conocen ella y Mathew, otro personaje que me ha encantado, muy a pesar de su estoica forma de ser, tiene un sentido del humor que me ha sacado varias carcajadas.
Una excelente lectura, me ha encantado como escribe esta autora, me gusta su estilo y por supuesto que seguiré leyéndola próximamente y recomiendo mucho que los libros sean leídos en orden, se los dice alguien que por accidente empezó por el tercero y hasta que he leído este no me he dado cuenta de lo mucho que me hizo falta en el otro para entender ciertas situaciones.

[Vanessa (V.C.) · Rating 1 out of 5]

As many reviewers have already mentioned, this novel, although beginning with a promising start, lags rather quickly midway through. The main problem I have is mostly in the construction of the story and the characters. The plot in and of itself is interesting enough, but there is virtually NO suspense to keep you interested or to want you to keep reading. There's no sense of danger, no excitement, just a boring slog through Icelandic witchcraft history and unnecessary attempts at trying to focus on the home life and opinions of the main character, none which were interesting nor necessary to the focus of a MURDER mystery. I don't blame any of this on the translater; I just don't think the author knows how to effectively tell a good murder mystery or to construct effective character development. I couldn't stand the main character Thora, who came off as rather prudish, juvenile, annoying, and immature for her age. The tension between her and a client seemed so forced and at times really came off as cheesy and phony. It got old real quick after awhile, as well as her attempt at trying to show off how "tough" she was. I didn't believe for one second that she was an attorney--the attitude, her incompetency, and just her general pre-teen style way of thinking just didn't really say to me that this is the lady that REALLY knows her shit. I thought the narrative was also lacking in details, like instead of actually using descriptions to detail the type of body modifications that the murdered victim had on his body, the author just decides to use the words "disgusting" with nothing else to evoke any kind of image in our minds of what the characters are seeing. I suppose maybe this was so we could use our imagination, but I call that lazy writing and bland storytelling. The author seemed more focus on trying to make us "relate" to the annoying and unlikeable protagonist instead of actually focusing on the murder case. Who cares about her opinions on body modification, what she thinks of her secretary, how unattractive she looks wearing a scarf on her head, etc.? It got to the point where there was no sense in caring about the murder mystery, since too much attention was put on other areas completely derailing from the topic. I think if the narrative had more focus and was treated as an actual crime/mystery novel instead of some slow, meandering, dull history lesson and amateur melodrama, this novel would have fared much better. It just didn't cut it as a mystery novel or a crime novel.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting crime story about a mysterious murder and investigations who really committed the crime. I really liked the background on witches on witchhunts in Iceland and Europe. Sometimes the story itself was a bit tedious. Why is it necessary to tell that detail about Thora's son? The author could have made more with the student group around Harald, primarily with the female characters. On the one hand the book had very dark tendencies I quite liked. On the other hand it read like a soap (Thora and Matthews). Matthew became a very human character in comparision with the first part of the book. Overall a good crime story with a superb background story underline. That background story I can really recommend!

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This mystery novel has "amateur" written all over it. The author...

- does not understand narrative structure
- is completely ineffective with character writing
- writes unfocused viewpoint that lingers over boring, trite detail
- writes the dullest scenes
- and, just generally, seems to have no understanding about what it takes to capture and hold a reader's attention.

Many reviewers of this book seem to want to shift the blame to the translator, but it just isn't possible to absolve the author of everything--especially structural incompetence. If I had finished the novel, then I might have felt comfortable giving it a 1-star rating, but I didn't get far at all with this one before dropping it.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit I love a book that has content that connects me in with some of previous reads, adding layers of knowledge to topics that previously piqued my interest. Icelandic crime author, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s Last Rituals did exactly that. Last Rituals is the first in Sigurðardóttir’s Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series and has been on my TBR shelf for a few years. I hadn’t been able to source a copy but finally found one at a second hand book sale and totally enjoyed a classic Nordic Noir set in my favourite setting in the far north.

Last Rituals is a page turning crime drama revolving around theme of medieval witchcraft, linking 16th and 17th century Iceland to the modern day. The plot of the book consists of a particularly gruesome murder (think body mutilation, skin carvings, eye gouging and you’ve got the picture), university students, medieval witchcraft texts and historical Icelandic manuscripts. Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is a lawyer and finds herself embroiled in pseudo detective work as she works at the behest of a family to get to the bottom of their son’s brutal murder. Thóra is a generally likeable character and Sigurðardóttir provides just enough of her humanity to make her reasonably authentic.

