Children of the Wolf by Abby Geni

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.

• Hardcover
• ISBN: 9798217299539
• 320 pages
• Published by Ballantine Books

• Preorder releases September 15, 2026
• All preorders are non-refundable. Learn more.