Cry Wolf

This is Scandi noir with plenty of trees and angst, although no snow, being set in midsummer in Haparanda, Sweden, on the border with Finland, close to the Gulf of Bothnia. From Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of The Bridge, plenty of excitement is assured, as well as one or two familiar plot devices.

For a start there is the beautiful Russian trained assassin Katja, equally effective with silenced pistols, knives, or her teeth (impressive but messy). Katja is sent by her implacable mafia boss to recover cash and amphetamines that went missing after an exchange in Finland ended up with seven dead. She’s determined to get results as quickly as possible. Katja speaks multiple languages fluently and is quite an actor too.

Then there is the ‘found treasure’ plot, whereby the drugs and cash are discovered by innocents unable to resist the temptation, who soon find out that things never go according to plan. Of course, splashing the cash and looking for an early opportunity to sell the drugs is asking for trouble, and it’s not long before Katja gets wind of it.

The police are of course taking an interest in events and much of the action is seem from the perspective of Hannah, a very competent officer despite the onset of menopause giving her unwelcome hot flushes at inconvenient moments. Hannah has a tragic backstory that is not fully revealed until the latter half of the book, but her attempt to shut out her emotions gives her the required angst, as is only right and proper. Scandi crime would not be the same without a liberal dose of angst.

Hannah’s relationship with her husband Thomas has become distant and she is having sex with Gordon, her boss. Both men have difficulty telling her how much they value her. The rest of the police team are a colourful bunch of characters, all with their own problems. The author occasionally throws in brief paragraphs letting you know that nobody’s life runs entirely smoothly, just in case you were starting to relax.

With dynamite revelations about Hannah’s personal life and Katja’s ambitious agenda to get results and clean up after herself, there is plenty going on. A few dropped hints allow the perceptive reader to spot a few things ahead of the protagonist but there are surprises too, making for a rattling good yarn. It just annoyed me that the poisoner of the wolves was never brought to justice: some things must be taken
seriously.