I reviewed The Rabbit Factor and loved it, you can find my review here, so it made perfect sense to review the next book when the opportunity arose. Many thanks to Orenda Books and Anne Cater for having me on the tour and sending me a copy of the book to review.
The Book: 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.
The Review: I don’t know where to start with this review. The story essentially starts with Henri being happy that the adventure park (from The Rabbit Factor) is running well and all the invoices, admin, etc is up to date and correct. Being a mathematician he likes things being in order, so unexpected changes of the kind he is going to face in the rest of the story, are a challenge for him.
There are a few parts to this story, an unexpected visitor, Toy of Finland making strange demands, outside parties getting unexpectedly involved, Henri’s relationship with Laura and, of course, the park itself. These parts are present through pretty much the entire story and it could get confusing but it doesn’t. While it’s clear that Henri doesn’t understand what is happening (any by extension neither did I), none of the parts of the story itself became muddled.
Henri is a brilliant character. He’s serious, unintentionally funny, likes his routines and is a great boss as he cares about his staff and the adventure park. While he isn’t the best at dealing with challenges, his approach and belief in maths actually has me thinking that perhaps his approach is correct, and its everyone else who is wrong. Perhaps if we all used more logic and less emotion the world would look quite different.
Anyway, the book itself is brilliant. It’s funny without trying to be funny, and it makes you think. For example what would you do in this situation, what is actually going on, why are these things happening and why can’t Henri get the Moose Chute. The descriptions are also spot on, they bring everything to life, which means it does get quite dramatic at times. It is honestly a fabulous read and I hope these is more to come.
The Author:
Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author in 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 now.
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