‘Wolf Pack’ by Will Dean.

Published by Point Blank,
22 June 2023.
ISBN 978-0-86154-201-7 (PB)

Tuva Moodyson, a deaf journalist, is the assistant editor of Gavrik’s local newspaper, The Posten.  She has developed efficient tactics to deal with her deafness, but is having to work on developing a new way of living, as she copes with the personal repercussions of a shooting at the end of the last book, Bad Apples

Tuva learns that a young woman, Elsa Nyberg. has disappeared, and phones the local police station for information.  The police haven’t yet received any report, which is not unusual, and the general feeling is to wait a few days before taking action.  However, it’s possible that Rose Farm, where Elsa worked in the café, holds the answers and Tuva sets about looking for those answers.  Rose Farm is a curious place;  as well as the farm and the café, it has a nail salon, and is run along the lines of a survivalist commune.  The inhabitants don’t welcome nosy visitors.

Will Dean introduces the reader to new characters and gives a nod to familiar faces from previous stories.  His world is enthralling and disconcerting, ordinary and odd, and not a little violent.  The stories he tells are full of tension and surprises, as are the people.  The book does work as a stand-alone, but new readers might like to take the opportunity to start this compelling series from the beginning.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  The Tuva Moodyson series: Dark Pines, Red Snow, Black River  stand-alone novel:  The Last Thing to Burn, First Born and The Last Obe.

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying Law at LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.  Dark Pines was his first novel.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.