TH - 572/1 | Wolf Winter (Svartåsen #1) by Cecilia Ekbäck (Cecilia Ekback)

A compelling historical thriller set in 1700s Sweden from an exciting new literary talent. 

"Exquisitely suspenseful, beautifully written, and highly recommended."
-Lee Child
"Visually acute, skillfully written; it won't easily erase its tracks in the reader's mind."
- Hilary Mantel

"Wolf winter,'" she said, her voice small. "I wanted to ask about it. You know, what it is."
He was silent for a long time. "It's the kind of winter that will remind us we are mortal," he said. "Mortal and alone."

Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband Paavo and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms Blackåsen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose dark history seems to haunt the lives of those who live in its shadow.

While herding the family's goats on the mountain, Frederika happens upon the mutilated body of one of their neighbors, Eriksson. The death is dismissed as a wolf attack, but Maija feels certain that the wounds could only have been inflicted by another man.

Compelled to investigate despite her neighbors' strange disinterest in the death and the fate of Eriksson's widow, Maija is drawn into the dark history of tragedies and betrayals that have taken place on Blackåsen. 

Young Frederika finds herself pulled towards the mountain as well, feeling something none of the adults around her seem to notice.

ID:  TH - 572/1