Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

At first glance, Flokí: A Mystery Novel might read like a traditional small-town whodunit. But Paul B Bergquist doesn’t just write a mystery—he evokes a world shaped by primal instinct, quiet observation, and the ancient bond between animal and human. In this first book of the Flokí series, what begins as a simple investigation unfolds into a tale of loyalty, loss, and intuitive justice—all seen through the eyes of an unexpected narrator.

When a local recluse is found dead under suspicious circumstances in a remote Nordic village, suspicion falls quickly on the outsider. Enter Flokí—half-wolf, half-domesticated dog, wholly captivating. As the village reels and the investigation stalls, Flokí becomes an unlikely observer and, more importantly, the story’s conscience.

Told in a style that slips between traditional narration and Flokí’s raw, sensory-laced observations, the plot moves steadily but with a poetic undercurrent. The mystery is satisfying, but the emotional resonance is what lingers—especially as Flokí’s instincts lead him to uncover motives that no human detective would ever sense.

Bergquist’s greatest narrative trick isn’t just giving voice to an animal protagonist—it’s making that voice feel ancient, wise, and startlingly perceptive. The novel walks a fine line between anthropomorphism and realism, and it does so with grace.

Themes of isolation, environmental tension, and the unspoken hierarchies of rural life are embedded deeply in the plot. There’s an ecological subtlety here too—Flokí’s connection to the land acts almost as a second layer of detection, a kind of ecological intuition that parallels the human investigation but adds a deeper, spiritual resonance.

The village setting is rendered with quiet menace—snow, silence, wind, and withheld truths. The stark Nordic landscape becomes not just a backdrop but a character of its own, shaping choices, hiding clues, and resisting intrusion. It calls to mind the immersive atmospheric layering of Tana French or Ragnar Jónasson, but with a voice all Bergquist’s own.

Flokí is a mystery novel in the guise of folklore—a grounded narrative wrapped around a primal consciousness. For readers drawn to stories that unspool slowly, with textured prose and soulful undertones, this debut promises much more than the solution to a single death. It’s a meditation on truth—the kind we uncover and the kind we carry quietly inside us.

For some reason, the formatting on my kindle is all wonky in a way that makes the book unreadable :( Soft DNF for now but will find a way to read the book elsewhere.

This was a nice read. I loved the environment and settings. The characters needs a little bit more fine tuning fr me to love but the worked and I enjoyed the book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I'm Norwegian, but I got this book in English translation from Netgalley, and I think the translator should have kept the original name "Floke". The plot of the novel is excellent, with a few twists, and the characters are very good. My tip for the author is to write everything from 3.person POV. If you can't tell the whole story in 1.person, don't use it.