I really liked the detail that Sigurðardóttir provides around the Icelandic manuscripts that historical figure and antiquarian, Árni Magnússon had collected and collated in the 16/1700s. I had previously learned about this and subsequently researched while reading Iceland’s Bell by Halldór Laxness. Sigurðardóttir goes to great lengths to provide great detail about these manuscripts, including historical characters central to some of these. Events in Skálholt where Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson collected historic manuscripts is detailed and unanswered mysteries form the basis of the intrigue that I loved throughout the book.

At times I felt there may have been too much detail, and I found myself reading and rereading sections to make sure I understood all the content. The book was a great balance between a good Scandi Noir crime with some excellent historical fiction as the basis.

A great first book to a series I’m looking forward to reading more of. This is the Sigurðardóttir that I love. 4.5 stars.

[Alaina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every time I think about travelling somewhere, like Iceland for example, I always end up finding a mystery thriller set in that location. Which definitely makes me rethink about travelling to that specific place. So, I might have to put my future travel plans on hold due to Last Rituals.

It's not like I have time to travel right now anyways.

In this, you will meet Thóra. She is a lawyer, divorced, and has two kids. One is 6 years old, and the other is 16. She randomly gets thrown into being a private investigator which definitely confused me since she's a lawyer. But details.

While working on a murder case, we dive into the life of the victim: Harald. Okay, we sort of dive into his life and by that, I mean we get to know that he's into dark magic and occult shit. Sounds like your everyday kind of college student. Throughout the case, things do get pretty gross and bloody, but it actually makes sense as to why it happened. Still grossed me out though.

Along the way, she works with Matthew. They eventually start to develop feelings for one another, but if I'm being honest here, I came for the murder investigation. Their romance was background noise to me in the end.

Other than that, it was an okay book. I was kind of expecting something more for a murder mystery series and I'm not exactly sure if I want to continue with it. Maybe if the characters were a bit likeable and less creepy. Or if the romance was non-existent.

[Trilby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodreads says that this novel has been published in 30 countries--pretty impressive. One of the dust jacket blurbs remarks that this is "not the usual depressive Scandinavian detective story." Well, sorry, but I happen to really like depressive Scandinavian detectives (like Indridason's Erlendur). Yes, I did like the novel, especially the woman lawyer protagonist who suffers through various personal and domestic tribulations. However, the story suffers from a complete lack of suspense and emotional intensity. (The long, stupid subtitle should have been a hint.) But what do you expect when the major suspects are university faculty members and graduate students? *yawn* I fell asleep at least six times reading it, but managed finally to reach the end. Not even the exotic landscape of Iceland (poor, very poor Iceland nowadays) nor the promise of supernatural thrills are realized in this tepid detective story. If I wanted to be put to sleep, I'd simply get out my copy of "The Critique of Pure Reason." Readers should expect better of a mystery.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

format: Free Audible audiobook
Book 1 in a series of novels with Thóra Guðmundsdóttir-a single mother of two who works as an attorney. She is hired by the family of a young man who was murdered. The family is convinced that the man convicted of their son's murder, did not do it and something far more sinister is responsible. The family hired a retired German police officer to accompany Thóra on her investigation of this case.

I did not enjoy this as much as, I Remember You, the paranormal murder mystery I read previously. But it was still very good. Yrsa's wheelhouse is character development and creating dynamic relationships between the primary characters. Amazing dialogue and sense of place.
Fans of murder mystery investigations with dark subject matter will enjoy this one as much as I did.

[Imi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was fairly disappointed by this, after loving the standalone novel by the same author, I Remember You.

- The mystery​ itself was unsatisfying and dull. The references to dark magic/occult/religion/history really didn't work for me. Too much information dumping that made it feel like I was reading a dull history textbook at times.

- Every single character seemed shallow and immature. I found myself questioning multiple times whether any real person would ever behave in similar ways. First there was the supposedly gifted graduate students acting like brats in one moment, then doing creepy/gross stuff for no apparent reason the next. Secondly, our "investigators", Thora and Matthew, who both seemed utterly underqualified for the job (I really didn't understand the reasoning for Thora getting asked to take up the job?), immature and unprofessional. Several other secondary characters also made questionable decisions that made no real sense as well, while being incredibly rude and spiteful to any other character they came across.

