**** 4 out of 5 stars
Review by: Mark Palm
A Winter’s Tale

Some books are made for summer, and some for winter. If there was ever a novel that was made for a cold, snowy night it is Wolf Winter, by Cecilia Ekback. I live in Texas, and even down here you could feel chills coming off of this book. In 1717 Maija, her husband Paavo, and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea have recently arrived in Swedish Lapland after leaving Finland. They have a farm at the base of a foreboding mountain, Blackasen. While herding goats Fredericka discovers the mutilated body of one of their neighbors, Eriksson. The authorities attribute his death to wolves, but Maija is certain his injuries were caused by a man with a sword.

Slowly Maija is drawn into the mystery of the man’s death, the fate of his widow, and a series of tragedies that have occurred on the mountain. Meanwhile Fredericka is drawn to the mountain by a spirit that no-one else can see. As the “wolf winter” (the most harsh that anyone can remember) begins, Paavo leaves to look for work. Majia must keep her family safe in harrowing conditions while trying to solve the mysteries that threaten to turn her neighbors against her. She receives assistance from Olaus, the local priest, and some nearby Lapps, but for the most part it is Maija and her daughters who have to fight for their very lives.

Wolf Winter is a mystery, but it is also a tale of survival. If there was ever a book that made me appreciate where I live, and the conveniences of modern life, it is this one. Ms. Ekback knows how to spin a mystery, but what she does even better is show us the awesome powers of nature. There is a scene in this novel where Majia and Olaus and her daughter's struggle to keep her house from being buried during a blizzard that is an absolute tour-de-force. I wasn’t kidding when I said you could almost feel the cold coming off of this book.

The plot takes a while to gain some traction, but once it did, I was hooked. Maija is a wonderful character, strong and smart and compassionate, and her relationship with Olaus is surprising and touching. Both her daughters are well-drawn, as are most of the characters in the book. I particularly enjoy the roles of the women in Wolf Winter. Against the tide of the times they are the backbone of the story, along with the weather.

In a modern world we often forget what a potent force nature is, but in this book every aspect of the character’s lives are affected by it, and and Ms. Ekback is at her formidable best in describing it. if you had told me that I would be reading a really good thriller about a Female Finnish farmer is the 1700’s I would have thought that you were crazy, but Ms Ekback pulls it off. If you give it sometime this story will get to you, so I would suggest hot chocolate, or some good strong coffee while you read this powerful novel. It might almost make you warm.

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There is some breathtaking writing here. Ekbäck is wonderful at evoking place, and when the place you write about is as brooding and menacing as Blackåsen, you hardly need a human villain – though there are those aplenty, too. ...Who-and-whydunnits require tremendous discipline: at times, the pacing is uneven, while there’s a little too much repetition and a few too many scenes that do not advance the story....But there is so much to enjoy in Ekbäck’s debut that it’s easy to ignore the occasional clumsiness and easier still to forget that this is a debut. Wolf Winter eminently repays reading for the beauty of its prose, its strange, compelling atmosphere and its tremendous evocation of the stark, dangerous, threatening place, which exits in the far north and in the hearts of all of us.