Washington Post 10 Best Mystery Novels of 2024
"...When Serafino is assigned to a team probing the killing of two U.S. Navy officers, she’s thrust into a terrifying web of corruption, violence and murder. Heider, a physicist who lived in Naples for several years, has produced a page-turner of a debut mystery novel."
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2024
" Former Navy analyst Heider parlays her experience in the service into an expert thriller that follows U.S. military police investigator Nikki Serafino as she probes the murders of two American sailors in Italy. Though the whodunit is tense and complicated in all the right ways, it’s Heider’s portrait of Nikki—in particular, her home life and her ambivalent feelings about U.S. imperialism—that sets this apart."
New York Times Book Review
“May the Wolf Die…bowled me over with its descriptions of Naples — seedy, beautiful, baroque — and the trials and tribulations of its main character, Nikki Serafino.”
Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
“Heider delivers an intricate and impressive debut…Nikki, in particular, jumps off the page, with her struggles as a woman in law enforcement vividly highlighted. Toss in a pulse-pounding climax, and Heider has a promising potential series on her hands.”
NYT Editor Sara Weinman's BEST CRIME FICTION OF THE YEAR (SOFAR)
"Naples — seedy, beautiful, baroque — is the backdrop for this searing debut novel about an investigator working as a liaison between Italian police and the American military. Nikki Serafino, “short and compact and muscular with a dynamic, interesting face,” deals with misogynistic male colleagues while investigating not one but two murders."
Kirkus
“The Neapolitan setting and the details of underwater investigation give Heider’s debut an offbeat and entertaining gloss…A lively procedural with a high-powered heroine and a setting that would be idyllic if not for those murders.”
Criminal Element
“May the Wolf Die is a brilliant thriller, cleverly crafted and unpredictable.”
Sun Sentinel
“[An] energetic, labyrinthine police procedural. Heider invests her debut with a strong sense of place with complicated, believable characters and authentic details…Heider is off to an impressive start in her new series with May the Wolf Die.”
Best Thriller Books
" May the Wolf Die is filled with layers of secrets and nefarious characters. The stage has been set for several more books in what will be an unforgettable series."
Dervla McTiernan
“An intriguing mystery, a smart central character to root for, gorgeous setting, and authentic detail. This tense and brooding debut is everything crime fiction should be.”
Townlift News
" The author’s background spans physics, military analysis, and space research. She holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Utah and a PhD from Tufts University. Her career includes work with the European Space Agency’s Human Spaceflight program and her current role as a program manager for Microsoft’s AI4Science program in the Netherlands."
Deseret News
" As a civilian analyst for the U.S. Navy, Heider spent three years in Naples, Italy, which is the backdrop in Heider’s debut novel “May the Wolf Die,” a captivating mystery and Heider’s debut book that was released in July through Penguin Publishing."
U of U Alumni Magazine
"...after completing her degree at the University of Utah, she worked as a deployed civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy, including three years stationed in Naples. Her work took her to 15 African countries, saw her training troops in Senegal, Gabon, and Cameroon, and even lecturing at INTERPOL headquarters in France."