The Wolf and the Watchman, Natt Och Dag Niklas

Thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful. --Fredrik Backman, #1 bestselling author of A Man Called Ove

Chilling and thought-provoking. Relentless, well-written, and nearly impossible to put down. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholms Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardells help to solve the case. But time is short: Winges health is failing, the monarchy is in shambles, and whispered conspiracies and paranoia abound.

Winge and Cardell become immersed in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams. From a farmers son who is lead down a treacherous path when he seeks his fortune in the capital to an orphan girl consigned to the workhouse by a pitiless parish priest, their investigation peels back layer upon layer of the citys labyrinthine society. The rich and the poor, the pious and the fallen, the living and the dead--all collide and interconnect with the body pulled from the lake.