Cry Wolf filled a hole I didn't know I had in my heart by not reading a Nordic thriller in like a year. I love all the benchmarks of the genre and how twisty and suspenseful the stories are. Cry Wolf follows a plethora of characters all set in the town of Haparanda, Sweden. And the story revolves around a massive drug deal that went sideways and how it affected the lives of the characters. We follow the police as they are investigating, the people who took the money and drugs, an assassin who is tasked with finding the drugs and money, and various other people who are connected to the story in some way.

The vast amount of characters was the biggest obstacle with this story. Not only are there so many but there is no distinction between which perspective we are following. Sometimes each chapter would be someone new but there were also chapters where each paragraph it would switch. But I did love the addition of the omnipresent narrator that was the town itself. It was such a clever way to tell the story and not only give some history to the place but also to foreshadow events.

As with a typical Nordic thriller this story can get dark and graphic. The twists and turns were also a hallmark of the genre and I loved it. All the chapters are short which kept me flipping through this book at a frantic pace to find out what was going to happen next. I will say that, objectively, parts of this story required a hefty suspension of belief. Since I read it so quickly I was so fully immersed in the story that I was one hundred percent committed to wherever this book was going to take me.

Goodreads has this book listed as the first book in a series following the female detective, Hannah Wester, but I can't find any info about a second book. There may already be one in Norwegian but not one that is in English. Fingers crossed that one day we will get to continue on with this explosive and captivating world.

I’m not sure if this book is just translated poorly or what but I gave up around 35%. There were so many subplots that I could barely keep up with what was going on and I just couldn’t get into this book. I felt like I needed to draw a diagram to help me with all of the characters it was all so confusing.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I couldn't get pulled into the story or connect with the characters. I was only able to get about halfway through the book.

I am very fond of police procedurals, and enjoyed the detective perspective mixed with other characters to weave this storyline together. It was definitely a slow build, and it took awhile for me to get a handle on all the characters and moving parts of the plot. Eventually when things started to make sense, the story took a twisty turn. A fun read from a writer that knows their way around a thriller drama.

I had started this book a while ago and DNF’d it pretty quickly. I was not engaged. Then I saw Barnes and Nobles rave about this book. I tried it again and liked it. Reading an ARC and in kindle may have exacerbated this but it was a hard read because of the abrupt jumps from character to character. And there are many characters and you don’t know how many of them fit in right away. Hannah the cop is a main protagonist and the way this book ended indicated that this might become a series. I do question where the series story will go as what we are given is rather far fetched. The overall storyline in this book was good and had twists and turns until the end.
Overall a solid read.

I was given a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

What does a drug deal gone bad and a dead wolf have in common. Are they linked? Hannah a veteran police woman is determined to work her hardest to solve the mystery. She is having a crisis of being in a certain season of life with a distant husband. There are plenty of characters introduced that at times are had to keep track of, but the effort pays off in the end.

An explosive thriller set in a small Swedish town.

It begins with a drug deal gone wrong. And then a wolf dies. Poisoned, but found with human flesh in its belly.

Hannah is just one of the investigators on the case and nothing about it is simple. For her it begins with the wolves. But that's just a small piece. Soon her department is joined by outside forces as they realize the case has links to Russian mafia and a bloodbath that occurred outside their borders.

As the clues start to fall into place, it becomes clear that the ties hit a little more close to home than is comfortable.

This first in a new series is great fun for crime fiction fans!

Cry wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt.
Hannah Wester book 1.
When human remains are found in the stomach of a dead wolf, Hannah knows that this summer won’t be like any other. The remains are soon linked to a bloody drug deal that went down just across the border in Finland. But how did the victim end up in the woods outside Haparanda? And where have the drugs and money gone? Can Hannah Wester and her colleagues find the killer?
A really good read. I did like Hannah. I hope there is more to come. 4*.

Cry Wolf is a new police procedural featuring a detective with issues and some rather gruesome murders. Hannah Wester is a police officer in a cold northern Swedish town, Haparanda, close to Finland. She's struggling with her marriage and lingering guilt. Her latest case involves the death of a wolf and her pup, but when human remains are found in their stomachs, the search is on for a body, resulting in the assembly of a task force. Events lead to mass murder and missing drugs and money.

