Icelandic crime novelist Yrsa Sigurdardóttir has become best known in the United States for her series of novels featuring attorney Thóra Gudmundsdóttir. Now, with THE LEGACY, Sigurdardóttir launches a new series, one that features two complementary protagonists who approach the complicated crimes from different angles.

Freyja is a child psychologist and head of The Children’s House, a clinic that specializes in diagnosing and treating children who have been victims of physical and sexual abuse. She has developed an effective method for interviewing children who have been subjected to extreme trauma. That’s why she’s called in when the Reykjavik police encounter a difficult situation. A woman has been brutally murdered in her home while her husband was out of the country at a conference. The only witness to the crime is the couple’s young daughter, who was hidden under the bed the whole time.

"Gruesome details, shifting perspectives, and a perplexing preface that will keep readers guessing about the connection right up until the end --- THE LEGACY offers a terrific beginning to what’s sure to be another top-notch series from Sigurdardóttir."

Rightfully traumatized, the little girl is reluctant to share what she heard, and Freyja is hesitant to push her, especially when she discovers that the lead detective on the case, Huldar, is a man with whom she had a one-night stand a few weeks prior (he gave a false name and pretended to be a carpenter). Embarrassed by that encounter and annoyed by Huldar’s bluster, Freyja’s resistance to the investigation is outweighed only by her genuine concern for the girl, who eventually comes to trust her.

The murder, which was committed in a particularly brutal way, is just the first of a string of similar killings of seemingly totally unrelated victims. Each new murder only confuses the situation more, since the killer is methodical about covering his tracks, and none of their leads results in anything substantive. Meanwhile, a lonely chemistry student and avid shortwave radio fan has started to encounter a perplexing series of digits on a so-called numbers station, often used to communicate messages in code. Karl doesn’t know any of the victims (yet), nor does he know that the series of numbers bears a resemblance to coded messages left at the murder scenes. Is there a connection between them? And if so, what is it?

Sigurdardóttir’s police detective, Huldar, offers a welcome (and, at times, comic) relief from the sort of brooding, tortured detectives that characterize much Scandinavian crime fiction. His main frustration is resentment at being promoted and consequently having to handle bureaucratic paperwork while also helping his staff prioritize investigative tasks. Meanwhile, he’d rather be out there solving the crime --- or occasionally getting a good night’s sleep. Freyja, on the other hand, is professionally successful but has a personal life that’s a mess; she’s dogsitting for her brother, who’s in jail, and her one-night stand with Huldar is pretty indicative of her recent romantic luck. The dynamic between these two characters is promising, and readers will be interested to see how it develops over future volumes (two sequels have already been published in Icelandic and hopefully will be translated soon).

As for the murder plot, it’s sufficiently dark and twisted to keep even the most astute readers on their toes. Gruesome details, shifting perspectives, and a perplexing preface that will keep readers guessing about the connection right up until the end --- THE LEGACY offers a terrific beginning to what’s sure to be another top-notch series from Sigurdardóttir.