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Queen of Thieves (The)
by Johan Rundberg
Age Range: 12+
The Queen of Thieves is the second book in the ‘Moonwind Mysteries’ series by award-winning Swedish author Johan Rundberg.
After a merciless cold and bitter winter in 1880 Stockholm, spring has finally arrived and the city is awaiting the return of the SS Vega from its two-year expedition to Asia via the Arctic Ocean. Life has returned to normal at the orphanage for twelve-year-old Mika, the feisty protagonist, after her last adventure solving the case of the Night Raven. But it is not long before Mika notices that everything is not as it seems. Some of the older children, Ossian and Kristina, are behaving strangely. She knows they are up to something but doesn’t know what it is. That evening while at her job at the Chapel tavern, she meets her old friend Constable Valdemar Hoff who informs her there has been an increase in petty theft by juvenile offenders in the city. Mika becomes even more concerned especially when she discovers that Ossian has disappeared and Katrina is being evasive.
Mika sets out on a dangerous mission to discover what is going on not realising that she is putting herself in imminent danger. Can she uncover who is really behind the thefts and stop them from carrying out a major crime?
Rundberg has written another atmospheric and gripping fast-paced mystery rich in detail of the dark underbelly of the city of Stockholm with its crime, child exploitation, police brutality and the harsh life for orphans. He combines this gritty realism with subtle humour, particularly in the characterisation and relationship between Constable Hoff and Mika. As with the first title The Night Raven, (2023) A. A. Prime has done an excellent job with the translation.
Rundberg has written many children’s books ranging from picture books to middle grade. In 2021, he was awarded Sweden’s most prestigious literary prize, the August Prize, in the children’s and YA category for Nattkorpen, the original edition of Night Raven. It also won the Swedish Crimetime Award. There are now four titles in the ‘Moonwind’ series published in Sweden.