Last Rituals by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigur∂ardóttir (
SYKM,
Wikipedia), known as “the Queen of Icelandic crime” (presumably not in a Moriarty-like secret criminal mastermind sense), translated by Bernard Scudder, is the 1st in her Þóra Gu∂mundsdóttir series of Reykjavík-set murder mystery/crime thrillers, starring the eponymous attorney and the ex-cop she sometimes teams up with, this installment putting them on the trail of the killer of a university student with an interest in witchcraft, free courtesy of publisher Hodder & Stoughton.
This is the featured Free Book of the Week in the iTunes UK store, and is apparently being made free to promote her newly-translated standalone thrillers, of which
The Undesired was recently released and
Why Did You Lie? will be upcoming in the next few months.
Currently free, probably just for the week @
B&N UK,
Amazon UK,
iTunes UK, &
Kobo (probably only available to the UK; this seemed decidedly unfree in other regional stores I spot-checked and is out from a different publisher in North America, though YMMV for wherever you happen to be). Likely also free at Google Play UK as well.
ETA: Now also free @
Sainsbury.
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat; really, this time) free ebook thread of the day.
Because not only is it really nifty to get more international perspectives for the regularly offered sleuth vs. killer stuff we get, this is also one which I'm delighted to see turn up, since it fits in very well with my fondness for cultures that produce dragon boats and is very Relevant To My Interests™, a fact which I know because I've actually bought this one and a few others in the series when they dropped on sale.
So, yay that it's getting to enjoy a wider audience of Gentle Readers who will hopefully like and purchase and thereby encourage the production and translation of more things like it.
Enjoy!
Description
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...