Dark and atmospheric thriller as we would expect from Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. The murders are disturbing rather than overtly graphic and are rendered even more so by the presence of children. This is the first of a series and I will definitely keeping an eye out for the next one.

Another fabulous novel from the queen of Icelandic crime fiction! Yrsa Sigurdardottier never disappoints, drawing readers in with her storylines and characters, and bringing a great sense of creepy atmosphere. Wonderful read.

I first thought this book looked interesting and requested it on NetGalley last year, but then life got in the way and it sat shamefully unread on my iPad. Then last month Hodder & Stoughton contacted me and asked if I would like to take part in a blog tour to coincide with the paperback release. I jumped at the opportunity and settled down to read The Legacy, and right from the beginning I questioned why I hadn’t read in sooner!

The Legacy begins with a prologue set in the late 1980s with a group of social workers having to make a difficult decision about the best way to deal with three young siblings, should they stay together in care or should they be split up in the hopes that the youngest girl at least stands the chance of adoption and a family?

Switching to the present day a woman is brutally murdered in her own home, a newly promoted detective finds himself leading the murder enquiry and when his only witness is the woman’s young daughter, who was hidden under the bed at the time of her mother’s murder, and who is too traumatised to talk the psychologists at The Children’s House are brought in to help.

The plot of The Legacy is complex; the murders were definitely a first for me and I’ve read a lot of crime fiction! There’s no doubt that they were brutal but not described in particularly graphic detail, believe me your brain will fill in the gaps. With the addition of coded messages being received by a seemingly unrelated third party and the information gained from Margret Yrsa had so many different scenarios running through my head as I tried to figure out how the prologue and the present day were connected, none of my guesses were right!

The two central characters within the story really grew on me as the book went on.

Huldar is the newly promoted detective in charge of the murder case, a series of corruption allegations sidelining a number of more senior members of staff Huldar is perhaps not quite ready for the promotion but sets to work anyway. It would be fair to say that Huldar is a flawed detective, and his character won’t be completely unfamiliar to any crime ready, he smokes, although he’s trying to give up, and he doesn’t really do personal relationships, preferring to play the field, although that leads to complications of its own. The fact that Huldar is the type of character we’ve seen before doesn’t take away from the story though, his past indiscretions add an interesting twist to some of the relationships within the novel.

Freyja is a child psychologist based at The Children’s House who is brought into the investigation to help deal with the victim’s young daughter, trying to work through the girl’s trauma and gather information that will help catch her mother’s killer. I really liked Freyja, she’s good at her job and clearly cares about the children she helps, she also seems to have an interesting backstory, with her protective brother currently in prison. I’m looking forward to finding out more about her in future books.

Originally written in Icelandic the story has been wonderfully translated by Victoria Cribb. I was a little worried about how I’d find it as I’ve read a few translated stories and they’ve felt a little stilted, and as though they’d lost something in translation but not this story, it was engaging and gripping from beginning to end!

Would I Recommend?
Absolutely! I thought it was a great read although I may never be able to look at certain household appliances in the same way again! This may have been my first book by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir but it certainly won’t be my last! I’m keen to kind out what’s next for Freyja and Huldar and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on The Reckoning once it’s released!

Oh my word, this book. If you are looking for a book with a very dark tone, one that will have you on the edge of your seat and holding your breath in anticipation, while simultaneously having you eyeing your household appliances with great suspicion, then look no further. The Legacy combines and dark and yet compelling story with wonderfully diverse and engaging characters, and a key sense of place and atmosphere. It was, in a word, brilliant.

Now I love my stories on the dark side. I've always loved those that can blend in a real sense of horror. Not always the supernatural, although lord knows I love that too, but sometimes just the depravity of human nature is enough. This book captured that essence from the very dark and ominous opening chapter, right until the shocking and completely disguised resolution. This is not always an easy book to read. Even though not explicitly told at the start, you know that they three children we first meet have suffered terribly but it will take until the end of the book for the full extent of that horror to reveal itself. This is enough to set the reader on edge, but what follows ... Well, it is certainly unexpected.

