Get our Best Book Club Books of 2025 eBook!

Summary and Reviews of He Who Fears The Wolf by Karin Fossum

He Who Fears The Wolf by Karin Fossum

He Who Fears The Wolf

by Karin Fossum
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 1, 2005, 288 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2006, 312 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

In spare, incisive prose Fossum turns a conventional police procedural into a sensitive examination of troubled minds and a disturbing look at the way society views them.

Inspector Sejer is hard at work again, investigating the brutal murder of a woman who lived alone in the middle of the woods. The chief suspect is another loner, a schizophrenic recently escaped from a mental institution. The only witness is a twelve-year-old boy, overweight, obsessed with archery, and a resident at a home for delinquents. When a demented man robs a nearby bank and accidentally takes the suspect hostage, the three misfits are drawn into an uneasy alliance.

Shrewdly, patiently, as is his way, Inspector Sejer confronts a case where the strangeness of the crime is matched only by the strangeness of the criminals, and where small-town prejudices warp every piece of information he tries to collect. Fossum once again provides extraordinary insight into marginalized lives and richly evokes the atmosphere she captured so brilliantly in Don't Look Back.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Fossum leverages her series above the pack of conventional police procedurals by, firstly, taking us deep into the minds of her troubled characters, and secondly, by causing us to ask ourselves difficult questions - such as how society as a whole views those who don't fit the norm - without feeling the need to provide us with answers, easy or otherwise. Strongly recommended to all who like their police procedurals on the cerebral side...continued

Full Review (205 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



Karin Fossum, sometimes dubbed Norway's Queen of Crime, is the author of many novels, two collections of short stories, one book of poetry and one non-crime novel. She made her literary debut in Norway with a collection of poetry in 1974.  Her crime novels featuring Inspector Sejer have been translated into sixteen languages but Don't Look Back was the first to be published in the USA.

He Who Fears the Wolf
is just out in the USA in paperback and When The Devil Holds the Candle has just been ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked He Who Fears The Wolf, try these:

  • Blood From A Stone jacket

    Blood From A Stone

    by Donna Leon

    Published 2006

    About this book

    More by this author

    A pitch-perfect mystery, an alluring portrait of contemporary Venice, and an elucidating eye into the attitudes of a timeless place in the grip of change.

  • The Water Room jacket

    The Water Room

    by Christopher Fowler

    Published 2006

    About this book

    More by this author

    They are detection's oddest couple: two cranky detectives whose professional partnership dates back half a century. Now Arthur Bryant and John May return in a case of multiple murder that twists through a subterranean course of the secrets, lies, and extreme passions that drive even ordinary men and women to the most shocking crimes….

We have 5 read-alikes for He Who Fears The Wolf, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Karin Fossum
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Devil Finds Work
    by James Baldwin
    A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

  • Book Jacket

    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

  • Book Jacket

    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

Who Said...

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

A C on H S

and be entered to win..