- The worst part of the entire book was Thora and Matthew getting romantically involved. At the start, I genuinely thought Matthew was going to be revealed as some dodgy character, because his "flirting" seemed so gross and inappropriate, but nope I completely misjudged that and am meant to believe that Thora, and indeed Bella and several other women, consider him attractive. Yuck.

- Talking about Bella, how she was treated by her boss, Thora, was disgusting. I mean: "You didn't let that stop you from flirting with Bella. She's huge too - so huge that she has her own center of gravity. The paper clips at the office go into orbit around her." Um, ok, Thora, I'm not surprised Bella is never sunny and smiley around you.

- The only scenes that really did anything for me were Thora's interactions with her children. She seemed supportive and loving towards her kids, even if she was also a bit clueless at times. I mean, when your six-year-old says she doesn't like being babysitted by her elder teenage brother, because he spends too much time upstairs, jumping on the bed and howling, you should be able to put the clues together and work out what's happening...

It's pretty shocking how bad this was in comparison to I Remember You, which I thought was well written, well plotted, had pretty good characterisation, and was creepy in the right way. I'm nervous about trying any more of this series now, even though I already own the second book. I may well still give it chance, however, seeing as I know this author can do better.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even thought Last Rituals starts with a gruesome murder, the rest of the book is fascinating romp through the ancient history of Iceland as well as through the contemporary events in attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir's life. Thora is an appealing main character. She has a sense of humor about her life and she also deals with the realities of being a single working mother with a practical, down-to-earth approach. When she agrees to help the German Matthew Reich to look into the bizarre death of a German student who came to Iceland to study the witch hunts that characterized Iceland's history, they make an appealing team.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the author, has the good sense to balance the macabre facts of the murder with scenes of Thora's family life, as well as scenes of Iceland's barren beauty. The only problem with the book is not with the plot or the characters, which are both satisfyingly developed, but with the translation. I can't imagine the difficulties of translating from Icelandic to English, but at times the syntax gets somewhat choppy.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would certainly not label this as a thriller of any sort, but that doesn't diminish the story it tells. The bizarre murder of a college student and its subsequent solution is what drives the plot. Along the way there are a number of interesting characters that come to life in the pages, not the least of which is the female protagonist, Thora, a 36-year-old attorney.

The slain young man was an avid student of history, particularly 15th through 17th century witch hunts. He also had a fascination for sorcery, magic and witchcraft. These interests lend themselves to some out-of-the-ordinary friendships and life experiences.

I found the plot flow well, if sometimes at a slow pace. Still I enjoyed the reading experience and will be looking forward to reading the next offer in this series.

[Valerio Gargiulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is interesting and intriguing. 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... The characters are well fleshed out, and believable. I really appreciate when authors like Yrsa make their characters normal people with normal problems. Along with the investigation we also get to learn about Thora's personal life and witness a parallel drama that unfolds in that realm. To anyone who enjoys a Nordic mystery, I say "Highly Recommended"!

[Rachel (not currently receiving notifications) Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last Rituals introduces the character of Thóra Gudmunsdóttir, a recently divorced lawyer and partner in a small firm that specialises in contractual law. Thirty-six-year-old Thóra, mother to son Gylfi, sixteen and six-year-old daughter Sóley has an acrimonious relationship with her ex-husband and children’s father, Hannes. Two years divorced, she works hard both at work and at home, to create a supportive and stable environment for her offspring, whilst allowing her own love life to take a backseat. Despite her lack of investigative experience, an unexpected phone call from the mother of a German student, Harald Guntlieb, recently found murdered whilst studying in Reykjavík and requesting her assistance piques her interest, but it is far from clear cut just what will be required of her. Although Thóra doesn’t hold out much hope of providing assistance, she is interested in taking the commission due to both company business being in the doldrums and the generous financial compensation, not least a chance to focus on something less dry than the finer points of law contracts!

