Children of the Wolf by Geni, Abby

"A riveting mystery entwined with the rich story of a woman coming into her own while battling the wildest of demons. Whip-smart, unique, and chilling--I loved it."--GILLIAN FLYNN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl

A woman notices a pattern of men disappearing in her small town, reawakening memories of her childhood raised by a father obsessed with his violent Viking heritage.

As an adult, Liv leads a quiet life, tending to the beekeeping business that supports her and her brother. But when a dead body is discovered in her town, she is forced to grapple with a legacy of violence from when she was small.

As a child, she shared a home in rural Iowa with her brother Finn and their father Ulf. Swedish-born Ulf, a direct descendant of the infamous Erik the Red, raises his children as if they are Vikings. They are homeschooled, speak only Swedish, learn swordplay and archery, celebrate the Norse holidays, and worship the old gods with blood sacrifices.

But when Liv is fourteen, her family's sanctum is broken apart by an FBI raid. Separated from their father, Liv and Finn must learn to adapt to normal life.

Now, twenty years later, Liv and Finn have changed their last names and moved to Haven, Michigan. Through her work as a beekeeper, Liv meets Penny, a secretive, unusual, beguiling woman. Just as her life is beginning to open up in new ways, Liv notices a strange and upsetting pattern in the area around Haven: men are disappearing. As she tallies up the missing, she senses disturbing similarities to her own father's crimes.

While she's thrown back into the uncertainty she felt after Ulf's arrest, Liv, struggling to hold on to what she knows to be true, must decide how to proceed: whether to involve Finn and Penny in her suspicions, leave the whole matter alone, or take action to solve--and stop--the same kind of violence she always hoped to escape.

Author: Abby Geni
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 09/15/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9798217299539

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/22/2026
Booklist 08/01/2026
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2026

About the Author
Abby Geni is the author of The Body Farm, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and the Story Prize; The Lightkeepers, winner of the inaugural Chicago Review of Books Award of Best Fiction; The Wildlands, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and The Last Animal, a finalist for the Orion Book Award. Geni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship.