A review by trilby001
Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

3.0

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.