Amelia Guntlieb has been given Thóra’s name by a professor whom she studied under whilst in Berlin, and the women's clinical detachment and haughty telephone manner does nothing to make Thóra warm to her. The gist of Frau Guntlieb’s rather cryptic message is that she and her husband do not believe that the police have the right man in custody and facing prosecution for the murder of their twenty-seven-year-old son, Harald. Despite the arrest of a petty drug dealer and known associate of Harald’s after only three days of investigative work they suspect that he is not the culprit and his arrest has allowed the police to merely conduct a superficial investigation. Agreeing to look into the matter impartially and make the Icelandic end of investigations more apparent to the Guntlieb family she is thrust into a uncomfortable partnership with an frosty employee of the wealthy family and a man with twelve years in the Munich CID, Matthew Reich. But firstly he has to answer several pressing questions for Thóra, namely how can the family be so sure that the petty drug dealer, Hugi Thórisson, is not the murderer of their son? His shocking reply is that Thórisson did not have the gouged out eyes of Harald in his possession or amongst his personal effects. Given access to the apprehended man by his lawyer, Finnur Bogason, who understands that they could hold the key to vindicating his clients name and armed with a dossier on Harald’s life the awkward duo seek to shed some light on the case. They quickly find themselves drawn into Harald’s dark world, his esoteric pursuits and his fascination for black magic. With the autopsy revealing death by asphyxiation, they initially suspect erotic asphyxiation is to blame, but the macabre symbol carved deeply into his chest raises alarm bells and suggest something much more disturbing.

The more and more that is revealed about peculiar young Harald, both highly intelligent and conscientious, it is his fascination with witchcraft and sorcery through the ages and his passion for body mutilation that provides the initial leads. His planned dissertation had intended to compare the burning, torture and interrogation of witches in Iceland and Germany and it is his interest in the ancient manuscript, ‘The Witches’ Hammer’ that appears to have ignited his fervour. When the director of the university history department, Gunnar Gestvík, is alerted to a priceless missing document, on loan from a collection in Denmark and last viewed by Harald it seems that the mystery is more complicated than they had previously imagined. As Thóra ploughs on through a wealth of documentation she uncovers more questions than answers and the reticence of Mathew to answer specific questions does nothing to further her assurance that she is being given the full story. The drip-feed disclosure of information from Harald’s family is frustrating to say the least, particularly when significant revelations, withheld from Thóra, are belatedly disclosed and it feels like a ruse to cloud the readers thinking and perhaps add a little excitement, which it fails to do.

Harald’s friends at the university are a group of similar oddballs and all have a varying level of interest in Harald’s hobbies, and membership of the history and folklore society that he founded, named Malleus Maleficarnum (after the manuscript that so fascinated him). The combined group remain overtly hostile to Matthew and Thóra. His closest friend, Halldór (Dóri) Kristinsson, is a gifted medical student who spent most time indulging in Harald’s persuasions and seems to understand him best, but it is the outspoken Marta Mist who dominates the group. Analysing both his life and recent research interests takes Thóra and Matthew on a dark and disturbing journey through the world of black magic. Occasional snapshots into private conversations amongst the group, which naturally Thóra and Matthew are not privy to, steadily reveal that the group have a lot more to hide than meets the eye…

Given my predisposition towards reading translated crime fiction I was rather disappointed by how uninspiring I found Last Rituals. For me, it was a fairly turgid and detail heavy novel, often with a surfeit of superfluous detail thrown at the reader which would have benefitted from some paring back. Whilst this could have been to the advantage of Thóra as she drills down into the finer points that hold the answers, it just feels like an information dump. Personally I had little interest in Harald’s research and found it unremittingly dull and for those whose eyes glaze over at the mention of black magic, perseverance is needed. Last Rituals is essentially a straightforward recounting of a investigation into a macabre murder, but the few points of relevance are bogged down by wading through a plethora of irrelevant and the stultifying intricacies of the history of witchcraft.

I found the character of Thóra Gudmunsdóttir a little awkward, perhaps because of her dry sense of humour and pithy remarks which initially missed their mark with the stiff Matthew Reich. Much of the early dark humour is derived from their exchanges which leave a stilted atmosphere. Certainly both warmed up and the more I saw of Thóra the more I became used to her offbeat sense of humour, but it was her supportive handling of a domestic crisis involving her son that redeemed her in my eyes.. only for a glimmer of passion between Matthew and Thóra to emerge.

