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A review by tommooney
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag
3.0
This isn't normally the kind of book I'd reach for but I quite enjoyed it. I mean, it's overwritten and a bit clunky at times. But it comes together in the end.
Set in Stockholm in the late 18th century, it depicts a city full of sickness, severed limbs and the scents of rotting shit. A truly disgusting place.
Amid all this, a limbless, eyeless, toothless torso is fished out if the festering water. It is then left to an odd couple team of investigators to find the identity of the body and how it met its grisly end.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of great political and royal upheaval, with the Swedish King Gustav recently assassinated and Mary Antoinette about to lose her head.
It reads almost like a very bleak and disgusting Sherlock Holmes at times (one scene in particular is one if the most harrowing things I have read). And certain parts reminded me of Varenne's Retribution Road, though it's not as gritty or as well written. As I mentioned above, it is a bit overwritten and a lot of the middle part could have easily been dropped.
But it is an enjoyable read and does a good job of conjuring up the fetid stink and horrific sights of a rotting city and its bereft citizens.
Set in Stockholm in the late 18th century, it depicts a city full of sickness, severed limbs and the scents of rotting shit. A truly disgusting place.
Amid all this, a limbless, eyeless, toothless torso is fished out if the festering water. It is then left to an odd couple team of investigators to find the identity of the body and how it met its grisly end.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of great political and royal upheaval, with the Swedish King Gustav recently assassinated and Mary Antoinette about to lose her head.
It reads almost like a very bleak and disgusting Sherlock Holmes at times (one scene in particular is one if the most harrowing things I have read). And certain parts reminded me of Varenne's Retribution Road, though it's not as gritty or as well written. As I mentioned above, it is a bit overwritten and a lot of the middle part could have easily been dropped.
But it is an enjoyable read and does a good job of conjuring up the fetid stink and horrific sights of a rotting city and its bereft citizens.