Kristina can’t wait to get back to her favourite place – Wendelby horse-riding camp. She will be spending ten days riding and being with special friends she made a year before. Any shyness in meeting up again is gone in moments and it’s like they’ve never been apart.

It’s not long before Kristina sees a girl who reminds her of herself a year before. This girl is standing alone, looking uncomfortable as all the other campers meet up with old friends. Kristina decides to try and help this girl, and learns her name is Elsa. Elsa is only ten, but incredibly smart. Another girl from Elsa’s school is also attending the riding camp and soon proves herself to be a bully with Elsa her key target.

Kristina is excited to be at camp for another reason. One of her new friends is a boy called Peder, and she likes him a lot. They spend some time together talking and catching up and he tells her about his grandmother. She has worsening dementia, but she has been trying to tell him something about a small island not far from Wendelby Camp.

Soon their friends are in on this mystery too, with a key component being an old scorched diary from Peder’s great grandfather. Inside is an amazing story of courage and adventure during the second world war. Peder, Kristina and their friends, now including Elsa, meet in hiding places around the camp and read from the diary.

Soldiers, danger and espionage. Snow, escape and an enemy soldier. A boy, a puppy and a rescue. Peder is amazed at his great grandfather’s diary along with his friends, and he knows he must try and solve the mystery his grandmother has hinted at.

Horse riding, a mystery, local wolves, an intriguing diary and a terrible bully to beat. This is going to be an adventure-packed ten days for Kristina.

The third in this series, but perfectly readable on its own, The Secret of the Wolf has everything, especially for horse lovers. Friendship, the love of horses, a family mystery with a riveting conclusion and a conundrum of beating a bully. Throw in an exciting diary of a WWII mission based on real life in Norway that helped win the war, and you will be gripped by this story.

I must admit, the cover grabbed me instantly before I even knew what The Secret of the Wolf was about, but the story didn’t disappoint. The wolf theme from title and cover, is cleverly woven through the book both in the present and back in time through a diary.

There are extras within the novel and afterwards too. Footnotes on interesting words throughout the novel did distract me a little from the story, but they are ultimately interesting, especially the recipe for a traditional Swedish sticky chocolate cake called Kladdkaka. It looks too good not to try for myself!

Author – Ulrika Hedquist

Age – 8+

Find the whole series here

(2023, Goodsign, Animals, Horses, Wolves, Adventure, Horse riding, Display, Bullies, Courage, Friendship, Growing up, Diary, Family, Grandmother, Grandparents, Snow, Norway, Norwegian Resistance Fighters, Heavy Water, Mission, Explosion, Historical, Mystery, Secret, Series, War, Second World War, WWII)