The Ritual
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Ritual
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Four old university friends in their late thirties have not done much together in years and pick a hiking trip in northern Sweden to fix that. After one of them turns an ankle, they take a shortcut through ancient forest. By the second day, they find a flayed animal hung over a clearing.
The most commonly searched is The Ritual by Adam Nevill (2011), a horror novel about hikers lost in Swedish wilderness. The metadata above lists Faye Kellerman in error.
Yes. Netflix released a 2017 film adaptation directed by David Bruckner. The film is widely considered one of the strongest folk horror films of the 2010s.
The Ritual is 331 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Ritual takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Ritual is a standalone novel by Faye Kellerman, not part of a series.
The Ritual is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.