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"I Remember You," by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. (Minotaur Books, 370 pp., $15.99)

(Minotaur Books)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Reportedly, Icelandic fans of author Yrsa Sigurdardottir were so terrified by just the cover of her new horror book "I Remember You" that they complained to the publisher. Thus, it has been changed for U.K. and American editions, from a pair of staring eyes to a silhouetted man outside a decrepit house.

Still scary, but not nearly as scary as what's inside these 370 pages. I have a read a lot of horror fiction, and a lot of psychological suspense books, and "I Remember You" ranks among the scariest, right up there with the best of Stephen King and Peter Straub. It's that good. And that scary. And, ultimately, that moving.

"I Remember You" (Minotaur Books, 370 pp., $15.99) is a bit of a departure for Sigurdardottir, who mainly writes mysteries, concentrating on her Thora Gudmundsdottir detective series. "I Remember You" is a bit of a mystery, but it's primarily an eerie ghost story about missing children, an isolated house in the Icelandic fjords, love, bullies and loss. It is a horror novel with almost no gore; Sigurdardottir chills with sounds and smells and shadows, not blood.

The story is told in two sections, one dealing with three cosmopolitan Rejkjavik twentysomethings who buy an abandoned house in a deserted village in the northwest fjords in hopes of turning it into a tourist destination. The previous owner never completed his planned renovations, hasn't been heard from, and there are mysterious crosses carved into the door. But that doesn't stop Gardar, his wife Katrin and their recently widowed friend Lif. They look at the house as a new lease on life for all of them.

The other section of the tale focuses on psychologist Freyr, in the largest fjord town of Isafjordur. As the book begins, Freyr, who works with the police, has been called in to help investigate who violently defaced an area preschool. It's a painful assignment, reminding Freyr of his 6-year-old-son who mysteriously disappeared two years earlier and is presumed dead, possibly murdered.

Then, Freyr is called in to investigate the unexpected suicide of an elderly woman in a church. He accidentally discovers she had been obsessed with his son – and another boy who disappeared decades earlier. He soon realizes many in the old woman's circle have also died mysteriously.

Back on the island, renovations don't go as planned for the city crew, and tensions rise. When mysterious watery footprints begin to appear inside their house, along with disturbing messages written with shells, the women decide they want to leave the island. But they're stuck until their boat driver returns, and as they wait, more disturbing things begin to happen. They find crosses marking graves of a mother and son in a field one day, only to find the crosses inside the house another day. Then strange smells begin to emerge and dangerous accidents begin to happen.

It isn't too long before Freyr's story and that of the house are revealed to be linked, but I won't give away how. Suffice to say, it is a tragic, horrifying and totally believable connection. Sigurdardottir masterfully links these two stories into one very satisfying, and truly disturbing conclusion.