On balance I would struggle to recommend Last Rituals except to those readers who wish to gain an understanding of the backstory surrounding Thóra Gudmunsdóttir. Otherwise, this clearly well researched novel in the very antithesis of a page-turner. Most significantly it is the absolute lack of suspense that runs from start to finish that is the death knell and I cannot shake the feeling that Last Rituals requires an awful lot of effort from its readers for a fairly limited return, principally lacking in impetus and passion. Given the seventeenth-century witchcraft and sorcery angle makes it a “niche” interest, I suspect that the novel will have fairly limited mainstream appeal. Hopefully Thóra’s next job will involve matters more familiar and accessible to the everyday reader!

Apologies for the length!

[Shannon M (Canada) · Rating 4 out of 5]

LAST RITUALS is the first novel in the Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardóttir. Thóra is a lawyer practicing in Reykjavik, a single mother with a 6-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. She is hired by a German household to look into the murder of the German family's son, a graduate student in Iceland who was studying witch burnings in Iceland in comparison to those in Germany during the seventeenth century. The murdered son, Harald, was so enthusiastic about his topic that he had self-mutilated his body in such a way as to resemble a devil.

Given the topic, there are many gruesome details about witch hunts and tortures, so this book is not for the squeamish.

I found that the writing was somewhat clunky, and the story was centred around facts. The main characters were broadly drawn without much subtlety, and the plot was relatively simple. I did like learning about witchcraft during the seventeenth century, and so kept reading until the end.

Overall, I would give it a 3.5 star rating. I debated between giving it a final rating of three and four stars, and decided on four. But if you don't like descriptions of mutilation and torture, I'd suggest that you skip this one.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Για την ακρίβεια 2.5*
Είχα ακούσει πολλά και θετικά για την Yrsa, οπότε πήγα στη δανειστική βιβλιοθήκη για να τη συναντήσω.
Αυτή τη φορά δεν την πάτησα όπως τότε που ζήτησα ένα βιβλίο του Ζοζέ Σαραμάγκου και τα κοχυλένια μου αυτάκια άκουσαν τους έκθαμβους υπαλλήλους να αναφωνούν "Πώς; Ζοζέ! τι όνομα είναι αυτό; Γάλλος είναι;".
Είχα πάει πάνοπλη με σκονάκι το όνομα της Yrsa.
Παρ΄όλα αυτά δεν απέφυγα την ερώτηση περί της εθνικότητας και το επακόλουθο μπέρδεμα της Ιρλανδίας με την Ισλανδία.
Ο κύκλος του κακού αποτελεί το πρώτο βιβλίο της σειράς με ηρωίδα τη δικηγόρο Θόρα. Η ιστορία έχει να κάνει με τη διαλεύκανση του φόνου ενός εύπορου φοιτητή με περίεργες συνήθειες.
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι εντυπωσιάστηκα. Ούτε από τη Θόρα και τη συμπεριφορά της, ούτε από την ιστορία ή την πλοκή ούτε από το τέλος.
Χλιαρά όλα.
Και νοστάλγησα τον Επιθεωρητή Έτλεντουρ (Άρναλντουρ Ινδρίδαρσον).
Πολύ τον νοστάλγησα.

[Britta Böhler · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5* rounded down.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken from original review posted at www.bookertease.blogspot.ca

I have decided to start a love affair with Nordic Noir, but I haven't had much exposure, so I decided to dive in head first with Last Rituals, chosen because because of its premise – a German student has been killed most gruesomely; his eyes have been gouged out and his body is covered in weird symbols, tattoos and carvings. The police believe that the case is cut and dry, but Harald Guntlieb’s parents don’t believe that the small time drug dealer the police have in custody is responsible for the murder of their son and so they hire an Icelandic lawyer to work alongside of their own lawyer to dig into things further. When Thora Gudmundsdottir and Matthew Riech start looking into the case though, there are way more questions than answers. Harald was heavily into witchcraft, studying it and potentially attempting to practise it, along with some other students at the university. It’s not clear at this point whether any of these friends have anything to do with Harald’s murder, but there is definitely something that they are hiding. Harald’s upbringing was certainly not conventional and his parents, although hiring the lawyers, are reluctant to provide any insight. A centuries old manuscript is missing from the university and it seems that Harald has stolen it, but no one knows why or where it is. And last, but not least, a mysterious email has thrown everything we thought we knew into suspicion.

