The Wolves Are Watching by Victoria Houston

Victoria Houston’s The Wolves Are Watching continues her Lew Ferris mystery series by blending rural suspense with crime intrigue. Set in early September, in way the hell up nort' Wisconsin, the story kicks off with a high school aged member of a competitive fishing team (hey, it's northern Wisconsin, what do you expect?) who is being coerced by a stranger threatening his family—pushing him into murky waters both literally and figuratively and throw the tournament. The kid takes off into the nearby woods, sleeps under the unblinking gaze of wolves.

The story revolves primarily around Sheriff Lew (for Llewellyn)  Ferris and her deputy/ace tracker, Ray Pradt. The boy’s father seeks help plunging Ray and Lew way deeper into a world foreign to the northwoods and certainly worse than trying to get a kid to purposefully lose in a blackmail scheme. The woods are alive with illegal betting, arms dealing, and a wicked web of corruption.

If a story is set in northern Wisconsin, the author better be skilled at presenting the environment as well as the characters. The isolated woods, flickering campfires, and sense of being watched lend the story real tension. The wolves are more than wildlife. They are symbolic predators, lending weight to the very real human dangers while not being to involved in human shortcomings. Houston manages to weave crime, rural suspense, and uncanny wildlife imagery in the later fall of Wisconsin. 

Two plots are evident—illegal sports betting on one side and a mysterious disappearance of a retired couple on another—keeps the stakes high. Lew Ferris is a grounded, no-nonsense sheriff, both competent and vulnerable.

The book is fairly compact as most novels go these days. Some of the criminal threads and secondary characters seem underdeveloped and the extent of the gambling and arms dealing could've been more developed. 

Nonetheless, The Wolves Are Watching is a decent mystery, especially for fans of stories based up in the Northland. 

Thanks to the good folks at Netgalley who provide reviewer copies in exchange for an unbiased review.

publication date: February 26, 2026