The story rolls between various characters including Hannah, her husband's nephew and his wife, Katja, and UV, the reformed criminal, adding complexity to the plot. Hannah is 50ish, quick-thinking and relentless in her investigating, and has several personal issues. Readers get insights into many of the characters’ personal, professional, and criminal lives without this derailing the investigation too much. There was good depth in the characterisation and aside from Hannah, I especially found Katja, a trained assassin, fascinating. I was surprised by several of the twists and rather liked the very exciting, unexpected, twisty and emotional conclusion. There are some hints which indicate that there might be further instalments, which I would appreciate. A great piece of Nordic noir, very highly recommended.

A special thank you to Hanover Square Press and the author for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request, received via NetGalley. This review is my unbiased opinion.

Cry Wolf is a good mix of crime thriller and police procedural, and it's the first in a new series. Since I'm always on the lookout for new crime series, I'm happy to have found another one to follow. The story is very well written, and even the setting is developed. There are a lot of characters, which can go either way, but it works for this book, and they are so well developed that I didn't have any trouble keeping track of them. The book also has a fair amount of twists and turns, and things move along at a good pace. This is my first read by Hans Rosenfeldt, but it won't be my last. Rosenfeldt's writing is wonderfully descriptive without being overdone, and this first in the Hannah Wester series introduces us to an exciting world of danger, suspense, and drama.

The mystery in Cry Wolf and the solving of it read like they sit at the crossroads between “For want of a nail” and “This is the house that Jack built.” The former being the first line of a quote from Benjamin Franklin, and the latter being an English nursery rhyme. Both are cumulative stories, where one thing leads to another and another. Not necessarily in a straightforward or even competent fashion.

No one comes out of this story exactly smelling of roses. There’s plenty of blame, misunderstanding, misdirection and downright incompetence involved along the way.

At the same time, Cry Wolf also reads like a non-superhero based origin story for Black Widow, one in which she continues to put more red in her ledger until the day she dies, still doing the work of the “Red Room” – or in the case of Katja in Cry Wolf, “The Academy”.

But those perspectives are long views of Cry Wolf, the latter of which seems most plausible at the ending. At the beginning there are two dead wolves with human remains in their bellies on the Swedish side of the border between Sweden and Finland outside the remote, fading town of Haparanda.

The local cops, including Hannah Wester and her boss – and illicit lover – Gordon, start out worrying about how the discovery of the man-eating wolves is going to exacerbate local, regional and even national tensions over whether wolves should be protected or hunted to elimination in the region.

But of course the case isn’t that simple. And this is where we get into the whole “For want of a nail” scenario. The wolves, a mother and cub, did not bring down human prey. They found a murder victim. It’s not that wolves are incapable of killing humans with enough motivation or desperation – it’s that wolves aren’t capable of shooting a gun.

That lets the wolves off the hook, but the situation only expands from there. The murder victim was the sole survivor of a drug deal that went wrong on the other side of the border in Finland. He left the half dozen victims behind riddled with gunshots while he walked away with bags of drugs and money – and with a bullet in his ass.

Only to be struck down by a hit and run driver who seems to have made off with the drugs and the money. Drugs and money that belong to the Russian mafia – who want their property back and intend to make an example of whoever got in their way.

And that’s the point at which everyone’s competence goes more than a bit out of whack. The local police are out of their depth. Their liaison from the Finnish side is on the take from the Russians. The hit and run driver and his accomplice are locals who desperately need the money but only have vague dreams about how to handle things. And the agent the Russians send to Haparanda, a graduate of the legendary Academy that trains abused children to become assassins, isn’t able to overcome her initial overestimation of just how capable her opposition might be. She’s left floundering in professionalism as she’s overcome by sheer, dumb luck.

While policewomen Hannah Wester tries to put her best into the investigation as her entire life falls apart.

Escape Rating B+: Cry Wolf very much falls into the category of “Nordic noir”. In fact, the author of Cry Wolf is also the creative mind behind one of the more popular Nordic noir TV series, The Bridge. So readers who either like the series or like this branch of the mystery genre are going to feel right at home in Haparanda and Cry Wolf.

The setting of this story is bleak and the lives of the principal characters seem even bleaker. That’s not criticism, as the bleakness is a hallmark of the genre. But, and a huge but here, this probably isn’t a book to read if you’re already depressed unless you’re the kind of person who really gets off on schadenfreude.

