Four animals. Four authors. One adventure

Authors on trails with animals

There have been some very fun animal – infused titles in crime ficton lately. The Moose Paradox and The Rabbit Factor by Antii Tuomainen and Wolf Pack by Will Dean.

Taking it further, there’s The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison and Whisper of the Seals by Roxanne Bouchard. A lot of animals in a lot of book titles. What about the trails?

The Rabbit Factor and The Moose Paradox

Finland

Antti Tuomainen

The animals in these quirky crime thrillers are features of a giant adventure park in Finland. The rabbit is a large inflatable and the moose a giant slide. Sounds quirky, right? Well the book covers also feature these creatures on the covers which makes the books really stand out. They incorporate the style and quirky nature of the plot and writing and I recommend you read both!

Not your usual destination in a crime novel!

The Wolf Pack and The Wolf Hunters

Sweden and Scotland

Will Dean and Amanda Mitchison

The Wolf Pack

In the first of these two novels the wolves are definately at the door. There is a farm, Rose Farm, isolated and cut off from the world. A survivalist cult. The wolves are inside as well as out as the people in the cult will do anything to protect themselves. Outside however, the wolves are circling too… Wolves are in the woods all around.

In other books, Will has introduced us to Snake River so you get a good sense of this landscape and the creatures, both animal and human, that you can expect to meet.

The Wolf Hunters

The Scotland in this book is dystopian. There are wolves everywhere. Archie Henderson in the book is a passionate hunter and has rewilded his vast Highland estate filling the mountains and woods with wolves and bears. He runs wolf hunts in the rural and remote landscape.

Imagine!

The Whisper of the Seals

Quebec

Roxanne Bouchard

Oh keeping this one until last as it’s the most bloody. There is  seal cull happening and the action, the plot and the murders all take place against this backdrop. Very sad and harrowing to read about this cull but it shows a realistic portrayal of it and shows how fishing communities live and work.

Authors and their animals, eh? It is uncertain at the time of writing if these authors actually own or live with said animals. Will Dean does have a very large dog that is the size of a wolf though, so who knows.