Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery

Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 3

By: Jennifer S. Alderson

Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Stolen artifacts, a missing anthropologist, and a pesky amateur sleuth.

Art-history student Zelda Richardson is working at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam on an exhibition of bis poles from the Asmat region of Papua - the same area where a famous American anthropologist disappeared in 1962. When his journal is found inside one of the bis poles, Zelda is tasked with finding out more about the man's last days and his connection to these ritual objects.

Zelda is pulled into a world of shady anthropologists, headhunters, missionaries, art collectors, and smugglers - where the only certainty is that sins of the past are never fully erased.

Join Zelda as she grapples with the anthropologist's mysterious disappearance 50 years earlier and a present-day murderer who will do anything to prevent her from discovering the truth.

All four mysteries in the Adventures of Zelda Richardson series are stand-alone novels, and they can be listened to in any order.

©2018 Jennifer S. Alderson (P)2018 Jennifer S. Alderson

A Good read / listen

Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 3, First I've read in the series and the first I've read by this author.
A good read/listen, entertaining and the chapters about Papau were very interesting and intrguing.
Narration is very clear & concise and easy to listen to.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my own request, and voluntarily leave this review.

If you like Archeology n mystery. listen to this.

I received this book free from Eblast, the author, and publisher. this is my unbiased opinion. I enjoyed the book. I really can't think of too many criticisms, maybe a bit slow. Definently worth your time.

Entertaining Adventure!

You can tell a lot of research went into the writing of this book. With an amazing amount of detail in the writing and storytelling I could not stop listening until I had finished the audiobook!

I highly recommend this book if you are into adventure mystery and ancient artifacts.

I was given this audiobook review copy at my request and have voluntarily left my review.

Cannibals & ritual masks, on my!

Note: Even though this is Book 3, it works fine as a stand alone novel.

Zelda Richardson continues to stumble around the antiquities gathered in Holland, making enemies and uncovering old mysteries. I liked this story quite a bit more than Book 2 mostly because I like Zelda more. She’s grown up a bit and now comes off as perhaps 20 years old instead of 15. She’s still a bit unsure of herself and not the swiftest to catch on, but some of that can be excused by the extraordinary circumstances she finds herself in.

Papua, New Guinea is the featured culture in this novel. Once upon a time, Dutch colonists cluttered up the Papua countryside bringing Christianity, modern medicine, and boxer shorts while also taking away cultural artifacts. The story portrays both sides of how modern peoples with their religions and sciences both helped and harmed the native peoples. I really like that the author didn’t shy away from showing this. It would have been easy to throw a rosy blanket over it but it’s way more interesting this way.

Zelda is still hanging out with her friend Friedrich but he’s got a much smaller role in this novel. Zelda still has him strictly in the Friend Zone even as she dates a few other guys. Her boss (Meric – spelling?) still questions if she’s the right one for the internship or not. Basically, Zelda’s life is this constant teetering see-saw. Albert Schenk still isn’t her fan.

The Amsterdam museum she works for is trying to gather enough Asmat New Guinea art pieces for a good show and Zelda has been tasked with gathering as much basic info as she can. In digging up info, she learns of an American artifact obtainer, Nicholas, who went missing in the 1960s. The story has a series of flashbacks showing what Nicholas was doing up to his disappearance and those are quite well told. Even as I enjoyed them, I wish there had been more Papua characters in the tale.

In the 1960s, the priests sent to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity were instructed to destroy old, ritualistic artifacts and art (which had been obtained by trading medicine and living utensils for them). This put some people in a difficult place – not everyone agreed that destroying these cultural items was the right thing to do. It’s a great little slice of questionable history to explore through this murder mystery.

The murder mystery part is a little long in getting spun up but I felt it was a delicious burn. We have one murder at the museum that doesn’t point to anything Zelda is tripping around in. Then later we get a second one that definitely points to whatever Zelda has gotten herself in. Plus there’s that decades old mystery of the missing American to solve. In the end, things mostly get figured out by Zelda though one small piece to the puzzle comes out in a random confession… and I felt that was a plot device and not really something the character would do.

