Hope and Destiny
A Novel
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The author of the “thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful” (Fredrik Backman) Wolf and the Watchman series presents a new historical series that takes us to medieval Sweden to unravel one of the country’s most infamous murder mysteries.
1434: The Kalmar Union is cracking at its seams as a rebellion, led by miner Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, erupts in the north. Sent by his status-seeking family, young Måns Bengtsson must win Engelbrekt’s trust no matter the cost. Back at his family’s castle, his mother, father, and sister wait for news of his success. One is lost in longing, another forges plans for the throne and crown, and one might finally have the opportunity to rise from her brother’s shadow.
As the fifteenth-generation grandson of Måns Bengtsson, Niklas Natt och Dag expertly delves into his own family history to reveal a chilling and compulsively readable mystery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Natt Och Dag (The Order of the Furies) turns his focus from the 18th century to the 15th in this immersive historical thriller inspired by one of Sweden's most notorious murders. In the 1430s, Swedish nobles are eager to wrest power back from King Eric. Their efforts spark a peasant rebellion led by Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a nobleman with a reputation as a valiant warrior. The uprising attracts the interest of Sir Bengt Stensson, who believes that an alliance with Engelbrektsson could work to his advantage. That attempted alliance leads Magnus, Sir Bengt's son, to try and gain the trust of the rebel leader—an effort that ends in copious bloodshed on all sides. Those expecting a murder mystery along the lines of Natt Och Dag's previous novels should be warned: the central killing occurs late in the narrative, and there's more focus on plunging readers in the era's political conflicts and shedding light on the killer's motives than on concealing their identity. Though less accessible than the author's previous books, this swashbuckling slice of historical fiction has its charms.
