Description

‘A remarkable debut novel’ Sunday Times

‘The best historical thriller I’ve read in twenty years’ A.J. Finn

‘A thrilling, unnerving, clever and beautiful story. Reading it is like giving a little gift to oneself’ Fredrik Backman

The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries, and the realm is governed by a self-interested elite, leaving its citizens to suffer. On the streets, malcontent and paranoia abound.

A body is found in the city’s swamp by a watchman, Mickel Cardell, and the case is handed over to investigator Cecil Winge, who is dying of consumption. Together, Winge and Cardell become embroiled in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams, and one death will expose a city rotten with corruption beneath its powdered and painted veneer.

The Wolf and the Watchman depicts the capacity for cruelty in the name of survival or greed – but also the capacity for love, friendship, and the desire for a better world.

‘An unexpected masterpiece, a wild and unusual mix of genres that in one fell swoop succeeds in renewing the entire crime fiction genre’ Arne Dahl

Publisher Review

This is a thrilling, unnerving, clever and beautiful story. Reading it is like giving a little gift to oneself * Fredrik Backman * Brawny, bloody, intricate, enthralling - and the best historical thriller I've read in twenty years * A J Finn, #1 bestselling author of The Woman in the Window * An unexpected masterpiece, a wild and unusual mix of genres that in one fell swoop succeeds in renewing the entire crime fiction genre * Arne Dahl, prize-winning and Swedish #1 bestselling author of the Sam Berger series * A historical thriller that is unparalleled in suspense and literary quality. It's raw, beautiful, heartbreaking and extremely captivating until the very last page. The Wolf and the Watchman deserves a place among the classics of the genre * Erik Axl Sund, author of The Crow Girl * A well-depicted historical murder mystery filled with cruelty as well as warmth and humanity * Best Debut, Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award 2017 * A superbly detailed historical mystery * Irish Times * Swedish noir doesn't get much darker * The Herald * Natt och Dag's description of the rattling, lung-shredding tubercular cough is truly hideous - a haunting portrait of physical disintegration that's not easy to forget * Dan Jones, Evening Standard * Niklas Natt och Dag takes the contemporary Scandinavian crime story and gives it a startlingly gruesome historical twist . . . Natt och Dag spares us nothing, detailing horror after horror in his unflinchingly muscular prose * Guardian * The latest Scandi sensation * Sunday Times * This gripping historical thriller surely announces the arrival of a fine new European talent. Vivid and absorbing * Observer * A gripping, shocking read * The Times * A remarkable debut novel * Sunday Times *