Being that this is Nordic Noir, it is also a translation. Although I have read a ton of books in translation, up until recently, I had not really ever paid attention to it. Now that I am more aware, I find that I question my dislikes about a book a lot more. For instance, I find that this story can feel almost, stunted, at times, and I am not sure if it is because of the translation or the author. The story is told from Thora’s perspective and I must admit, at first I found her kind of annoying. There was too much jibber jabber about her personal life, but I am starting to enjoy that. It makes me feel more involved in the story somehow. The only thing that has really been bothering me is the relationship between Thora and Matthew. Clearly there is some sexual tension there, but it pops up at the oddest times, and Matthews’s character is just a little strange. He’s very stoic and kind of a dick, and then randomly he is flirtatious and funny but his flirtations seem off, kind of weird and a little creepy. Maybe this is the translation, maybe it’s because he is German, but I find it disconcerting. Luckily it doesn’t happen very often and is not impacting my enjoyment of the story.

There is a lot of history here as well, most of it about witchcraft but also some general Icelandic history; did you know that Irish monks lived in Iceland before the Vikings? One of the main lines of the history of witchcraft involves the inquisitions and the publishing of a book called the Malleus Maleficarum (or, The Witch’s Hammer) which was a guide, written in 1486, to identifying and killing witches. This struck home with me especially, as I own a copy of this book. I find witchcraft fascinating (not as in I want to practice or believe its real, but from a historical point of view), especially the witch trials and the ridiculousness of what people were able to get away with in order to kill these mostly innocent men and women. I have never actually read the book though, and now definitely have a renewed interest.The thing that I am noticing most about this book is that I really want to visit Iceland now. Yrsa Sigurdardottir (No, I cannot pronounce that either!) has made the landscape sound incredibly barren and beautiful at the same time. Iceland just seems so cut off from the rest of the world, and pretty happy about it.

I am really looking forward to reading the rest of this book. The witchcraft angle is totally right up my alley and I am enjoying the history and the scary-ness of it! And most importantly I have absolutely no idea who murdered Harald, or why…. And clearly I need to figure that out!

[Wren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everyone in our Saturday Slaughters clamored for an Icelandic author so I chose this one. Initially I was very excited about the choice but once I sat down to actually delve into it all interest vanished. The author had a prior career as a humorous children's author and says she gave it up to write crime because it was hard to be funny. I think the real reason is that she wanted to jump on the very lucrative Scandi crime train and make a financial killing before the crash.

Last Rituals is her debut novel which was published in 2005 and she has pumped out a further 7 books. Published in 35 countries - the Sunday Times called her "Iceland's answer to Steig Larson", which is somewhat true if you hated the somewhat overly technical legalistic jumble of his second novel. That is the way she writes. A total snoozathon - no suspense at all. Our heroine should be interesting - we want to care about her. I liked the idea of Thora, a single mom who is a lawyer better than her execution. Perhaps it was the translation into English but the sarcastic comments which were meant to be funny came off as childish and missing the mark.

The victim was a bit more interesting but basically unlikable and I didn't even care if his murder was solved. This should have been a good book but the author just touched on elements that didn't really move the story along. It was as if she was running down a checklist of Scandi crime ingredients: underlying social racism, sex, detective(in this case lawyer) who is independent (read can't get along in the corporate world) etc.

Remarkably the author took a subject that should have been intriguing - using an old book on witchcraft but to my dismay turned it into a boring history lesson. And that is the real crime. This should have been a better book than it is - where were the editors?

I can't recommend this book to anyone. However, I am giving her one star because got it published and sold.