All told, it’s an interesting mystery and I’m now warmed up to Zelda. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: For some reason, this series switches narrators which I find a bit distracting when I’m listening to a series back to back. Chelsea Stephens does a good job with Zelda’s voice. All her character voices are distinct though her male voices need masculinity. She did a good job portraying Zelda’s emotions and her pacing was good too. I know it’s a bit to ask, but since this is set in Holland, it would be nice to have a Dutch accent for the Dutch characters. That would really make it feel like the story is set in Amsterdam and not just any Midwestern USA city. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jennifer S. Alderson. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Absolutely Outstanding!

Jennifer S. Alderson proves to us all in her latest, Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery: Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 3, what I had suspected all along - she is the author to keep an eye on! No joke...she IS the one your mama warned you about! Alderson is on fire, and I have a feeling, this is just the beginning. After reading and listening to another of her books, The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery, I immediately recognized that her writing abilities greatly exceeded other authors of the same genre. Being that it was the first book I ever read by Alderson, I had nothing to compare it to. So, when I saw a couple days ago that Rituals of the Dead was released on audio, I was overjoyed and couldn't wait to give it a listen! I can say with complete confidence that I was correct - Jennifer S. Alderson is an amazingly talented author! Taking a look at the charts on Amazon, I see that I am definitely not the only one who feels this way. Rituals of the Dead is a top seller in 3 separate categories right now, as I type this review, and one of them has the Kindle version teetering between the #1 and #2 spot for Literature and Fiction, focusing in on Foreign Language Fiction. So, Ms. Alderson, just in case you read these reviews, I want to say congratulations! :-)

Chelsea Stephens' performance as narrator was excellent! She did a phenomenal job bringing the characters to life as she flawlessly switched between the early 1960s and 2017. Her consistency made for easy listening, and her voice was pleasing to the ear. I feel she made my overall experience that much more enjoyable and well worth the credit! This is my first time hearing Chelsea Stephens narrate, and, based on her performance here, I definitely plan to check out more of her work! :-)

Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery: Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 3 by Jennifer S. Alderson, narrated by Chelsea Stephens is very deserving of 5/5 stars across the board. Not only will you be kept in suspense and wonder, but you will also stay thoroughly entertained from start to finish. If you love historical fiction, mysteries, and culture, you are definitely going to love this audiobook. It is thought-provoking and very-well researched! In fact, it is so well-researched that I had to check if it was actually fiction. I love audiobooks, so, natually, when I find a good one, I can't help but recommend it to others. I have to also say, if you are looking to read a book, yourself, or if you are deciding on your next group or book club read, this one would be a wonderful choice. It can be read as a stand-alone or as part of a series. The content allows for a variety of thoughts and opinions on situations that are real and relevant, which provides wide opportunity for discussion. The characters are relatable and likable, especially Zelda, and it is highly enjoyable! I cannot wait for the next audiobook to be released!

Thank you for reading my review. I hope it was helpful. :-)
#AmateurDetective #suspenseful #Amsterdam #tagsgiving #sweepstakes
#ArtHistory #culture #mystery #PastMeetsPresent

Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery

You can make a lot of money selling stolen art and artifacts and Zelda Richardson should know since these strange mysteries seem to follow her everywhere! What will her next mystery be? Who will be after her next or what trouble will she find herself in? Alderson provides her readers with a fascination of the interworking of famed museums in Amsterdam through the eyes of an intern, but in this installment—the artifacts are the mystery.

Zelda has been asked to help with data entry at her newest intern position. Once she does this, then she is almost finished with the Master’s Program. What starts out as simple artifact research, turns into a fiasco. These artifacts have come from different areas like Dutch New Guinea, Borneo, Fiji, and Indonesia to the museum’s lab after a flood at the Academic Medical Center. They are all mixed in with each other in crates and some were left to rot. The research team will have a field day going through all of the artifacts and piecing everything together. In one of the crates opened, a journal, belonging to a famous anthropologist who disappeared in 1962, is found and Zelda is tasked with making photocopies, even though the curator expressly forbids it. Zelda feels that she has a duty to provide this man’s family with some answers, so the snooping begins. At what cost is she willing to go to get those desired answers, especially after murder. Feeling justified in her actions, Zelda knows that uncovering the disappearance of Nick Mayfield may be crucial to discovering an even bigger scheme—and someone wants to keep that information under wraps.

