Seth, one of Clara's students, stops at her house before murdering his best friend's father who is also the town's sheriff and then taking his own life. As she tries to understand his actions, Clara remembers the cryptic notes Seth had given her recently after class. Although she didn't answer Seth's knock, she wonders if she had been his first target and why?

This is the first event of Little Wolves, Thomas Maltman's second novel, and from this point I was hooked. The reader is drawn into the dark history and politics of this small Minnesota town, settled by German Lutherans by driving out the original Native American inhabitants. As in most of the best novels about small towns, all is not as it seems and in order to solve the mystery of Seth's actions Clara must dig deeper into the town's past, as well as her own mysterious family stories.

Although I am not a fast reader, I flew through this book in just two evenings because I had to find out what was really going on. The writing is exquisite and the complicated story lines were tied together in a satisfying and shocking conclusion.

I loved this book as much as I loved Maltman's first book, Night Birds, although they were completely different.

Highly recommended. I would also recommend this book to older teens.