From the very first murder you know that you are faced with a very depraved killer. Someone who can take the everyday and turn it into something quite grotesque. In fact all of the murders are very wince inducing. Horrific. Very horrific. We may not be present when they occur but there is absolutely no doubting the terror they inspired in their victims, the way in which the author builds the tension prior to the act enough to leave no doubt of that fact. And the aftermath is very clear in detail too. If you are easily upset I advise caution. Rightly or wrongly, while making me wince, it also made me smile. This book was right up my street.

The central characters, child psychologist Freyja who works with the police to try to coax a statement out of the young daughter of the first victim who witnessed her mother's murder, and Huldar, the Detective charged with solving the case, are two characters who I grew to like very quickly. They have an unusual connection, but despite the outward hostility, there is a clear chemistry between the two which I am looking forward to seeing develop as the series progresses. Yrsa Sigurdardottir has a real knack for creating authentic characters, and for eliciting an emotional response to them, be it fear for their safety, hatred for their cunning, or simply a kind of kinship with them, which is what I felt reading about Freyja and Huldar.

As for the supporting characters, they are as varied as they come. One especially, Karl, is a really intriguing character, one we meet repeatedly throughout the story. He is an outcast, a CB enthusiast, who seems unwittingly drawn into the mysteries, fed clues he, and the reader, does not fully understand. But as it becomes clear ... Well his is a story which may leave you conflicted in the end. Tragic and yet full of a little bit of hope perhaps. Dark tinged, but hope none the less.

One of the other key and most prominent elements of this book is the sense of place. The author does a brilliant job of creating setting, from the mundane environments of the victims homes, through to the descriptions of the Children's House in which Freyja works. Every scene is used carefully to set tone, to build the tension and the apprehension which is felt with every page turn. There isn't a single element which doesn't add to the atmospheric nature of the read. There is a sense of foreboding from the start, and little by way of light moments in which to find any salvation or relief from it. But then this is a very dark subject, obsession, abuse and murder, and the tone fits it perfectly.

Although I have to say, for a country such as Iceland, where crime is considerably less prevalent in many if not all European countries, I am beginning to worry about how creatively murderous its authors are. And if you want to start a series that demonstrates just how dark and devious Yrsa Sigurdardottir's mind is, then this is a great place to start. I cannot wait for book two.

Yrsa Sigurdadottir, The Legacy, trans. Victoria Cribb, Hodder & Stoughton
This is volume one of a new series. The Reckoning, the second book, is already published. It contains some horrible murders, and deals—at the Children’s House—with abuse one might prefer not to read, but it is integral to the book and the title. CB radio has a part to play in the plot, with coded messages. The central female character, Freyja, is a strong presence, and knows her way to interviewing children who have had terrible experiences. The book is rich in suspects. There couldn’t be a better contrast to Jónasson’s bare outlines: in particular, Sigurdadottir is able to set up a relationship between Freyja and the detective, Huldar, who imagines she fancies him. She doesn’t.

A jolly good detective and psychological thriller set in Iceland, where the police and specialist psychological trauma service work together to try to elicit facts to help solve a gruesome and difficult murder case. I found this an interesting story, counterpointing the developing relationship between detective Huldar and psychologist Freyja with the unfolding discovery of victims of a very twisted murderer. Lots of twists and turns will keep the reader guessing his or her identity, and there is an interesting ending. Yrsa Sigurdardottir writes really well and is brilliantly translated by Victoria Cribb. Hopefully the next books in this series will also be made available to us in due course, because I would like to see how Huldar and Freyja's relationship will develop as well as reading more of this author's writing.

This a very good crime thriller. I found it hard reading at times because of the content of the story but it was done brilliantly and I found it hard to put this book down once I started it

An intense, compelling thriller of a shocking and violent death of a young mother and the only witness was her 7 year old daughter. This story has so many twists and turns and is gruesome so its not for the light hearted thriller. I enjoyed it but for me personally went on far too long.

This is the first book that I’ve read that could be classed Scandi Noir. I know that I’m a bit late to the party with this but better late than never is definitely the case!

I heard the author of The Legacy talking about her latest book on the radio, she read an exert from this book and I did not want her to stop, I wanted to know what happened next so as soon as I could get to my computer I looked the book up and I was delighted to get a copy via Netgalley.

