Once There Were Wolves – Charlotte McConaghy

Title: Once There Were Wolves

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

Genre: Literary Fiction, Mystery

Plot: Inti arrives in Scotland with her team and their wolves. Their aim is to reintroduce them to the area. The locals are ranchers and are against the wolves in fear they’ll eat their livestock. Inti picks a fight with one of the ranchers. The chief of police steps in. He and Inti hit if off. But when Inti finds the body near her home, she panics and buries it. The next day, he’s reported missing and Inti helps look. She tries her best to show she knows no more than the others. The towns people blame the wolves. Inti and her team aren’t so sure. While Inti tries to prove it’s not the wolves, she learns more about the town and its people. The more she learns about the people, the more suspects she has. Who killed the ranchers? Did a human? Or did a wolf? Will there be another attack? Or can the police or Inti catch the culprit?

Rating: 3.5 – a different style of mystery mixed with environmentalism and and romance

Opinion: I wasn’t sure about this book at first, but I wanted to try something new. I ended up really enjoying this book. There was plenty of mystery. Most of the characters had a motive for the murder. I knew it would be the person I least expected, I just didn’t expect the person or animal that did it. The book did a good job describing what the reader might have missed reading the book the first time. I went back to read the details and saw. I felt a little silly for falling into the trap, but that just means it’s good writing. I understood the reasons for environmental parts of the book. We need all types of animals, prey and predator, in order to thrive, not just survive. I do understand that we’ve probably became too comfortable in our modern societies and need to connect to nature in more ways. I do understand that other readers might not like that idea woven throughout the book. This book does talk about some dark topics. While they chalk it up to human nature to some extent, I don’t agree with how the characters deal with it. The characters all know what’s going on, but no one does anything about it. I kept hoping someone would but nothing was. It ticked me off. That’s the only thing I really don’t like about the book, but it’s a minor part of the book. Overall, this is a very good book. The ending is crazy but good. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good murder mystery and books about nature.