Wolf Winter
Winner of the 2016 HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown Award
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2016 HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown Award.
'Exquisitely suspenseful, beautifully written, and highly recommended.' Lee Child
There are six homesteads on Blackåsen Mountain.
A day's journey away lies the empty town. It comes to life just once, in winter, when the Church summons her people through the snows. Then, even the oldest enemies will gather.
But now it is summer, and new settlers are come.
It is their two young daughters who find the dead man, not half an hour's walk from their cottage.
The father is away. And whether stubborn, or stupid, or scared for her girls, the mother will not let it rest.
To the wife who is not concerned when her husband does not come home for three days; to the man who laughs when he hears his brother is dead; to the priest who doesn't care; she asks and asks her questions,
digging at the secrets of the mountain.
They say a wolf made those wounds. But what wild animal cuts a body so clean?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Swedish native Cecilia Ekbäck breathes new life into Scandinavian crime fiction with this beautifully written historical thriller, set in 18th-century Lapland. Spurred by her water-averse husband, Maija—a bold and loving Finnish woman—moves her family to the far north of Sweden to embark on a new life as homesteaders. But when her daughters stumble upon a man’s mutilated body while herding goats, Maija becomes determined to uncover the truth about her neighbour’s death, stumbling into a web of dark secrets and eerie goings-on. A haunting debut, Wolf Winter had us on edge from start to finish.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1717, Ekb ck's diverting debut focuses on a Finnish family Maija Harmaaj rvi; her husband, Paavo; and their daughters, 14-year-old Frederika and six-year-old Dorotea as they start a new life in Swedish Lapland. One day while herding goats, the girls discover a body. Their neighbors believe the dead man, Eriksson, was killed by wolves or a bear, but Maija is convinced that he was murdered and aims to prove it. Ekb ck does a good job depicting a terrifying snowstorm, the conflicting cultures of settlers and Lapps, and the endless winter darkness. But the novel also contains a disorienting mix of obsolete words and current phrasing, realistic glimpses of pioneer hardships, and far-fetched plot devices involving the local bishop and a pack of wolves that may or may not exist. Two resident ghosts Maija's grandmother, who constantly offers advice, and the reincarnated Eriksson, who prods Frederika to unearth his killer add to the incongruity.
Customer Reviews
Wolf Winter
I really enjoyed this book, I liked Maija as a main character and her many layers. I also really liked Fredrika and didn't expect the book to take the spiritual turn that it did. I wasn't crazy about the ending though. I would have liked it to be have been a bit longer and wished that the spiritual element could have been explored more. I am sad that I've finished it though as at some points it was a real page turner. Quite different from what I normally read too. Her writing is fantastic, so descriptive and evocative and you could almost imagine yourself in the story.