What I hadn’t realised was quite how long this book was. At 464 pages this is not a short book, and as a slow reader, it’s quite a commitment for me to read and it took me a week to read. However, often when I read a long book I get almost resentful of the book and the amount of time that it is taking for me to read, I have so many other books waiting! But that did not happen with The Legacy, although aware that it was loooong I never felt that it should hurry up or get to the point, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

While the language was a little different and perhaps slightly simplistic due to the translation from Icelandic to English, I actually quite liked it, it made the book easy to read and a little bit different.

I really liked the main characters in the book, Hulder, the main detective was great and I look forward to getting to know him better in future books in the series, and the same with Freyja who works in The Children’s House, so is involved with a young girl who witnessed her mother being murdered but understandably does not want to talk about what she saw.

The deaths in The Legacy were really quite gruesome but the author skillfully avoided giving us too much detail and let us imagine what happened to the victim, something that I was very grateful for.

I am definitely converted and will be reading more from this author, and hopefully other Icelandic crime authors.

A woman is murdered in horrific circumstances, the only witness her traumatised seven-year old daughter and the only clues a series of numbers which signify a code. Detective Huldar is only recently promoted to the job and is struggling to make headway with the case, so he turns to the Children's House, a group that specialise in dealing with traumatised children. As Margret opens up about her ordeal another woman is murdered and a reclusive radio ham Karl is convinced that he is getting messages linking him to the women. Meanwhile Holder finds that his liaison with the child is a previous one night stand and that the answers may be a lot closer than he thinks.

Sigurdardottir is a writer of superior Iceland crime noir and now she has turned her attention to a new series set around The Children's House. If the rest of the series is anything like this opener then fans are in for a real treat as this is a complex and interesting story with a great twist at the end. Although the idea of centring around traumatised children may seem a little gratuitous, the handling of this strand of the plot is very sensitive and almost downplayed. At its heart this is a police procedural which is well-written and fiendishly clever. There are the requisite unpleasant deaths and blind alleys but the setting in a frozen urban environment and the insights into life in Iceland are outstanding.

The Legacy is my first venture into Icelandic Noir and the first in a new series by Yrsa Sigurdardottir – the Children’s House thriller series, translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.

I think the first thing I should say about this book is that I loved it and once I started reading I just didn’t want to put it down. What is so remarkable about that is that there are some particularly dark and nasty murder scenes, which would normally guarantee that I’d stop reading. I am so glad I did read on. The Legacy is an excellent book. It’s dark, mysterious and very cleverly plotted, full of tension and nerve-wracking suspense. Although I thought I’d worked out who the murderer is I was completely wrong, but looking back I could see all the clues are there, cunningly concealed – I just didn’t notice them.

It begins with a prologue set in 1987 when three young children, two boys and their little sister are waiting to be adopted. It’s hard to find anyone willing to adopt all three and they are separated. The psychiatrists’ opinion is that it is in their best interests to be parted and that their horrendous background be kept secret, hoping that time and being split up would obliterate their memories. I did try to keep the events in the prologue in mind as I read and had some idea of how it related to the rest of the book, but it was only when I came to the dramatic conclusion that everything became clear.

Move forward to 2015 to Elisa whose husband is away leaving her on her own with three young children for a week. Her seven-year old daughter, Margrét wakes her, frightened because there is a man in the house. What follows is the first horrifying murder (read it quickly and try not to linger over the details because the pictures they paint don’t bear thinking about). Margrét, who was hiding when her mother is killed, is the only witness and she’s too traumatised to say very much.

She is taken to the Children’s House where Freyja, the child psychologist in charge and the detective Huldar, in charge of the police investigation, try to get to the truth. It’s immensely difficult, complicated by more murders. Freyja and Huldar are both sympathetic characters, both deeply committed to their jobs, but because of past history between them unable to trust each other.

The narrative is in the third person and switches between Freyja’s and Huldar’s viewpoints, interspersed by that of another character, Karl a student and radio ham enthusiast who has been receiving strange messages from a mysterious numbers station broadcasting, unusually, in Icelandic. These consist of long strings of numbers read out by synthesised voices. Karl dreams of successfully cracking the codes. I was both intrigued and completely mystified by this part of the novel. I was completely engrossed in the plot and the characters. I shall certainly be reading more of Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s books in the future.

My thanks to the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, for an e-book copy for review, via NetGalley.

