Last Rituals: an Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir is made a financial offer she can't refuse--investigating the death of German university student Harald Guntlieb. Harald's parents believe that the man police have in custody for his murder is innocent and they want Thora to find the real killer. Thora is joined on her search by one of the Guntlieb family employees, Matthew Reich, and she finds that working with him can be exasperating. They find that Harald was part of a group of students who were interested in Iceland's history of witch hunts and the torture that surrounded them. In fact, Harald was the ringleader of the group and had many odd body piercings himself. Is Harald's death connected with the research he was doing or did one of his friends take their group's activities too far? As a divorced mother of two children, Thora makes an interesting protagonist . The book also has touches of humor despite its occasionally gruesome subject matter. A read-alike for this new mystery series would be the Irene Huss books by Helene Tursten set in Sweden.