The Tenderness of Wolves

In Stef Penney’s mystery novel The Tenderness of Wolves (2006), a violent crime exposes the corruption, greed, and injustices plaguing a small rural town. Winner of the 2006 Costa Book Award and the Costa Book Award for First Novels, critics praise its scope, genre-bending plot, and characterization. A British writer best known for The Tenderness of Wolves, Penney studied TV at Bournemouth College of Art and directed two short films before turning to novel writing. When she wrote A Tenderness of Wolves, she suffered from agoraphobia.

The book takes place in 1867 in a remote town called Dove River in Canada’s Northern Territory. Readers first meet Laurent Jammett, a French trapper who worked for the Hudson Bay Company until an accident put him out of service. He moved to Dove River for some peace and quiet, but everyone thinks he is crazy for purchasing the land he bought.

Considered an unlucky patch of land because the previous owner died in mysterious circumstances, now, everyone thinks it’s cursed. It doesn’t surprise anyone, then, when a local woman, Mrs. Ross, finds Laurent’s dead body at his cabin. Seeing track marks leading from the cabin to the tundra beyond, she assumes the murderer fled that way.



Mrs. Ross immediately tracks down the town magistrate, Andrew Knox. Andrew doesn’t know what to make of the crime scene because there’s not enough evidence to go on. He calls on the Hudson Bay Company employees to help him with the investigation. In the meantime, Mrs. Ross discovers that her 17-year-old son, Francis, is missing. To the shock of the whole community, Andrew declares Francis the prime suspect.

Refusing to believe that Francis could murder anyone, Mrs. Ross is determined to find him and bring him home. She goes to William Parker, Laurent’s friend and fellow trapper, for help. He agrees to lead her over the tundra to find Francis, but he warns her that if Francis went alone, he is probably dead by now. Mrs. Ross persists—she wants to find her son.

Others arrive in Dove River to find out what happened to Laurent. Thomas Sturrock, an ex-journalist with tribal connections, wants access to Laurent’s cabin. Laurent possessed a special bone tablet that Thomas wanted to buy. Now, he plans to take it before anyone else discovers it and returns it to the Natives.



Three other men arrive: Mackinley, the Company’s boss; Donald, the Company’s accountant; and Jacob, the Company’s personal Native guide. These men want to solve the mystery for different reasons. They don’t really care what happened to Laurent. Each is out for personal gain.

Francis isn’t the first person to go missing from the community. A few years’ back, two sisters went into the tundra and never came back. Some townsfolk think the local wolves ate the girls. Others think they found a Native tribe and stayed there. Mrs. Ross wants to find out what happened to the girls, if she can, so that the town can put the mystery to bed and the parents can move on.

Along the way, Mrs. Ross and William meet mysterious characters. They encounter a settlement of Norwegian Christians who don’t like outsiders. They live an isolated but utopian lifestyle; they don’t want anyone to change that. They have no idea where Francis is, and the pair keeps moving.



Throughout the journey, Mrs. Ross tells William all about her life back home. She dearly loves her son and will do anything to get him back. She doesn’t love her husband anymore. He neglects and mistreats her, and she’s convinced that he is having an affair. William asks if Mr. Ross ever mistreated Francis. Mrs. Ross admits that Mr. Ross is very hard on their son and this might be why he ran away. William explains that sometimes if people run away, they don’t want to be found. Mrs. Ross, however, refuses to give up hope.

As they cross the tundra, Mrs. Ross realizes that she is falling for William. He is brave, kind, and compassionate, and he treats her with respect. William encourages her affections, but it isn’t clear whether he wants a relationship or not. He suggests they should take things slow because emotions run high on the tundra.

Mrs. Ross finally discovers the truth behind Francis’s disappearance. He didn’t kill anyone. The truth is that he is gay, and he fled before his father rejected him. He secretly slept with Laurent and now he is living with another man. He doesn’t plan to return home, and he doesn’t want to face the shame of confronting his father.



Mrs. Ross and William discover that someone killed Laurent for his bone tablet. Mrs. Ross, only interested in clearing Francis’s name, is not interested in finding the real perpetrator. The murder is connected to the Hudson Bay Company. It is unclear what happened to the sisters who went missing, but it is implied that they found a new life for themselves with a Native tribe.