The Wolf by Samuel Bjørk

 

The Wolf by Samuel Bjørk.

Translated by Charlotte Barslund.

Published 2nd November 2023 by Bantam.

From the cover of the book:

It was one of Sweden's most notorious unsolved cases: two young boys abducted and murdered, their bodies brutally, artistically arranged.

But eight years later, when two other boys are found in similar circumstances, it looks like the killer might be back - this time in neighbouring Norway.

Led by veteran detective Holger Munch, the investigating police are baffled. There are no clues, no leads to follow. In desperation, Munch drafts in a trainee from the Police Academy, Mia Kruger, a young woman with an uncanny ability to see beyond the facts. Little does he know that Mia is battling her own demons and will soon find that her life and that of the case are entwined in ways no one could have imagined....

From the internationally bestselling author of I'm Travelling Alone, comes another mesmerically chilling psychological tale of cat and mouse where the hunter may not know that they have become the hunted before it's too late...

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Eight years ago the bodies of two young boys were found in Sweden, laid out in a bizarre tableau. The crime was never solved, despite years of following what eventually proved to be dead ends. Now it looks like the killer might be back - creating his strange ritual in Norway with two new child victims.

Holger Munch and his team have the unenviable task of trying to find the killer that eluded the Swedish police, and there are few clues to go on. In an attempt to get a different perspective, Munch drafts in the help of a troubled young trainee called Mia Kruger, who has uncanny abilities. Can she provide the insight they need to finally bring this monster to justice?

The Wolf is a gripping, standalone, prequel to Samuel Bjork's best-selling Munch and Kruger series, which delves into the disturbing case that brought them together as a formidable crime-solving partnership. 

Munch and his team have a difficult task on their hands when the murderer of two young boys seems to have relocated to Norway to continue his killing spree. Munch knows that they are going to face the same difficulties experienced by the Swedish police in trying to catch the depraved individual at the root of these shocking murders, and in a gamble he drafts in trainee Mia Kruger who reportedly has a sixth sense that could give them an edge. 

The story unfurls through multiple storylines that weave together in a complex pattern - some of which seem fragmentary and oddly jarring at the time. This is a mystery that burgeons with powerful snippets of story from characters who may of not be related to the crime, but have no fear, because Bjork knows exactly what he is about. With clever plotting Bjork turns your attention this way and that, before gradually casting off the red herrings through the traditional police work of Munch and his team, bolstered by the more unconventional methods of Kruger. It is fair to say that you do have to pay attention to pick out the clues amongst the emotional noise, some of which is obviously here to fill out the back stories of the characters in the books set after this, but the investigation has more than enough strength to build tension and pull you through to the terrifying payoff, and I enjoyed how he plays on their personal trials and tribulations around family to push them into the territory that eventually cracks the case.

If you like your noir on the seriously unsettling side, with an orgy of dark twists and turns, then this is definitely the book for you. It has pleasing echoes of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, which fittingly gets a mention. Bjork is a new Nordic author to me, but I was really impressed with his style, and am looking forward to delving into the Munch and Kruger books that follow on from this prequel.

The Wolf is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Bantam for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Samuel Bjork is the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. 

The Munch and Krüger series features three books: the Richard & Judy Bookclub bestseller I'm Travelling Alone, The Owl Always Hunts At Night, and The Boy in the Headlights.