Publishers Weekly
★ 01/07/2019
The discovery of a torso in a lake outside Stockholm drives Natt och Dag’s masterly first novel, set in 1793. The human remains prove to belong to a man whose limbs were severed one at a time over several months. Identifying the victim and his killer falls to Cecil Winge, an idealistic attorney who assists the police. Winge enlists the aid of Mickel Cardell, a veteran of a fruitless war with Russia in which he lost an arm. Now working as a watchman, Mickel retrieved the cadaver from the water. The pair have few clues to work with, but a piece of fabric with unusual markings wrapped around the body leads them to the Eumenides, an ostensibly charitable upper-class organization that meets in a building that houses a bordello. The book’s structure, which includes flashbacks and multiple perspectives, will remind many of Iain Pears’s An Instance of the Fingerpost, and Natt och Dag uses this structure to heighten suspense and deepen characterizations. The Swedish Academy of Crime Writers named this the best debut novel of 2017, and U.S. readers will be likewise impressed. Agent: Frederico Ambrosini, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden). (Mar.)
From the Publisher
This incredibly disturbing trip into the grotesqueries of history is as well-written as it is well-researched, true to not only the detail of the time period but also true to its mores and atmosphere...infused with a tear-it-all-down mentality, this one is not to be missed.” —Literary Hub, Best books of 2019
The Sunday Times
"A remarkable debut novel."
A.J. Finn
The Alienist set in eighteenth-century Stockholm: Brawny, bloody, intricate, enthralling—and the best historical thriller I’ve read in twenty years.
Newsday
"A tantalizing mystery, a foreboding, claustrophobic sense of place and a pair of unforgettable investigators."
Booklist
"A standout. The characterization is excellent, as is the evocation of eighteenth-century Stockholm, an uncommon historical setting that provides a vibrant backdrop for this unusual mystery. Natt och Dag's side-plots dovetail neatly, his pacing is skillful, and he explores with aplomb his novel's main theme, Homo homini lupus est —Man is wolf to man.
NPR
What's better than an ornate period piece with style to spare? One that includes a murder mystery. Oh, and boy is it a riveting mystery...A bit of Patrick Süskind’s Perfume and a bit of Sherlock Holmes, this wolf has some bite to it.
The Washington Post
For Stieg Larsson fans, a new voice...a stunning debut...Like Umberto Eco’s novel [The Name of the Rose, this] is a cerebral, immersive page-turner [with] a moral heft reminiscent of works by Graham Greene...Plenty of twists to satisfy thrill-starved readers.
USA Today
"Reads like a season of 'True Detective'...anchored by a powerful sense of place and a memorable cast of characters...you won't soon forget it."
Fredrik Backman
Thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful.
Bookpage
"Calls to mind another auspicious debut murder mystery set in an unfamiliar place and time: Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. It’s been nearly 40 years since that foreign-language historical thriller captured the world’s imagination, thoroughly engrossing readers and propelling its author into international stardom. So we’re about due, and Natt och Dag is certainly a worthy candidate.
TROUW (Netherlands)
A vivacious book. The Wolf and the Watchman is a virtuously written, pitch-black thriller.
De Standaard (Belgium)
Wonderfully written...[Niklas Natt och Dag’s] detailed descriptions of locations and characters and his well-crafted story ensure that The Wolf and the Watchman takes the reader along on a journey that does not end till after the final scene has been read.
Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
Stylistically astonishing.
Verdens Gang (Norway)
A literary tour de force...a smart and suspenseful story that you’ll remember for a long time to come.
Natasha Pulley
"An excellent story with corkscrew twists and a wonderfully clever ending, completely worthy of Cecil Winge’s splendid mind. Winge and Cardell are thoroughly engaging characters, and they give the whole book a powerful heart"
Arne Dahl
An unexpected masterpiece, a wild and unusual mix of genres that in one fell swoop succeeds in renewing the entire crime fiction genre.
Aftenposten (Norway)
Magnificent ”Stockholm Noir” and an excellent debut...A bullseye of a historical novel...[Niklas Natt och Dag] writes glisteningly and organically."
New York Journal of Books
"Complex and richly realized... Besides the rich and fascinating characters, Natt Och Dag’s greatest strength may be selecting details to convey a city of two centuries past.... This is Natt och Dag’s first published novel, but it seems too skillful and too assured to be his first writing... [He] surely has more fine work ahead of him."
Historical Novel Society
"A masterpiece of a novel."
The Irish Times
"Vividly written...a superbly detailed historical mystery."
The Observer
This gripping historical thriller surely announces the arrival of a fine new European talent. Vivid and absorbing.
Booklist
"A standout. The characterization is excellent, as is the evocation of eighteenth-century Stockholm, an uncommon historical setting that provides a vibrant backdrop for this unusual mystery. Natt och Dag's side-plots dovetail neatly, his pacing is skillful, and he explores with aplomb his novel's main theme, Homo homini lupus est —Man is wolf to man.
USA Today
"Reads like a season of 'True Detective'...anchored by a powerful sense of place and a memorable cast of characters...you won't soon forget it."
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2018-12-11
In his debut novel, Natt och Dag examines the effects of a brutal murder on those who investigate it—and explores the psychological causes for the crime.
Stockholm, 1793: Sweden is still recovering from an unpopular war with Russia; some veterans, like watchman Mickel Cardell, lost limbs in the slaughter, and he was one of the lucky ones. Cardell hardly feels lucky though, nursing a fierce rage that simmers below the surface and finding solace only in drinking to excess. When Cardell is summoned by two children to examine a body they've found floating in putrid waters, he can barely be bothered, but the corpse, disturbingly mutilated, haunts him. Together with lawyer Cecil Winge, who is measuring his life in days since being diagnosed with consumption and trying to stay above the rampant political corruption that is flooding the police department, Cardell doggedly pursues every lead to find the monster at the heart of this case. Along the way, he meets a desperate widow, lately escaped from the cruel fate of a workhouse; learns of a secret society of wealthy men who are offered a place to indulge their perverted desires in return for charitable donations; and picks savage fights to slake his anger at the way the world treats the poor and the downtrodden. Winge brings a certain intellectual precision to the investigation as he, too, struggles to keep his demons at bay. Natt och Dag writes sensory, horror-inducing descriptions of the lives and deaths of the poor inhabitants of Stockholm. At the same time, his characters almost spring off the page, they are so human and so fully realized. Natt och Dag doesn't apologize for human nature, nor does he excuse our crimes and basest cruelties, but his deep dive into the dark corners of our psyches, as well as this harsh time in history, is both chilling and thought-provoking.
Relentless, well-written, and nearly impossible to put down.