Cry Wolf

I struggled to enjoy this Nordic Noir from Hans Rosenfeldt.

I felt this was almost a film turned into a book rather the other way around, and I found the characters hard to enjoy.

The plot is good, the storyline is good and I usually enjoy a Scandinavian thriller, but again from the opening pages this just feels like a scriptwriter writing a novel,

Russian Assassins, Drugs, Murders, Gun, It was all ok it’s just not a novel.

3.5 rounded up

Hannah Wester # 1

Location: Haparanda , Northern Sweden near the border with Finland.

This dramatic novel starts with a wolf that dies and a violent rival drug deal encounter that goes badly wrong. Human remains are found in the poisoned wolves, does it link somehow to the drug deal? Who is the victim? Hannah Wester of the Haparanda police team investigates and thus starts a brutal chain of events that turns life in Haparanda upside down forcing Hannah to reflect on much unhappiness that she has kept suppressed.

First of all, there is a cast of what feels like 5000 which makes it hard to follow who is who but that does eventually sort itself out. Additionally, there are a lot of subplots which also creates some brain chaos. However, they do all connect and you just have to be patient as it’s some while before you see where it’s going. The storyline is dark and there’s quite a lot of violence and there is one scene which is quite graphic. It’s written as if for television in a short, sharp, episodic format which eventually I grow to thoroughly enjoy as you become more familiar with it and it does add a lot of suspense into the equation. I really do like that the central protagonist of Hannah is a strong, flawed, middle-aged menopausal woman and she is extremely well portrayed. I enjoy the enigma and mystery of Katja who arrives in Haparanda much like a feral cat and a very focused one at that, who is intent on picking off the ‘rats’ and in the process creating some John Wick style destruction. Her part of the storyline is excellent and it raises numerous questions. The ending is really good, it’s very exciting, there are some unexpected twisty elements, it’s emotional and sets self up nicely for number two which I will definitely want to read.

Overall, the premise and plot of the book are really good, the pace is fast and once you settle into the manner in which it’s written it’s a very exciting read.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins, HarperFiction for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.