This is the first book in the start of a new crime series which I devoured page by page.
I'd left this book at home, thought I had it in my bag when I knew I'd be spending some time in the car and sitting for appointments at the hospital (nothing serious)
I was so fed up as I couldn't wait to jump back into this plot.

A ten year old daughter becomes the only witness to a terrible shocking murder.

Treading carefully the Police need to bring in some expertise. The Children's house.

Then more people die.

There somehow links together a pattern by texts, strange weird messages and numbers.

There are so many twists in this book you will get dizzy.
So many turns that you will trip over yourself coming back.

It's such a huge well written book that kept me riveted. Yes riveted to it. I was stuck like glue.
That's why I couldn't wait to get home to finish it and but at the same time. I didn't want it to end.

My thanks to Veronique at Hodder for my copy

The Legacy is the third book I’ve read now by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the author whose name I will never be able to pronounce, and one I was eagerly looking forward to reading given how much I have enjoyed the other two.  I have to say I wasn’t disappointed in what I got for my money (well, not really my money as this was a review copy but you know what I mean – hopefully), though it probably wasn’t the favourite of the books I’ve read.

Why not? Because it didn’t have the spooky element the other two books had and which I thought set them apart from others in the genre.  I thought it would with the prologue – three children sat on a bench, not moving whilst a group of adults talk about the horrible things that have happened to them and how it is best they are given new lives and know nothing of their past.  This is the extent of it though and, with the story proper, it moves into a more traditional police procedural / piece of crime fiction.

That said, this doesn’t make it a bad book, not by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, once I got over my slight disappointment at the lack of spookiness, I became completely absorbed in the story.  It has everything I like in my Nordic noir; it is dark and gritty, the world is cold (there is always snow) and the people slightly dour and depressed (sorry but it’s true – though it doesn’t put me off reading).  Plus there is the structure and social mores in which they live and work, so different to ours and so fascinating.  I can never resist.

As for the book itself, it is well written and well translated and nice and complicated, though it didn’t feel like it would be at first.  With each murder and each twist in the tale I found myself more confused as to what was going on and who the killer was (I didn’t get this one until it was revealed – a good thing for the author in the keep ’em guessing stakes but bad for my ego as I really like to be the one who figures things out before the police).

The silver lining to that is that the police were just as confused as me, no closer to figuring out the truth than I was as they scrambled to find clues and connections between the victims.  I should have had more of a clue given I knew more than them.  Not only was I privy to the children in the prologue, I was only following Karl, a CB radio enthusiast who is picking up broadcasts that seem to be targeted directly at him (and pointing him towards the victims).  Knowing they were all connected didn’t help me though,  I just couldn’t put it together no matter how hard I tried.

Maybe I would have tried harder if I hadn’t been distracted by what I hoped was a burgeoning relationship between the lead detective (Huldar) and Frejya who works for the children’s service and is trying to keep the first victim’s daughter (and only witness to her murder) safe.  Huldar and Frejya have history, meaning she isn’t his biggest fan, but I couldn’t help hoping they would figure it out because, despite Huldar’s social ineptitude, I really liked him and Frejya.  I thought they were complicated but well rounded characters and, as this is the first in the series, I really hope to get to know them better
.
Maybe I’ll be lucky in the next one and get a bit of the spooky back but, even if not, I’ll keep reading because I liked this one a lot and would definitely recommend it.

The book opens in 1987 where the future of three children is being discussed. The decision is taken to split them up and put them all up for adoption. The story then moves on to 2015 where a gruesome murder has taken place in Reykjavik. The only witness is the victim's seven year daughter. Haldur is the policeman in charge of investigating the murder. He is working with Freya, a psychologist to try and get the girl to open up about what she saw on that night. There's history between Freya and Haldur and it could get in the way of their work. Karl is a student and is living on his own since his mother's death. He's started hearing strange messages on his short wave radio - all made up of numbers. Is it a code and is it linked to the murder. Then two more gruesome murders take place. What links the victims and what could possibly be the motive. A fantastic read. The way the victims were murdered were very inventive. This is the first in a new series of books by this author and I look forward to reading more.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is my first book by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (despite owning a couple...) and I was very impressed. I've been reading a lot of Nordic Noir recently, but she blows them all away. The story is a clever take on the mystery genre; focussing on Freyja, a psychologist and director of "The Children's House" which deals with traumatised children. After a woman is brutally murdered, with her 7-year-old daughter Margret the only witness, the police need to find out what she knows. When another woman is killed, and the killer begins leaving cryptic messages the need to get Margret talking gets greater and greater.
A sub-plot throughout the story is one of three young orphaned children separated, and adopted by different families. Whilst there is not much information, it is never far from your mind, and I found myself constantly trying to figure out who the children grew up into.
I would thoroughly recommend this book, and am happy to begin reading a new set of books by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir; The Children's House series.

