A Good Read

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Let me get my one and only criticism out of the way first. I don't know why the author gave the novel this title as wolves do not figure in the plot at all. They are mentioned once or twice but that's about it! I was expecting somewhere in the story to read about wolves being, well, tender, maybe towards somehow helping stranded humans. 
So that done let's begin.
This beautifully written novel is set in Canada in 1867. Winter is tightening its grip on Dove River, a small isolated settlement in the Northern Territory. Laurent Jammett is found brutally murdered. He had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company. Mrs Ross stumbles upon the crime scene and sees tracks leading from the dead man’s cabin north toward the forest. Soon after the investigation is launched Mrs Ross makes another discovery – her 17 year old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect. She decides to go after him to clear his name. 
Such unprecedented violence in a small quiet community attracts a lot of interest. We have Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. And a few others.
One by one, the searchers set out following the tracks across a desolate landscape, between them seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, stolen furs and a forgotten Native American culture. But who wants to solve the crime and who wants to exploit it? Who is prepared to kill again to avoid being unmasked? As we learn more about each individual the list of possible suspects grows.

The plot was engaging and compelling from the beginning. I had to make a list of the many characters, but I soon remembered them. Descriptions of the harsh landscape and the lives of European settlers was palpable. 
A few commenters on Goodreads said they were disappointed with the ending, too many lose ends. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought the end was satisfactory I would have liked Elizabeth to have met her aunt and cousins, and I wanted the embryonic feelings between Mrs Ross and Parker to culminate in a brief liaison!

~Be warm and well ~

Polly x