Cry Wolf: A Novel (Haparanda, 1) Paperback – December 28, 2021

I am glad I finished the book. At first, the names were somewhat confusing, but once I got into the story, it was excellent. The author has a different approach to describing the city where the action takes place. It's intriguing and interesting. If you enjoy crime mysteries, this is a book for you.

Haven't read anything by Rosenfeldt before..,really liked this one! I judge the writing by whether or not I know what the people in the story look like. This one did it for me! Good, intricate story, not overdone. Not too predictable, but very plausible. Will look for another book by this author.

Overall, I found Cry Wolf to be a well written book with an intriguing, appropriately paced story. The majority of the characters I found to be very interesting and multi-dimensional. The setting in Sweden was well described. However, I had to give this book 3 stars due to the introduction of Katja, the Russian "assassin" who I found to be totally unrelatable and unrealistic, out of the realm of the other characters. Adding insult to injury was when we found out that she is the daughter of the main character who had been kidnapped when she was a baby.

Enjoyed the book and the characters. I hope it’s the first in a series.

No dislikes at all. I really liked the CHARACTERS; they were imperfect just like most of us.

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.

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.

This was a slow burn, dark Nordic noir thriller.The story is mainly told from the POV of Hannah, a 50 year old police woman in Haparanda, Sweden, a small Northern town just outside of Finland. We also get random POV’s from other characters in the story including Haparanda herself (yes the town has its own chapters).There are quite a few players and characters and it took some time for me to all get it straight. A complicated story of drugs, murder and a female assassin are woven together in a chain of events that end up affecting many in the process.For the first half I had no idea which direction anything was going, the next hundred pages it all clicked into place and by the last hundred pages I couldn’t put it down. The complicated story leads to many twists, some of which took me by surprise, some of which didn’t.This all sets up “Cry Wolf” to be the first book in a series following Hannah. I do wish we had gotten more answers in the end, but it has me looking forward to picking up the next book.If you love a moody and atmospheric thriller with a complex chain of events you’ll love this one. There is quite a bit of graphic violence so check triggers before reading.