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A review by rissaleighs
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag
I saw this available on NetGalley and couldn't resist the setting. 1793 Stockholm! I've had a nascent interest in the thriller genre in general and Nordic Noir in particular, so I went for it.
So as a disclaimer, I am not the normal audience for this type of thing.
That said, the setting did deliver. I loved the wintery atmosphere, the way the author set the scene with the recent history and current events--political intrigue! Whispers of revolution from France!
But the actual story was way too obscene for me. Each character was strange and brutal in it's own unique way. The ending was a little enigmatic. The actual crime that set the action in motion was extremely gruesome, and through the course of the story we hear how it all went down in gory detail. But honestly, the other characters' trials and tribulations were just as cringe-inducing as the crime itself. I don't know how representative this is of the genre, but if you like your fiction with a generous dose of depravity, this may be for you.
To be fair, I feel like it is pretty well written, and quite a page turner -- but if it hadn't been a free ARC through NetGalley (so I wanted to follow through and review) I probably would have set this one aside due to graphic content.
So as a disclaimer, I am not the normal audience for this type of thing.
That said, the setting did deliver. I loved the wintery atmosphere, the way the author set the scene with the recent history and current events--political intrigue! Whispers of revolution from France!
But the actual story was way too obscene for me. Each character was strange and brutal in it's own unique way. The ending was a little enigmatic. The actual crime that set the action in motion was extremely gruesome, and through the course of the story we hear how it all went down in gory detail. But honestly, the other characters' trials and tribulations were just as cringe-inducing as the crime itself. I don't know how representative this is of the genre, but if you like your fiction with a generous dose of depravity, this may be for you.
To be fair, I feel like it is pretty well written, and quite a page turner -- but if it hadn't been a free ARC through NetGalley (so I wanted to follow through and review) I probably would have set this one aside due to graphic content.