The murderer here was calculating, clever and cold blooded. The methods used are unheard of, gruesome but they all mean something obviously. Trying to link the dots and trying to find a connection between the three is what the detectives have to find.

Facing a blank wall of seemingly endless clues with no connection and no idea of where to go next, a random arrest seems to make everyone happy. The fact that the so called murderer gets a stroke, is paralysed and unable to talk from that point on seemingly closes the case. It all seems very conveniently done and you still feel that somewhere down the line, the investigation has slipped.

Seemingly random, seemingly without motive the detectives move slowly but not forward. It is just by a simple deduction right at the end that it even gets closure and then it seems so simple.
Set in Iceland was interesting enough though it did not convey enough of the background. I would have liked to have seen and known more about the setting. I am glad that this author is getting known via translation as her books are certainly engrossing.

Amazon did not permit reviews. I could not find it under Goodreads. Review on my blog mid July 2017

Dark & disturbing. A slow start and the ending seemed a little rushed but a great read none the less.

Translated from Icelandic, this is the first in the Children's House series set in Reykavik. This is a murky, dark and twisted tale which begins in 1987 where after an unspeakable event, child experts make the controversial decision to separate three children into different adoption homes. This connects to what happens later down the years in 2015 when a mother is gruesomely murdered, discovered under her bed is her seven year old daughter, Margret, the only witness to the crime.

Freyja, is director and psychologist at the Children's House which has the remit of meeting the needs of young, traumatised and abused children. They also facilitate contact between the child and the police with a view to protecting the child. Detectives Hulder and Rikhardur are the investigators on the case and needless to say, Margret is a difficult witness to pin down. Freyja distrusts the police, and Hulder in particular, with whom she has history. There are further deaths with the continuing strange use of ordinary household items as the murder weapons, and clues that include odd notes and coded messages on the radio. It is a complex case where the killer will do anything to evade justice and is a difficult figure to discern.

An atmosphere of menace pervades the book and there a number of potential suspects. In an intricately plotted story the tension and suspense is well maintained. The wide ranging characters are well developed and there is a strong focus on relationships in the novel. Very dark Scandi-Noir. Recommended read. Thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley for an advance copy of The Legacy, the first novel in a new series to feature The Children's House, where they treat abused children.

It is always good to discover that there is a new book from Yrsa Sigurdardottir and it’s even better when you realise that it is the first in a new series. The Children’s House works with traumatised young people advising the police on how best to question and approach them as well as trying to heal the damage that they have suffered.

Freyja is called in to assist with a very young girl who witnessed her mother’s brutal murder and who may hold vital clues for the police. Huldar has been newly promoted and is leading the investigation into the grisly murder but he has already stirred things up with his colleagues and with his previous dealings with Freyja. She doesn’t trust the police anyway and that mistrust is well deserved with the young detective.

A complex story begins to unravel in mid-winter Reykjavik with a group of marijuana smoking students obsessed with CB radio and some bizarre coded messages coming through that appear to link in to strange notes being left by the killer. As further victims are found it becomes critical to stop this man and to protect little Margret who may be the next target when the killer realises she is still alive.

As with all Yrsa’s books The Legacy paints a fascinating picture of modern day Iceland and has a fantastic twist that I defy anyone to pick up on. I was convinced I knew who the black man was and I was completely wrong! Hopefully we’ll see more of Huldar and Freyja very soon.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as the others I have read by Yrsa Sigurdardottir - it's very long and I thought it dragged at quite a few points. However, i'M intrigued to see where this series goes and I'm sure it will be a hit with everyone craving more Scandi-noir.