A #1 international bestseller, this atmospheric and breathtaking sequel to the “cerebral, immersive page-turner” (The Washington Post) The Wolf and the Watchman explores the darkness hidden beneath the splendor of 18th-century Stockholm.
Stockholm, 1794: A young nobleman, Eric Three Roses, languishes in a hospital as the rest of the city claims that he belongs in a madhouse. Riddled with guilt, he writes down the memories of his lost love—his beautiful wife who died on their wedding night.
The young woman’s mother also mourns her death and, desperate for justice, begs for help from the only person who will listen to her: Jean Mickel Cardell, the one-armed watchman. But she isn’t the only person seeking him out.
Emil, younger brother to the brilliant lawyer and detective Cecil Winge, finds the watchman to demand his late brother’s pocket watch back. Instead, Cardell enlists Emil’s help to discover what really happened at the Three Roses estate that dreaded wedding night.
The City Between the Bridges: 1794 is a suspenseful race for the truth before it’s too late from an author with a “thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful” (Fredrik Backman, #1 New York Times bestselling author) voice.
Niklas Natt och Dag (“Night and Day”) is a member of the oldest surviving noble family in Sweden. The Wolf and the Watchman, his first novel, was named the Best Debut of 2017 by the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers and is being published in thirty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and their two sons.
“Mysteries don’t come much rawer than Natt och Dag’s gut-wrenching and moving page-turner, his second featuring Stockholm watchman Jean Michael Cardell (after 2019’s The Wolf and the Watchman)…Natt och Dag expertly combines fully realized, flawed characters with vivid period detail. This tale of the cruelties that people are capable of inflicting on each other will leave few readers unshaken.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
Praise for The Wolf and the Watchman: 1793
"Niklas Natt och Dag takes the contemporary Scandinavian crime story and gives it a startlingly gruesome historical twist" —Guardian
"A tantalizing mystery, a foreboding, claustrophobic sense of place and a pair of unforgettable investigators."
— Newsday
“The Alienist set in eighteenth-century Stockholm: Brawny, bloody, intricate, enthralling—and the best historical thriller I’ve read in twenty years.”
— A.J. Finn, #1 bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“Thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful.”
— Fredrik Backman, international bestselling author
“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.”
— The Washington Post
“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.”
— NPR
“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...Chilling and thought-provoking. Relentless, well-written, and nearly impossible to put down.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"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."
— USA Today
"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.”
— Booklist
