The Tenderness of Wolves
ABOUT
THE BOOK
As winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a seventeen-year-old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man’s cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township – journalists, Hudson’s Bay Company men, trappers, traders – but do they want to solve the crime, or exploit it?
One by one, the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years and a forgotten Native American culture, before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Gripping story interwoven with the relationships and personalities of the different characters, the Hudson Bay Company, Pioneer America and Native American lives.
A suspenseful atmospheric novel, well written with several intriguing mysteries and romance.
A debut novel, full of suspense, extraordinarily compulsive reading. Chosen by Reader Development Librarian.
A story that gradually builds into an absorbing read. Penney creates a vivid picture of Canada in the 1860’s and the characterisation is superb.