[Matt Poland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been on a Scandinavian crime fiction jag, and this was the first disappointment. There's a fair amount of interesting detail about brilliantly creepy Icelandic folklore, but that doesn't make up for an unfocused narrative with a minimum of suspense. The writing is also fairly inconsistent, relying on cliches and odd little asides (Thora's opinions on global warming and politics, for example) that, while humanizing, don't add much to a murder mystery that dabbles in the occult. Since Bernard Scudder was a pretty distinguished translator of sagas and other Icelandic writing, I don't think he was to blame for the book's lacking style. Although I love the Icelandic setting and admire Sigurðardóttir's attempt to infuse the dour Scandinavian crime novel with occult overtones and a bit of humor, it doesn't quite come off. That said, I did finish it in one sitting - not a completely uninvolved reading experience.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moje prvé stretnutie s Yrsou Sigurðardóttir a hneď pomerne úspešné :)

Na islandskej univerzite sa nájde mŕtve telo nemeckého študenta Haralda, ktorému chýbajú oči a na jeho tele je vyrezaný akýsi podivný znak. Na žiadosť jeho rodiny sa do pátrania zapája islandská právnička Tóra, ku ktorej sa pridá bývalý nemecký vyšetrovateľ Matthias.
A tak sa obaja ponoria do podivného života Haralda, ktorý sa zaoberal históriou, zaujímal sa o čarodejnícke procesy, tajomné aj stratené rukopisy a iné podivnosti.

Hlavná dvojica mi celkom sadla, hoci najprv som mala pochybnosti či bude postava právničky Tóry dostatočne zaujímavá, aby utiahla celú knihu. V tomto smere autorka predčila moje očakávania a s Matthiasom im to fungovalo výborne.

Kniha má cez 400 strán, napriek tomu som sa nenudila ani chvíľu a autorka zapletala a prezrádzala jednotlivé kúsky skladačky postupne, takže som knihu so záujmom prečítala s prestávkami za dva dni 😀

Napriek miestami nechutným detailom, ktoré vraždu sprevádzajú,
toto nebola severská detektívka v štýle napríklad Jo Nesba - takže odporúčam aj tým, ktorí inak majú problémy s detailnými opismi hnusných vecí.

[Ilze Paegle-Mkrtčjana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tā nekas, pat ļoti nekas. Tomēr drusku krīt uz nerviem detektīvrakstnieku tendence izgudrot aizvien ērmīgākas un šaušalīgākas detaļas, lai (droši vien) piesaistītu izlepušos lasītājus. Kas var būt labāks par klasisko whodunnit Agatas Kristi garā?

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m all about standalones, but it seems the author prefers serializations. And so I’ve had to make do with a first in series, which technically at the time of its creation is a standalone. Being a fan of Scandinavian Noir and the author, this was pretty much as good as expected. Plus pretty seasonal with Iceland being Christmas appropriate on an almost year around basis.
And Thóra Guðmundsdóttir is a proud Icelander. But, having studied abroad, and in general having had a proper first world education, she is multicultural and trilingual. And a lawyer. And a single mom. And two years single. But it is her language skills specifically that get her an unusual job when a family of a wealthy international historical scholar, who was studying in Iceland and got found dead and mutilated, hires her to double check the police findings and conduct an investigation of her own, assisted by a man who works for them. A conveniently handsome man, too. But that’s another story.
Not exactly along her professional lines of conduct, but the money’s good and Thora needs it, life’s expensive, especially now that her ex is out of the picture. And so she sets off to investigate the murder, only to find out that the more she looks the more progressively darker and stranger the case gets. Turns out the young man was obsessed with witches and their historical prosecutions and his personal interests and preferences were appropriately macabre. Not the most natural thing for a straight laced stick in the mud like Thora to wrap her brain around, but she acquires herself admirably in the end.
But she really kind of is a straight laced stick in the mud, at least until you get to know her, though to be fair her charms aren’t obvious. She’s very serious, so much so that occasional jokes come as a surprise every single time. She managed to have one of her kids very young, so now at 36 she juggles a sixteen year old and a six year old and does a pretty good job of it, busy as she is. It doesn’t do much for her love life, but who needs dating apps, when dashing coworkers are sealed and delivered right to her. There’s a very practical matter of factness to Thora that initially seems to flatten her, but in reality it’s just her Scandinavian persona and once you get used to it, you’ll find her a perfectly decent if not effusively charismatic protagonist.
The real star of the show is the plot, though. Not the murder thing itself, that was actually kind of lamentably obvious and predictable, though not overwhelmingly so. No, where the plot really
excels is in the backstory of the victim and all of his dark interests. The author’s obviously done a fair amount of research, comparing the historic prosecutions of witches of the Continental Europe and Iceland, it’s all absolutely fascinating and profoundly disturbing. She’s dabbled in supernatural before, ghost and such, and is obviously very comfortable in that territory and though it may not be the actual genre here, the elements are shining through like…I don’t know, ectoplasm at a séance?
This is, of course, a suspense thriller and a murder mystery first and foremost, but for me it was more along the lines of a really good witches story with a dead body. It works on either level and it’s very dark on every level. Plus the entire thing is infinitely improved by the location, isolated, stark and seemingly readymade for something just like this. A memorable and creepy armchair trip to Iceland and a very auspicious and enticing series first, even for a standalone reader such as myself. Recommended.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Wal.li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buchseiten

