Despite her best efforts, Rebecka is barely able to function at any job for her firm and when she makes a costly error is relegated to sitting in on trials where she is told to remain mute. So when her boss needs to venture north for a meeting he invites her to accompany him since she is familiar with the area.

Only a few months earlier a female cleric was found hanging from the rafters of her church. Her name was Mildred Nisson and her unorthodox approach to her faith endeared her to many, while sowing seeds of discord with others. She stressed equality before God which some saw as blasphemy, especially when she urged a young man with Down’s syndrome to join a confirmation class and become a member of the church.

Mildred believed in the biblical injunction to care for all creatures and set about creating a wildlife refuge on the church grounds principally to protect a female wolf that had been seen on the property. The local hunting club saw it otherwise, considering the church grounds their private hunting lands. Then there was the women’s group she founded encouraging women to meet together for charitable tasks and pure fellowship. The seasons are harsh so close to the North Pole and the summer sun doesn’t set for months to compensate for the months of darkness. This led to short tempers and much violence which Mildred hoped to quell. Thus the boundaries were drawn setting the hunters against the preservationists, the rigidly righteous against the more moderates and even the men versus the women.

Rebecka decides to stay on a bit after her business is done settling in at a local guest house and keeping her notoriety secret. She even goes so far as to fail to correct those who think she was simply a secretary along to keep records. She meets the locals and befriends Nalle, the disabled young man who wanders the village and lives with his father, a retired policeman. For Nalle, Mildred was an angel who saw him as a special friend and always had time to spend with him. Rebecka soon fills that same role.

Inspector Anna-Maria Mella returns to investigate the tragedy and tries to interview the taciturn and mistrustful villagers who all have their own opinions about Mildred. In Sun Storm the previous Asa Larsson novel, Anna-Maria was heavily pregnant with her youngest son. Now she must leave him and the rest of her family to solve this grisly murder. Both she and Rebecka learn the many secrets of love and loathing hidden in this tiny village far in the north of Sweden. People reveal their innermost thoughts through their actions or failures to act and eventually both women arrive at the same conclusion. They know who the killer is and close in.

More bloodshed and the deaths of innocents both man and beast lead to the answer. Interspersed in the chapters is the story of the lone wolf and how she came to live in the forest behind the church grounds. She is a metaphor but for whom? Rebecka? Anna-Marie? Mildred? Those who loved her? So take some time to visit the Far North and see the darkness that dwells in the land of endless sunlight.

--Jane Davis