There’s no one happy in this story. It’s not that kind of story. This also isn’t a story where anyone seems to display much in the way of competence, which is one of the things I often read mysteries for. In this particular case, it’s more like a series of accidents looking for places to happen – and then for someone to happen upon them.

But I have to say that it’s compelling to read. I was hooked from the very first page, even if I never did figure out where it was going until near the end. Which, come to think of it, isn’t a surprise as none of the perpetrators seemed to know where they were going, either. And the few who thought they did ended up being surprised by where they ended up – and usually dead shortly thereafter.

So the spooling and unspooling of this mystery reads more like a series of stumbles, rather than the usual breakneck race towards a finish.

The part that’s sticking with me is that mirror darkly reflection of Black Widow. At first, we’ve got a policewoman whose life is falling apart and a mafia assassin and no relationship between them. But as the story progresses, in its kaleidoscope of first person perspectives, we learn more about the mysterious Katja and her abusive childhood and miraculous rescue by her equally mysterious “Uncle”. The more of Katja’s history we see, the more it looks like her life was rigged. That it might – and still might not – intersect with Hannah’s own tragedy looks like it’s going to power the next book in the series, whenever that might be.

And I’m more than curious enough to want to see what happens next!

This is the first in a new series about Swedish policewoman Hannah Wester. It's ok but not the most captivating scandi thriller I've read in recent years. Reading with a bit of prior understanding of the political geography of Russia, Finland and Sweden is useful.

For some reason I had trouble keeping some of the characters straight. I found the ending unlikely but that should not put you off if you are in the mood for one of these.

Cry Wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt is a suspenseful mystery thriller that is sure to send chills down your spine. A fast-paced, thrilling read that I did not want to put down. I look forward to reading more from this author.

The crime might have begun in Sweeden, but policewoman Hannah Wester finds that the gruesome murder in fact has to do with a mega drug deal in Finland. So, if the murder happened there, why is the case in the hands of Hannah and her boss Gordon?

Then there is Katja, a deadly woman who is colder than the largest block of ice. What does Katja have to do with the drug deal, the body that was found and other nefarious events?

The book is called Cry Wolf because the murder victim's remains were found in the body of a wolf and her pup. As this was quite a tragic start to the book I will most certainly say that my attention was grabbed right from the very beginning. Then the story grew in major proportions as depth, twists, intense characters, violence and personal issues all came together in this hard-hitting book.

This intriguing book is the first book in a new series and I did love the crime solving parts of the book although some of the violence was rather difficult to read. It was a pivotal start to what is sure to be a compelling series.

Many thanks to and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Hannah and her team are on the hunt for a killer. The remains of a body are found inside of a wolf. It turns out to be a drug deal gone wrong. But, as the hunt continues, Hannah has to confront some of her own issues.

I enjoyed the setting of Finland and the surrounding area. However, the writing style is bit different at the first. I think because there are a good many characters to introduce and it is a bit descriptive. It took me a bit to get a handle on the rhythm. The story does pick up and so does the suspense! I certainly enjoyed the deductions and the chase for the killer.

Need a unique crime novel…this is it! Grab your copy today

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

This was a tragic story to read. There were lots of killings and the characters were not really likable. It seems like there is going to be a second book in this series and I want to read it to see how it all turns out. There are many twists and turns and I wish there had been actual chapters to the book. I found it a little confusing at times as to who was who. I received a copy of this book from Harlequin for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

I got bored and quit the book at around halfway through.

It sounded like something I would love but alas it just wasn’t .

Cry Wolf, by author Hans Rosenfeldt, is written as though it was made for TV. There are tons of characters from primary to secondary to tertiary. Hans Rosenfeldt is the creator of the TV series The Bridge as well as Netflix’s Emmy-winning Marcella. Whether or not this is an actual series, is unknown. With a bit of research, Edelweiss claims this is a standalone. However, the book ends on a cliffhanger and it's being sold as the first installment in a series featuring Hannah Wester who works for the Haparanda, Sweden police.

When two wolfs are found dead, Hannah is on the case to find out who may have killed the wolfs which comes with a steep penalty. When human remains are found in their stomachs, the search is on for a body. When a link is made to a drug deal gone wrong across the border in Finland, a task force is assembled and events rapidly escalate. When a highly trained assassin seems to be cleaning up the drug deal gone back, things get a bit confusing and suspenseful since Hannah and her team are put directly in the bullseye.

