Wolf Hunt

Starred review from April 14, 2014
As he did in his Napoleonic Murders series debut, 2013’s The Officer’s Prey, French author Cabasson brilliantly combines detection with action, in this twisty sequel. In the spring of 1809, the emperor’s forces are engaged in a bloody and futile back-and-forth battle near the Danube with the Austrian army. At the request of Luise Mitterberg, a young Austrian woman, French Capt. Quentin Margont looks into the disappearance of a 16-year-old orphan, Wilhelm Gurtz, who later turns up dead—shot point-blank by someone, who then mutilated the corpse to give the boy an exaggerated smile. The m.o. matches that of the killer that hussar Lukas Relmyer is obsessed with finding for committing a similar crime five years earlier. Margont agrees to help Luise and Relmyer in their quest for justice, a seemingly impossible mission under the circumstances. A well-rounded lead and a suspenseful plot make this historical a winner.