The Legacy

Starred review from December 18, 2017
This relentlessly paced series launch from Sigurdardottir (The Undesired) is as stark and horrifying as any of the ancient Icelandic sagas. In 1987, three orphaned siblings fall victim to bureaucratic exigency: the sister, because she is more desirable to potential adoptive parents, is separated from her two older brothers. Flash forward to 2015, when an intruder slips into the Reykjavík home of Elisa, a young mother, while her husband is away and brutally murders her. Huldar, a police detective shakily directing his first homicide investigation, joins forces with Freyja, a psychologist specializing in the care of traumatized children. Margrét, Elisa’s unhappy eldest child who was cowering under the bed where her mother was killed, gradually reveals clues to the killer’s identity. Meanwhile, Karl, a reclusive loner, untangles clues he hears on his ham radio. Sigurdardottir’s trademark sly ironies, often directed at official fumbling, can be downright ghoulish. Others are deliciously hilarious: Huldar and Freyja, pulled together for the case, realize they had a “well-oiled” one-night stand a little earlier. Each character is brilliantly conceived. Few readers will be able to put down this powerful tale of revenge.

Starred review from January 1, 2018
In Reykjavik, seven-year-old Margret witnesses her mother's murder, and, Freyja, head psychologist at the Children's House, agrees to try coaxing details from her. It's always a challenge to secure reliable information from traumatized children under the pressure of detectives pushing for leads, and matters are complicated further when Freyja recognizes the lead detective, Huldar, as a recent hook-up who lied about his identity, making their collaboration decidedly barbed. Huldar kicks himself for souring an important ally, especially on a case that has begun looking like a career-ender. The only evidence in Elisa Bjarnadottir's murder is Margret's somewhat surreal description of the killer and her claims that he told Elisa he was after revenge. Huldar is convinced that the case will make or break on Margret's memories, and he places her in protective custody with reluctant Freyja as the killer hunts his loose end. When elderly widow Astros Einerdottir is murdered with the killer's bizarre signature, Huldar's team struggles to find the victims' connections. Meanwhile, Karl, an unsuspecting shortwave-radio operator, has figured out that the numbers broadcast on a coded channel he's discovered are identification numbers: his, Elisa's, and Astros'. This complex, character-driven procedural, the first in a new series from Sigurdardottir, whose recent efforts have been supernatural-tinged thrillers, is powerfully rooted in buried secrets of childhood trauma. Recommended for fans of Tana French and Camilla Lackberg.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)