Wolf Winter

Wolf Winter (2014), a historical thriller by Cecilia Ekbäck, centers on a murder investigation in an isolated 18th-century Swedish town, and what happens when a particularly harsh winter descends on an already tense community. The book won the 2016 HWA Debut Crown. A Swedish author who writes mysteries and thrillers for adults, Ekbäck’s novels are typically set in Sweden. She studied marketing at university and worked as a journalist before writing novels full-time. Wolf Winter is her debut book.

Set in a small community in a quiet valley, Wolf Winter takes place in Swedish Lapland in the winter of 1717. With little contact with other towns and villages, it is the type of place where everyone knows everyone else. The community is best known for its proximity to an ominous Swedish mountain, Blackåsen. Many strange and tragic events have unfolded on the mountain. The people look to the church and their local priest for guidance and comfort.

The main characters are a Finnish family. Paavo, the head of the family and a fisherman, is married to Maija. Outspoken and bold, Maija often tells Paavo what to do. They have two daughters, Frederika and her younger sister, Dorotea. They are a very close family and protective of each other.



Due to paranoia and numerous fears about the water, Paavo can’t work at sea anymore. Maija asks her brother, who lives beside the mountain, if they can swap houses for a while. She is convinced that moving inland is the only way for Paavo to find a new job. Although Maija is a midwife by trade, her salary isn’t enough to support her husband and two unmarried daughters. Her brother reluctantly agrees to the house swap and the family arrives in Swedish Lapland in 1717.

At first, the family struggles to settle in. Dorotea and Frederika only know life by the sea, and they feel claustrophobic and trapped in this new town. Maija struggles to make friends with the locals. The locals don’t trust outsiders, especially those who come from another country. Maija wonders if uprooting the family from Finland is the biggest mistake that she has made.

Things only get worse when the family begins running the homestead. One day, while tending the family goats, Frederika finds a dead body. The remains belong to a local man called Eriksson. When the townsfolk examine the body, they see that something clawed his stomach open and left a trail of blood in the snow.



The locals blame the mountain wolves or a rogue bear for Eriksson’s death. They claim that sometimes animals wander down from the mountain in search of easy prey, especially when food is scarce. Goats are an easy target, but so are humans if they are alone and not paying attention. The priest warns Maija and her family to stay alert and to stop the goats from straying too close to the mountain.

Everyone assumes that the investigation is over, but Maija feels that she is missing something. Eriksson’s wounds aren’t consistent with claw marks or animal bites. She suspects that the priest knows more than he is prepared to admit, and she asks him if she can lead the investigation into Eriksson’s death. The priest doesn’t want Maija annoying the locals with too many questions, and so she decides to investigate the death on her own.

In the meantime, Paavo decides that he wants to leave the homestead. He plans to look for work in a bigger town. When he returns, he will move the family away from the homestead and onto a bigger plot of land. Maija is angry with Paavo for leaving her alone with two vulnerable daughters when there is so much danger around them. She lets him go without a fight, but she resents him for it.



With nothing better to do and cabin fever setting in, Frederika and Dorotea decide to help Maija with her investigation. Frederika has an unusual ability to see the spirit world and to talk to ghosts, and she wonders if she can summon Eriksson’s ghost to find out what happened to him. Dorotea thinks that is a terrible idea because, if Frederika thinks that ghosts are real, then perhaps ghosts are responsible for Eriksson’s death in the first place.

Meanwhile, Frederika falls deeper under the mountain’s spell, and the harshest winter on record descends upon Swedish Lapland. As the townsfolk batten down the hatches and wait out the cold spell, Frederika communicates with the ghosts, hoping to speak with Eriksson. One day, Eriksson appears and begs her to help him. The mountain ghosts are angry; they want revenge for their own deaths. If Frederika doesn’t expose the truth of what goes on in Swedish Lapland, the ghosts may wipe out the settlement.

Frederika finally asks the local Lapps for help. The Lapps don’t trust the townsfolk because they shunned their religion for Christianity. Despite their differences, they work together to expose the town’s crimes. They prove that Eriksson died because he found out that some of the townsfolk are child molesters and murderers. These men killed him before he could expose them. Once Frederika and the Lapps uncover the truth, the mountain ghosts—the ghosts of dead children—are appeased.