An der Universität von Reykjavik wird ein Student tot aufgefunden. Es handelt sich um den Deutschen Harald Guntlieb. Ein Täter wird schnell verhaftet. Doch Haralds Eltern wollen sich mit dieser Lösung nicht zufrieden geben. Sie wollen wissen, was wirklich zum Tod ihres Sohnes geführt hat. Sie engagieren die Anwältin Thóra Gudmundsdottir. Diese allein erziehend mit zwei Kindern, etwas chaotisch, aber dennoch voller Wissensdurst. Ihr zur Seite steht Matthias Reich, der von der Familie Guntlieb nach Island geschickt wird. Die beiden versuchen unvoreingenommen an den Fall heranzugehen. Haralds besondere Vorlieben, was seine Aufmachung und auch seinen Studienschwerpunkt anbetrifft, macht die Ermittlungen zu einen Ausflug in eine andere Welt.

Es geht in die Vergangenheit, die Zeit der Hexenjagden in Europa. Dafür hat sich der Student Harald am meisten interessiert. Er hat sich auf Spurensuche begeben, einen Vergleich zwischen Island und Deutschland wollte er ziehen. Thóra und Matthias folgen seinen Spuren, was hat er gesucht, hat er etwas gefunden. Doch wieso sollten seine Studien etwas mit seinem Tod zu tun haben. Kann nicht eher seine Clique von eigenartigen Freunden ihm den Tod gebracht haben.

In diesem ersten Fall um die Anwältin Thóra Gudmundsdottir führt die Autorin ihre Leser durch die Landschaften und Städte Islands. Sie beschreibt die Lebensumstände Thóras, ihr witziges Büroumfeld, ihre Kinder und auch ihre Fähigkeit, sich in einen Fall hineinzuknien. Zwar sehr gut recherchiert sind die geschichtlichen Fakten, aber doch ein wenig ausschweifend. Das mag vielleicht eher für die Leser gelten, die dem Thema der Hexenverfolgungen nicht ganz so viel abgewinnen können, dennoch hätte hier eine kleine Straffung nicht geschadet. Die Neugier auf die Entdeckung der Zusammenhänge geht jedoch nie verloren und so liest man diesen Krimi mit immer größer werdender Spannung. Witz gepaart mit einen packenden Fall und sympathischen Protagonisten bieten beste Unterhaltung.

[Johanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m conflicted about this book. So - pros and cons.
Pros:
Good mystery plot. I especially enjoyed the Icelandic medieval history involving witchcraft and religion.
Cons:
Some pretty awkward writing. Some of it can be blamed on the translation, I think, but some of it is likely the writing. It mostly occurs when the author writes about the character relationships, which didn’t all work for me. There’s a romance element that I didn’t really buy into.
Also, there were some cringy inappropriate bits, such as some really blatant fat phobia and ableism. They weren’t passages intended to reveal something about the characters, just clear indication that the author thought it was okay. That really put me off.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: murder, mutilation, gore.

I've read several of Yrsa Sigurdardottir's books now, and they're all wonderfully creepy. Some of them have been slow and creepy, others have been compelling as hell and creepy. This one was...somewhere between the two.

The murder itself was hella disturbing and the dynamic between the victim's friendship group was super messed up. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the protagonist is a lawyer hired by the victim's family to be their eyes on the ground, rather than a trained investigator.

I did think that the romance was...largely unnecessary, but the characters were compelling enough that I'll likely keep reading the series.

[Amos · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the two main characters smile-inducing banter, the actual story never managed to fully grab me. Hence I believe that this series is a "one and done" type situation.
Go in peace....

3 Less Than Satisfying Stars