THE BONE DOLL’S TWIN, by Lynn Flewelling, Bantam/Spectra, New York, 2001, 524 pages, paperback, $6.99.

Former Bangor author Lynn Flewelling returns her readers to a darker, more dangerous place in her latest fantasy set in the exotic land of Skala.

Set 500 years before her critically acclaimed “Nightrunner” series, “The Bone Doll’s Twin” introduces readers to odd Prince Tobin.

Tobin has sufficient cause to be a little strange. First off, Tobin, who appears to be the king’s nephew, is actually a girl. One of a set of twins, she is born of the king’s sister in a time very dangerous for female nobility. The king has usurped a prophesized matrilineal rule, and female royals continue to die under mysterious circumstances. To protect her, her twin brother is killed at birth and Tobin is given his identity through a magical skin-binding technique by two wizards and a forest witch.

That alone is enough to give Tobin issues. But his mother is driven mad as a result of this decision and his brother’s demon spirit haunts the family. So his father, a duke, hustles them off to his country keep, and Tobin grows up alone and lonely as a result.

But isolation also is a blessing of sorts for Tobin, the boy who would be queen. Skala had enjoyed prosperity under female rule, but not so anymore. Plague and drought have struck the land, and a never-ending war with ancient rival Plenimar drains its resources. In addition, wizards loyal to the king are slaughtering wizards and priests whose allegiances are more suspect.

“The Bone Doll’s Twin,” the first in the new Tamir trilogy, follows Tobin as he grows and matures. It’s largely set-up and foreshadowing, and that can be frustrating for a reader, as the novel ends with many questions left to be answered in the next two volumes.

Still Flewelling, who now lives in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y., does such a masterful job of establishing the setting for the trilogy that most readers will be hooked and continue on to see how Tobin transforms from hero to heroine in future books.