Alderson has an amazing third installment with superb character development. This mystery and adventure takes readers into the artifact world and the cutthroat politics involved in retrieving them. The pace is quick; however, the narration may not capture the audience the same way that the second installment did. This narration feels rehearsed, devoid of character differentiation which may not be as enjoyable to the reader if the vocalizations play a major factor in enjoyment of an audiobook. There is a change in narrator from the second book to the third book. Since this review is complimenting the audiobook, it appears that the story is well-written since the voice relay is clear and flows effortlessly. If you are a reader of mysteries and adventure, you may enjoy reading this story. This is the third installment in The Adventures of Zelda Richardson; however, it can be read as a standalone as far as the mystery goes, but some of the characters’ lives carryover from prior installments.

An audiobook was provided to Turning Another Page by Audiobookworm Promotions and in no way affects the honesty of this review. We provide a four-star rating to Rituals of the Dead by Jennifer S Alderson.

Rituals of the Dead

Very good story, kept me listening when I should have been sleeping. Will be recommending to my friends.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Wonderful Mystery!

I have listen to other books by this author and have really enjoyed them, and this one did not disappoint. She does a wonderful job keeping the mystery alive and also the story unique. The narrator does a wonderful job as well which only adds to the overall fun of this book. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Highly Powerful Anthropological Mystery

In <strong>Rituals of the Dead</strong> by Jennifer S. Alderson, Zelda Richardson is doing an internship at the Tropenmuseum in Netherlands, where researchers have discovered bones and other artifacts sent to Netherlands by anthropologists from the Asmat region of Papua 50 years earlier. As the researchers open the last two boxes at a public press conference, they pull out two bis poles, Asmat versions of Native American totem poles. But in one of the boxes, they discover the journal from Nick Mayfield, the American son of a millionaire mogul who disappeared during an expedition 50 years earlier. Zelda is given the tiresome chore of photographing the delicate book and is relieved to have finished a day before her deadline. But then the department photographer finds that she can't log into the computer system or use the phones. Janna sends Zelda to the IT department, where Zelda finds all the employees frantically trying to fight off a cyber attack that has infiltrated their entire system. When she returns to the photography department, Zelda is shocked to discover Janna brutally murdered, with the journal and all her equipment stolen.

The book switches back and forth between the activities of Nick in 1962 Papua and those of Zelda in 2017 Netherlands. This proves to be an effective narrative technique, as we see retrospectives of Nick from both his lifetime and through Zelda's eyes as she researches his life amid her own work preparing for the exhibition into bis poles. This method of narrative works all the more compellingly to drawn us more deeply into the mystery.

The plot of this book gripped me and kept me from pausing the recording. I thoroughly loved Alderson's previous book, <em>The Lover's Portrait</em>, but the premise of <strong>Rituals of the Dead</strong> made me unsure if it would be too creepy for me. However, I need not have feared. Yes, there are a couple descriptions of bones that are not wholly pleasant, but they are so crucial to the plot that I didn't mind much, and the scenes are treated tastefully.

This book exposes the dark underbelly of the field of anthropology, especially the practices used in the earliest days. Westerners like Nick and other anthropologists and missionaries would offer trades of axes or tobacco for ritual items deemed sacred to the native Asmats. They took advantage of the native people in using unscrupulous means of gaining their artifacts. Physical anthropologists also collected the bones of natives in order to measure them in the now-debunked belief that measurements of bones, in particular those of skulls, reveal facts about the mental capacities of people. This method of research held a purpose of proving Western superiority. In doing so, they did not treat the bones that they often stole with the respect and care that such bones deserved. This makes us wonder what beliefs and research practices we hold and use today may seem barbaric and ridiculous to scholars 50 years from now.

Chelsea Stephens performs the audio edition of <strong>Rituals of the Dead</strong>. Unlike most cozy mysteries, this book contains mostly narrative and little dialogue. Thus, the performance requires a different approach to narrating the book. Instead of being dramatic, the performance uses a more evenhanded reading, leaving the text to speak for itself. I felt this was a smart decision, making the book seem all the more effective.

I was very pleasantly surprised by <strong>Rituals of the Dead</strong>. As a student of anthropology, I heard about some of the unethical and unscientific practices of certain early pioneers in the field, but this book brought these practices to life in a powerful way. This book was so compelling that I don't think I could have put it down even if I wanted. I heartily endorse this book and give it five stars.

<strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I received this book for free from the author, but that in no way affected the content of my review.

this book was given to me at my request for review

at first I had a hard time listening to this book but after the first few chapters I started getting intrested and couldn't stop listening. it turned out to be a good book.