Hannah is a character who is 54 years old and experiences the same hot flashes that we all do once we reach a certain age. She fully admits that she has a tendency of jumping to conclusions too quickly, which has led to some personal issues with her husband. She also hasn't exactly been faithful to her husband which is a great big no no in my book. What really drives Hannah is the not knowing what happened to her daughter Elin 28 year ago.

The novel is interspersed with police investigations into the crimes, violence, and the personal troubles of various characters in the novel. I think one of the most interesting parts of this story is that it takes place in both Sweden and Finland which makes for an interesting place to tell a story. A large portion of Haparanda's population speak both Swedish and Finnish and with open borders in the EU, people freely cross to do business on both sides.

Even though there are many plotlines happening at the same time, they will eventually tie back to one particular incident and the key players like Hannah and an assassin known as Katya who was taken from parents who didn't love her, and trained to be a killer by The Academy which we can confirm is Russian in origination. Katya's storyline is excellent and it raises numerous questions and possibilities which I refuse to spoil. The ending is really good, it’s very exciting, there are some unexpected twisty elements, and yes, I do hope there will be a sequel to this story since Hannah is now on a mission to discover the truth about what happened to Elin and who was responsible.

Fans of Nordic Noir know that a new procedural will feature a detective with issues and, let's face it, gruesome murders. This is no exception. Hannah is a police officer in a cold northern Swedish town-close to Finland. She's struggling with menopause, with a marriage gone cold, and long lingering guilt. She's also got a mass murder and missing drugs and money on her hands. This rolls between various characters- Hannah, her husband's nephew and his wife, Katja, UV the reformed criminal, and so on- giving a more well rounded picture than a straight line narrative might, especially given the complexity of the plot. Is it a implausible that Katja was trained as a child to be an assassin (see Killing Eve)? Perhaps, but she's an interesting one. There are some intriguing asides in the text which suggest that there might be additional installments, which I would welcome. This kept me guessing- always a plus- and I was surprised by several of the twists. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

Cry Wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt is shocking, suspenseful, violent, and heartbreaking and set in and around Haparanda, Sweden. It has aspects of both a crime thriller and a police procedural. Policewoman Hannah Wester starts investigating the death of a wolf and her pup. When human remains are found in their stomachs, the search is on for a body. When a link is made to a drug deal gone wrong across the border in Finland, a task force is assembled and events rapidly escalate.

While Hannah is the main character, the story is told from multiple points of view (POV). Hannah is around 50 years old, sometimes too quick to draw conclusions, but relentless in her investigations, and is experiencing several personal issues. Readers get insights into many of the characters’ personal, professional, and criminal lives without detracting from the investigation. There was an amazing amount of depth to several characters without ruining the flow of the story. I don’t remember ever seeing this much depth in so many characters in a book before. One POV that stood out to me was that of the city itself. This lent a unique perspective to the story and how events can affect a city. I enjoyed the historical information as well.

The opening scene grabs readers’ attention and quickly pulls them into the investigation. The novel is interspersed with police investigations into the crimes, violence, and the personal troubles of various characters in the novel. While the transitions were somewhat abrupt, it seemed to work for me. One thing that was a little different is that readers occasionally got insight into a character’s future life situation. While this was interesting, it could sometimes be distracting to the flow.

The plot is well developed, the pace fast, and the story line is action-packed. The episodic writing style takes a little while to get used to but works for this novel. Descriptive writing gave a great sense of place while twists and turns take readers on the journey. This book is dark, clever, and gripping with great characters as well as a tense and spellbinding story line. Readers should be aware that there are some gruesome details and some chilling and emotional scenes. The ending wasn’t quite what I was expecting. However, the culmination was impactful and raised some questions and threads that could appear in a future book. Themes include murder, double-crosses, drugs, greed, social media effects on police investigations, infidelity, family relationships, and much more.

Overall, this book was suspenseful, intense, riveting, and thought-provoking. If you enjoy international crime thrillers and police procedurals that have strong characters, then this may be the novel for you. While this is the first book I have read by this author, I am looking forward to reading others by him.

Harlequin Trade Publishing – Hanover Square Press and Hans Rosenfeldt provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for December 28, 2021. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.