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Yrsa Sigurðardóttir books in order

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic award-winning author of mystery, thriller and children’s fiction.

Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, Yrsa has a B.Sc. in civil engineering from the University of Iceland, and an M.Sc in civil engineering from Concordia University, Montreal.

Yrsa first began by writing humorous novels for children before transitioning into crime fiction novels with her Thóra Guðmundsdóttir Series.

Originally written in her native Icelandic language, her books have so far been translated into 35 languages.

Her horror novel, I Remember You, was adapted into a movie in 2017 directed by Óskar Thór Axelsson.

On top of her writing, Yrsa also works as a civil engineer in her home country.

More about Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Genres: Children's Book, Mystery, Thriller

Born: 1963

Iceland

Non Series

  • I Remember You - Ég man þig (2012)
  • The Undesired - Kuldi (2015)
  • Why Did You Lie? - Lygi (2016)

Freyja and Huldar

  1. The Legacy - DNA (2017)
  2. The Reckoning - Sogið (2018)
  3. The Absolution - Aflausn (2019)
  4. Gallows Rock - Gatið (2020)
  5. The Doll - Bruðan (2021)
  6. The Silence - Thogn (2022)

Thóra Gudmundsdóttir

  1. Last Rituals - Þriðja táknið (2007)
  2. My Soul to Take - Sér grefur gröf (2009)
  3. Ashes to Dust - Aska (2010)
  4. The Day is Dark - Auðnin (2011)
  5. Someone to Watch Over Me - Horfðu á mig (2013)
  6. The Silence of the Sea - Brakið (2014)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

I Remember You

In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a rundown house. But soon, they realize they are not as alone as they thought. Something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt. Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son. When the two stories collide, the terrifying truth is uncovered.

In the vein of Stephen King and John Ajvide Lindqvist, this horrifying thriller, partly based on a true story, is the scariest novel yet from Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who has taken the international crime fiction world by storm.

Ég man þig (I Remember You)
Director: Óskar Thór Axelsson
Cast: Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Elma Stefania Agustsdottir, Anna Gunndís Guðmundsdóttir, Thor Kristjansson
Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Ég man þig
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-1250045621
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Undesired

Aldis hates her job working in a juvenile detention center in rural Iceland. The boys are difficult, the owners are unpleasant, and there are mysterious noises at night. And then two of the boys go astray...

Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the center. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?

Yrsa Sigurdardottir is a huge European bestseller both with her crime and horror novels. You might want to sleep with the light on after reading The Undesired...

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Kuldi
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1250152220
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Why Did You Lie?

A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide.

An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.

Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea.

They have one thing in common: they all lied.

And someone is determined to punish them...

WHY DID YOU LIE is a terrifying tale of long-delayed retribution from Iceland's Queen of Suspense.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Lygi
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1473605046
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Freyja and Huldar

The Legacy

The Legacy is the first installment in a fantastic new series featuring the psychologist Freyja and the police officer Huldar.

The only person who might have the answers to a baffling murder case is the victim’s seven-year-old daughter, found hiding in the room where her mother died. And she’s not talking.

Newly-promoted, out of his depth, detective Huldar turns to Freyja for her expertise with traumatized young people. Freyja, who distrusts the police in general and Huldar in particular, isn’t best pleased. But she’s determined to keep little Margret safe.

It may prove tricky. The killer is leaving them strange clues, but can they crack the code? And if they do, will they be next?

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: DNA
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1250308382
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Reckoning

A chilling note written by a thirteen-year-old predicting the deaths of six people is found in a time capsule, ten years after it was buried. Can it be a real threat?

Detective Huldar turns to psychologist Freyja to help understand the child who hid the message.

But the discovery of the letter coincides with a string of murders. All of the victims match the initials from the note.

Huldar and Freyja must race to identify the writer and the murderer, before the rest of the targets are killed...

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Sogið
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1473621596
Publisher: Hachette Books
The Absolution

All he wants is for them to say sorry.

The police find out about the crime the way everyone does: on Snapchat. The video shows the terrified victim begging for forgiveness. When her body is found, it is marked with a number 2...

Detective Huldar joins the investigation, bringing child psychologist Freyja on board to help question the murdered teenager's friends. Soon, they uncover that Stella was far from the angel people claim - but even so, who could have hated her enough to kill?

Then another teenager goes missing, and more clips are sent. Freyja and Huldar can agree on two things at least: the truth is far from simple. And the killer is not done yet.

A brilliantly suspenseful story about the dark side of social media, The Absolution will make you wonder what you should have said sorry for...

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Aflausn
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1473621633
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Gallows Rock

On a jagged, bleak lava field just outside Reykjavik stands the Gallows Rock. Once a place of execution, it is now a tourist attraction. Until this morning, when a man was found hanging from it...

