I heard Yrsa Sigurðardóttir on a radio programme a while ago, and intrigued I bought one of her novels. Yrsa is an Icelandic writer who writes children’s novels and also crime novels… I’m only interested in the latter!
The novel I read was ‘Last Rituals’; the main character is a lawyer called Þóra Guðmundsdóttir (Thóra Gudmundsdóttir) Thóra normally handles everyday sort of cases, minor legal issues, divorces, contracts, that sort of thing; however she is recruited by the family of a rich young German man murdered in Reykjavik to try and ascertain whether the police have investigated the crime properly. It is a ghoulish crime, but I won’t reveal what so it will be a surprise to you. As well as the main plot involving the solving of the crime, there is a side story about Thóra’s relationship with her two children, her ex-husband, and the representative of the family sent from Germany. The mystery goes back centuries and the past has a part to play in the motive for what has happened to the murdered man.
I really enjoyed the novel, it kept me intrigued to the end… and now I am reading another novel about Thóra, The Day is Dark; this is the fourth in the series… I got a little muddled when I was ordering it, so I will have to go back and read the second and third novels about Thóra another time! Then I have another two more to read after that!
Lois Elsden 