Fifteen-year-old Angie is plagued by a series of horrifying nightmares before heading off on a Christmas holiday with her cousins, twins Michael and Sarah, and their grandfather, who is taking them to his ancestral home in Iceland. Before long, nightmares give way to all-too-real encounters with creatures that seem to be coming to life from the old Norse myths and Icelandic sagas that Grandpa Thurston has been regaling them with for as long as they can remember. Angie and her cousins come face to face with a malevolent shape-shifting “ulf-madr,” the Loki wolf, out to wreak revenge on Grandpa Thurston.

The third novel in Arthur Slade’s Northern Frights series neatly intertwines stories from Icelandic sagas and Norse mythology with an exciting, action-packed mystery adventure. Slade is certainly at his best in The Loki Wolf, creating a thoroughly gripping story that will entice readers – especially boys – into the world of dark magic at the heart of Norse mythology and his fiction. He also includes a helpful glossary and list of books for readers interested in the mythology.

Where the novel runs into problems is with characterization. In three books, the characters haven’t grown significantly despite their encounters with some pretty fierce ghouls. Slade just hasn’t given readers any reason to attach themselves to these characters at the centre of the series. The Loki Wolf is a certain winner when it comes to telling a great story. Perhaps in Slade’s next novel he’ll also give readers a reason to care about the characters he’s created.