Last Rituals

Book cover of Last Rituals

Book description

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

'Yrsa is one of the most exciting new voices in the crime thriller world.' - Peter James

A young man is found brutally murdered, his eyes gouged out. A student of Icelandic history in Reykjavik, he came…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Last Rituals as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Elizabeth Bear

Author

This is a modern Icelandic Noir crime novel about a divorced personal attorney in Reykjavik who gets sucked into a horrific mystery at a university. It delves into Icelandic myth and Medieval black magic (the infamous Necropants make an appearance). I think it's very revealing about the frontier mentality that in some ways still persists in Iceland, and which saturates the Sagas. It's got a great sense of place and offers a nice cross-section of life in a modern Nordic country.

Also, it's really entertaining, and a little bit grotesque.

From Elizabeth's list on understanding the Viking mindset and relationship with the world.