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A review by apechild
Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
3.0
Average thriller and I'm assuming the first in what became a series. Set in Iceland and following the investigative adventures of lawyer Thora. In this tale a German student of Reykjavik university is found dead, with his eyes removed and strange symbols carved on him. A drug dealing friend is arrested for the murder, but the student's family are not convinced that the right person has been arrested. They sent their security chief (they are stinking rich) to Iceland to look into the case, and not speaking the language, he hires Thora to help him with the language and legalities of the country. Their investigations lead them into a dark time in history, of witchcraft and executions.
Thora is a bit of a curiosity to me. She's in her mid thirties, a trained lawyer, so she's not fresh out of school, and she's in partnership with an older lawyer. And they are completely incapable of doing anything with their surly and incompetant secretary. Rather than training her to give a professional look/greet to the business or firing her, they basic roll over to her bad moods and just make sarcastic comments about her work. There's something about a clause in the building lease that they had to hire her, but it's pathetic to think they don't then try to do something about the situation.
The whole police investigation seems a bit... like there's gaps. Despite the way this guy is murdered no one seems to consider or speak of the potential aspect of ritual killing. Oh, it's just about drugs, let's arrest a drugs dealer. And then when the other students in these witchcraft club the German guy set up, aren't nervous about what's happened (because surely if they didn't know who had done it or what was going on, they'd be worried they might be next), no one reacts to that either.
The writing is a bit clunky at times, but without speaking Icelandic and reading the original, I can't say whether this is a first book clunkiness, or it's down to a bad translation. Because you can't always blame the translator. If the book is badly written, why should they turn it into a well-written book in their own language?
It's an all right thriller and worth a look; (interesting with the history of witch trials in Iceland) it's just that there were a few points that grated for me.
Thora is a bit of a curiosity to me. She's in her mid thirties, a trained lawyer, so she's not fresh out of school, and she's in partnership with an older lawyer. And they are completely incapable of doing anything with their surly and incompetant secretary. Rather than training her to give a professional look/greet to the business or firing her, they basic roll over to her bad moods and just make sarcastic comments about her work. There's something about a clause in the building lease that they had to hire her, but it's pathetic to think they don't then try to do something about the situation.
The whole police investigation seems a bit... like there's gaps. Despite the way this guy is murdered no one seems to consider or speak of the potential aspect of ritual killing. Oh, it's just about drugs, let's arrest a drugs dealer. And then when the other students in these witchcraft club the German guy set up, aren't nervous about what's happened (because surely if they didn't know who had done it or what was going on, they'd be worried they might be next), no one reacts to that either.
The writing is a bit clunky at times, but without speaking Icelandic and reading the original, I can't say whether this is a first book clunkiness, or it's down to a bad translation. Because you can't always blame the translator. If the book is badly written, why should they turn it into a well-written book in their own language?
It's an all right thriller and worth a look; (interesting with the history of witch trials in Iceland) it's just that there were a few points that grated for me.