The master of Swedish crime fiction returns with this latest entry into the internationally acclaimed, award-winning mystery series—one of the darkest tales yet in the series that is, as well, an electrifying stand-alone novel. In the middle of the night, a boy is struck by a car after leaving his girlfriend's house. The driver, drunk, leaves the boy's body by the side of the road and, wrestling with guilt, tries to put it all out of his mind—until a blackmail note arrives. In the meantime, Reinhart, the new chief inspector of the Maardam police force, has set his team to work. But a second, possibly related killing proves that this is no ordinary case. The police, desperate for answers, struggle to decipher the clues to these appalling crimes, but as the killer becomes increasingly unhinged and unpredictable, Van Veeteren, now retired, is compelled to re-enter the world he left behind. He will face the greatest trial of his career as he seeks vengeance for the death of someone who was close to him. Told with Håkan Nesser's trademark eye for detail, breakneck plotting, and gut-wrenching moral tension, Hour of the Wolf finds the Nordic noir superstar spinning one of his most spellbinding tales yet. From the Hardcover edition.