Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen has finally restored order both to his life and to YouMeFun, the adventure park he now owns, when a man from the past appears – and turns everything upside down again. More problems arise when the park’s equipment supplier is taken over by a shady trio, with confusing demands. Why won’t Toy of Finland Ltd sell the new Moose Chute to Henri when he needs it as the park’s main attraction?
Meanwhile, Henri’s relationship with artist Laura has reached breaking point, and, in order to survive this new chaotic world, he must push every calculation to its limits, before it’s too late.
Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author Iin 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. Little Siberia (2020), was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The Rabbit Factor (2021), the first book in Antti’s first ever series, is in production by Amazon Studios with Steve Carell starring. The Moose Paradox, book two in the series is out in 2022.
This book doesn’t let up for a minute. It’s thrilling, it’s funny, full of heart and darkness. You can feel Henri’s anxiety at the things he must calculate and the things he has learned to try and not wonder at, because they aren’t logical to him. Simple things to everyone else bemuse Henri. While they’re sometimes sad, sometimes touching the humour leaks from every page.
Henri is in turns a person you want to hug or protect, and throttle! As in it’s predecessor The Rabbit Factor, it’s fast, furious, funny and forever moving at a heart stopping pace. In the first few chapters things are already turned on their head for Henri and the way he manages to get himself out of these situations is ingenious and will make you cry with laughter. This is not belittling the crime or thriller elements at all. It just means suspend belief slightly, and then you will see what can really happen!
Partially I think I love this series so much is because there’s a little Henri in us all. Those moments of extreme humour to us, stress to Henri that makes you think ‘that’s the sort of thing that would happen to me!’ Though never quite as extremely as they do to Henri! Then you thank your lucky stars. If this book does not grab you by the throat, whirl you around and have you convulsed laughing I’m not sure what will. Henri seems to lurch from disaster to disaster, and he picks up every conman or crook as he does so. His choices are dubious and he works so differently to everyone else that trouble is around every corner. He’s like a human trouble magnet. As such he makes for an addictive read.
With thanks to Anne Cater, Orenda Books and the author for the advanced reading copy of this book.
Books’n’banter 