The nail embedded in his chest proves it wasn't suicide. But when the police go to his flat, a further puzzle awaits: a four-year-old boy has been left there. He doesn't seem to have any link with the victim, his parents cannot be found, and his drawings show he witnessed something terrible.

As detective Huldar hunts the killer, and child psychologist Freyja looks for the boy's parents, the mystery unfolds: a story of violence, entitlement, and revenge.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Gatið
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1473693425
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
The Doll

It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever.

They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared.

Several years later and Detective Huldar is in his least favourite place - on a boat in rough waters, searching for possible human remains. However, identifying the skeleton they find on the seabed proves harder than initially thought, and Huldar must draw on psychologist Freyja's experience to help him. As the mystery of the unidentified body deepens, Huldar is also drawn into an investigation of a homeless drug addict's murder, and Freyja investigates a suspected case of child abuse at a foster care home.

What swiftly becomes clear is that the cases are linked through a single, missing, vulnerable witness: the young girl who wanted the doll all those years ago.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Bruðan
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1473693500
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
The Silence

A murdered woman. A missing child. And a father intent on revenge.

On a cold day in Reykjavik, a baby goes missing from her pram. When the child's blanket washes up on the beach, and the mother is found dead, everyone's worst fears seem to have been realised.

Eleven years later, and detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja are now working in the same police building, on the same team. Freyja believes that personal and professional relationships must remain separate, however hard that may be. But when a woman's dismembered body is found in a deserted car, her head missing, and Freyja and Huldar find themselves working on the same case, the secrecy around their affair threatens to crack.

And when Freyja is accused of a serious breach of police protocol, will Huldar be able to help her? Meanwhile, their search to identify the body takes the case back into secrets of the past, and the unspoken crimes that bind three separate families.

The Silence is the gripping and terrifying new novel from the acclaimed author of international best sellers The Doll and Gallows Rock.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Thogn
First Release: 2022
Ebook: B09LZ7CPY4
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Thóra Gudmundsdóttir

Last Rituals

At a university in Reykjavík, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest. Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim's family isn't convinced that the right man is in custody. They ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate.

It isn't long before Thóra and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student's obsession with Iceland's grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions. And for two suddenly endangered investigators, nothing is quite what it seems...and no one can be trusted.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Þriðja táknið
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-0061143373
Publisher: Harper
My Soul to Take

A grisly murder is committed at a health resort situated in a recently renovated farmhouse, which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called upon by the owner of the resort - the prime suspect in the case - to represent him.

Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier - things that have never before seen the light of day. 

MY SOUL TO TAKE is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel, and a welcome return for Thora, the heroine of the highly-acclaimed LAST RITUALS.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Sér grefur gröf
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0061143397
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Ashes to Dust

In 1973, a volcanic eruption buried an entire Icelandic village in lava and ash. Now, hoping to make some cash, a crew is assembled to excavate the site and turn it into a tourist destination. Markús, who was a teenager when the volcano erupted, enlists the help of attorney Thóra Gudmundsdóttir to try to prevent the excavation from going forward.

When the digging continues and three fresh bodies (and a spare head) turn up in the basement of Markús' childhood home, Thóra begins to question Markús' motives for wanting to stop the excavation. His explanation for the bodies is complicated, and the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up. As Markús' story begins to unravel, Thóra finds herself with an impossible task, defending Markús while trying to solve a quadruple murder that may very well implicate her client.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Aska
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-0312641740
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Day is Dark

When all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the coast of Greenland, Thóra is hired to uncover the fates of the missing people. When she arrives in Greenland, she discovers that these aren't the first two to go missing.

The local townspeople believe that the area is cursed, and no one wants to get involved in the case. Soon, Thora finds herself stranded in the middle of a wilderness, and the case is as frightening and hostile as the landscape itself.

Chilling, unsettling, and compulsively readable, The Day is Dark is a must read for readers who are looking for the next big thing in crime fiction coming in from the cold.

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Auðnin
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-1444700107
Publisher: Hodder General Publishing Division
Someone to Watch Over Me

A young man with Down's Syndrome has been convicted of burning down his assisted living facility and killing five people, but a fellow inmate at his secure psychiatric unit has hired Thora to prove Jakob is innocent. If he didn't do it, who did? And how is the multiple murder connected to the death of a young woman, killed in what was supposed to be a hit-and-run?

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Horfðu á mig
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-1250080974
Publisher: Griffin
The Silence of the Sea

As The Silence of the Sea opens, a luxury yacht crashes into a Reykjavik pier. But the boat is empty; no one is on board. What has happened to the crew? And what has happened to the family who were very much present when the yacht left Lisbon?

What should Thora Gudmundsdottir, the series sleuth, make of the rumors that the vessel was cursed? She is spooked even more when she boards the yacht and thinks she sees one of the missing children. Where is Karitas, the glamorous young wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore?

Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Original Title: Brakið
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-1250115553
Publisher: Minotaur Books