Hour of the Wolf: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery by Hakan Nesser

It all started when he drank a bit too much and decided to drive himself home anyway.  It was raining, dark, and he needed windshield wipers.  When he suddenly hits something, he stops to check it out.  It was a young man who hit the culvert with his head; he's dead.  He can do nothing for him, so he leaves him there and goes home quickly.  He's safe, no one saw him.  Oh, yes, they did...

Pantheon and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published January 12th.

When he gets a blackmail letter, he decides he might as well stop this by murdering another person.  Only problem is that the man who picks up the money is only an errand boy.  And, when he kills him, it changes the whole picture.  The man was the son of Inspector Van Veeterern.  The Inspector may be retired but his staff isn't.  They use everything they can to find the killer.

This killer is very elusive and had no connection to the people he killed.  He's not someone you would suspect of murder.  They keep looking and come up with nothing.  Then there's another murder...

The story is full of suspense and tension from the manhunt and the killer's escalating panic.  It started as an accident and then it wasn't.  There's no going back and there's no going forward either.  I almost felt some sympathy for the killer.  If he'd just done the right thing in the beginning it wouldn't have turned out like this.  He's too cold-hearted to worry about.

I was impressed with the lead cop on the case.  He never gave up.  He got discouraged but he kept digging up information until he finally came up with the link he needed.  This is a very good police procedural.