My second post today as part of The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour is a review of The Mine by Antti Tuomainan.
The Mine
In the dead of winter, investigative reporter Janne Vuori sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company, whose illegal activities have created an environmental disaster in a small town in Northern Finland. When the company’s executives begin to die in a string of mysterious accidents, and Janne’s personal life starts to unravel, past meets present in a catastrophic series of events that could cost him his life. A traumatic story of family, a study in corruption, and a shocking reminder that secrets from the past can return to haunt us, with deadly results.
Review
There's two stories being followed in The Mine which eventually cross over and I have to say, each story was just as interesting as the other. The main story follows Janne, a hard working journalist with a partner and young daughter. He is sent some information to get him interested in a possible story as he is quite a well known advocate for green living. This information leads him and people he knows into danger.
I really didn't like Janne as a person, but I'm not really sure if I was supposed to. He is extremely selfish and single minded and he puts work in front of his personal life and his daughter. Not liking him though didn't change my want to find out what is going on and willing him on in his investigation. That to me is a sign of an excellent author, that even though I didn't like the main character, I still wanted to continue reading.
The second story follows that of a mysterious hitman who is living a very lonely life and is questioning the things he has done and is doing. You learn more and more about him as the story goes along and I ended up routing for him and really hoping that he got what he wanted from his life.
The world building is really good in this book and I really felt the cold that Janna was feeling when he was in the north. I could just picture the snow and hear the silence due to the fact no one was around. It was extremely atmospheric.
More important and current topics are covered in this book as it touches on environmental activists and the damage that we as humans are doing to the world. It was very cleverly done and showed different ways that people go about raising awareness.
Overall a great book and another one I have already been recommending.
I gave this book 5 stars.
About The Author
Finnish Antti Tuomainen (b. 1971) was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The critically acclaimed My Brother’s Keeper was published two years later. In 2011 Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for ‘Best Finnish Crime Novel of 2011’ and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. The Finnish press labelled The Healer – the story of a writer desperately searching for his missing wife in a post-apocalyptic Helsinki – ‘unputdownable’. Two years later in 2013 they crowned Tuomainen ‘The King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen is one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula.
Antti Tuomainen
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