The Wolf (Ulven) - Samuel Bjørk

 

The bodies of two murdered 11-year-olds were found in a field near Uddevalla in Sweden. A white rabbit lay between them. The case remained unsolved. Eight years later, near Oslo, two boys were killed in a similar way. Between them was a dead fox.
Holger Munch, the newly appointed head of the Homicide Special Unit, needs all the help he can get to solve the case. He received a tip about a young cadet, Mia Krüger, who is getting unusually high results in the academy exams. Although she dreams of a career in special forces, while spending nights searching for her missing twin Sigrid, Mija agrees to help on the case.
Together, Munch and Krüger dig into dark, sordid cases that turn out to be more intriguing than either of them could have imagined. Adding fuel to the fire is the news of the disappearance of two more boys.

I fell in love with Bjørk's writing last year after reading I'm Traveling Alone. I just swallowed the previous three parts. Although they investigate mostly sickening and heinous crimes, the story in the novels is so interesting that it seemed to me that the pages turned by themselves. I had the same feelimg with  The Wolf.
Although I started reading it with a big preconceived notion that I wouldn't like it, in the end I was delighted. And why did I think I wouldn't like it? Well, the novel was first read by my best friend, who bought it and passed it on to me, and she really liked it. After she finished, The Wolf went on a tour to Europe. Hubby, who shared my enthusiasm for Bjørk's first three books, was disappointed. Something did not sit well with him. And that was all the explanation I got. And now, who to believe?

Decide to ignore both friends's and hubby's opinions and started reading. I have to admit, with a little bit of fear. What if I'm disappointed? But I wasn't disappointed at all. Like the previous three, the case that Munk and Mia investigate is more than interesting and intriguing. The methods of getting clues and conclusions, are again, a little unconventional, which is essentially what gives Bjørk's books their special charm.

What I particularly liked about this book is that the author goes back in time. Here we read about Munk and Mia's first case they work on together. Munch is the same. But Mia!!! This is Mia as we couldn't even dream that she used to be. Total anti-alcoholic and anti-pill. She is full of life and enthusiasm, unlike Mia in the previous three novels who is constantly either drunk or on drugs or on the edge of suicide. However, even though the "old" Mia is the exact opposite of this "new" Mia, Bjørk has remained consistent with her character, as well as the character of the other protagonists. Here, too, she uses all those methods of investigation and deduction, which are at least unusual, and which she also used in I'm Traveling Alone, The Owl Always Hunts At Night and The Boy In The Headlights.

Summa summarum, I really liked Vuk and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Finally, there is one "little thing" that I didn't like. In novels of this type, we usually learn the killer's motives for the crime. Why did he choose those boys, why did he pretend to be two different people in order to get to them, what actually made him start killing... There is no such thing in The Wolf. He killed, they caught him, cut, end. No explanation, nothing at all. My analytical brain, which analyzes everything down to the smallest details, which needs answers to even the most banal questions, was quite disturbed, but it did not diminish the enjoyment of reading.