The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney

The Tenderness of Wolves, a novel by Stef Penny

David J’s all-time favorite historical mystery set in the 1860s Canadian frontier. A French trader is brutally murdered and scalped. The prime suspect, a lonely teenager with a troubling secret, disappears into the frozen tundra as winter approaches. His world-wise, gutsy mother teams up with a disturbingly attractive wolf hunter, himself a suspect, to track her son down. A mild-mannered Hudson Bay Company agent follows in cold pursuit as the raging, blinding snow, itself a major character in the book, impedes them at every step.