Christin R. (raksha38) reviewed on 10/26/2011 + 203 more book reviews

This novel was originally written in Icelandic and its set in Iceland. A German student at the university in Reykjavik is gruesomely murdered and the family is convinced the police arrested the wrong person, so they send a family employee (who happens to be a former detective with the German police force) to work with local lawyer Thora Gudmundsdóttir to find out who did it.

I liked this a lot. Iceland was more than where the story happened to be set, it was really a part of the story itself. The murdered man was a grad student in history who was fascinated with the witchburnings in Icelands past and it was his investigations into theis past, which intersected with a particular obsession of his, that caused his murder. Thora is a great character. Shes smart and capable, but in a real-person kind of way. Like, shes trying to deal with being a divorced single mother of two juggling her family life with her work. Its hard and she doesnt always get it right. But she always tries! And a lot of the time, she gets it right.

Also, Thora is a freaking awesome name. In fact, all the names in this book are awesome. I love Icelandic naming conventions.

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