It is 1943 and Sweden’s neutrality in the war is under pressure. Laura Dahlgren, the right hand of the chief negotiator with Germany, is privy to ongoing discussions about German access to Swedish iron ore. When her former best friend and fellow classmate, Britta, is discovered tortured and murdered, Laura becomes determined to find her killer.
In the Swedish government, the secretary to the unpopular minister of foreign affairs, Jens Regnell, is becoming increasingly worried that his boss is secretly negotiating with the Reich. He is sent Britta’s PhD thesis on Scandinavian supremacy without understanding why.
In Lapland, near the iron mine, Sami are mysteriously disappearing. Taneli, a young Sami boy, decides to investigate after his sister suddenly goes missing.
Together these three people will uncover a conspiracy that could topple their government and destroy their country’s identity - a conspiracy that others are desperate to contain at any cost necessary.
Part historical thriller, part Swedish Gothic, debut novel Wolf Winter tells the story of a vicious murder that threatens to tear apart an isolated community during the coldest of winters. It was the winner of HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown and a High Plains Book Award.
"The time and place seem so remote as to be unearthly, and the style has a stealthy quality, like a silent fall of snow; suddenly, the reader is enveloped. The story creeps up and possesses the imagination; there’s something eerie in the way half-understood and only half-seen events leave their mark. It’s a powerful feat of suggestion, visually acute, skilfully written; it won’t easily erase its tracks in the reader’s mind." —Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize-Winning author
“Exquisitely suspenseful, beautifully written, and highly recommended.” — Lee Child, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
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Stockholm 1856. An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far North.