If you’ve watched Scandi-noir series like ‘The Bridge’, you’ll be familiar with the work of Hans Rosenfeldt: complex and convoluted stories with unseen twists and surprises. Cry Wolf is no different, plus it puts a small community on the map.

Haparanda is a town of less than 5000 people in northern Sweden, butting up against Finland. As the story begins, drugs have been smuggled across the border, but both the suppliers and dealers are found dead. Double and triple-crosses are suspected but just how the mastermind himself ended up dead, with the drugs and money missing, is the mystery intriguing Haparanda’s small police force. The Russian oligarch behind the drug supply wants those drugs back and sends a female assassin to retrieve them.

Hannah Wester is the policewoman. She’s suffering with menopausal symptoms, has a sad family history, a husband, Thomas, nursing a secret and is having an affair with her boss. Thomas’s nephew and his partner seem somehow involved in this mystery. Complicating the story further is a Finnish police officer who nurses his own secrets. Katja is a Russian assassin who appears in Haparanda under instructions to find the drugs and money and kill whoever stole them. She discovers the town’s drug supplier but is no closer to finding the missing drugs. The body count multiplies as Katja continues her search under increasing pressure from the oligarch.

Many characters harbour secrets. Most – but significantly, not all – are revealed as the narrative reaches a crescendo. Rosenfeldt has thrown his characters into a maelstrom of intrigue. Riveting writing … and new series pending.

Reviewed by Bob Moore

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt is the creator of the award-winning Scandinavian TV-series The Bridge (2011-2018), which has aired in more than 170 countries and also been successfully remade into a US version, The Bridge (2013-2014), as well as a British/French version, The Tunnel (2013). Rosenfeldt is also the writer and creator behind the Netflix original hit series, Marcella, as well as the adaptor of CJ Tudor’s bestselling novel The Burning Girls, among else.

Most recently, Rosenfeldt adapted Astrid Lindgren’s world-famous story Ronja the Robber’s Daughter into a major Viaplay original family fantasy series. The series premiered in late 2023 with 12 episodes across two seasons.

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