The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen - Blog Tour Review

 

Today on Life Of A Nerdish Mum I'm so happy to be back in the warm embrace of an Orenda Books and Random Things book tour! 

I am kicking off the tour for The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen with my review. 

The Rabbit Factor

An insurance mathematician’s carefully ordered life is turned on its head when he unexpectedly loses his job and inherits an adventure park … with a whole host of problems. A quirky, tense and warmly funny thriller from award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen.

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets…

My Review 

Going in to reading The Rabbit Factor I already knew that I would enjoy the writing style as I have read and enjoy Antti Tuomainen's writing before. It didn't disappoint and his clever sense of humour shone through this smoothly written book. 

As there is a mystery to the story, I won't be talking too much about the plot line. However I would be remiss if I didn't mention how incredibly well woven the tale was and the pacing of the writing matched what was happening during each chapter. It wasn't a heart pounding race to the end, and that really worked with developing the character of Henri and the background of the adventure park (not amusement park). 

Henri is truly wonderful and I found very likeable. The way he tries to deal with things so logically and that while it occasionally works, he shows so much growth throughout the book and develops a wider range of methods. He shows both through his dealing with out of the box situations and a romance that he's not what anyone, including himself, would expect. 

Overall an absolute pleasure to read and I'll definitely be continuing to read anything by Antti Tuomainen. I gave this book five stars. 

About The Author 

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’. His

latest thriller, Little Siberia, 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.

Don't Forget To Check Out The Rest Of The Tour 

A Very Alice Easter

 

Blackburn BID are hosting an Easter Wonderland Adventure and today kicked off the Easter and half term activities in the town centre.

The themed trails are always a huge hit with the kids and this Alice in Wonderland trail was most definitely one of the best ones we've been to. Because it was the first day, there were characters around who you could meet and intereact with. They also gave special words as clues to complete a phrase in the trail booklet. When this was completed, the kids both got an easter lolly for getting it right. 

We decided to visit all the characters first before going on the decorated egg hunt, the characters we met were...

Alice

We met Alice first and she was absolutely wonderful. She was in the Mall and was having a round of pin the smile on the Cheshire Cat with the kids. Thea put her smile on almost perfectly and Tristan made it look like it was wearing a hat. 

The Mad Hatter

We found the Mad Hatter down a rabbit hole in Mad Hatters Cupcakes and Tearooms. He was as mad as a box of frogs and had riddles for the kids to solve. Thea wasn't a big fan and left, but came back with the added bravery of a marshmellow lolly. Tristan thought he was brilliant and solved his riddle to get the word clue. 

The Queen of Hearts

My favourite character and costume! The Queen was outside of the cathedral and the kids managed to have a game of croquet with her without losing either of their heads! 

The King of Hearts

The King of Hearts was avoiding his wife and hiding out in Geek Retreat. He was busy playing memory games. I absolutely loved the giant cards and the kids were so happy finding pairs. 

The White Rabbit 

The White Rabbit was celebrating one of their many Un-Birthdays in the market. Thea decided she had a lot of Un-Birthdays too and both kids managed to solve the riddle for our last word clue. 

Once we'd met all the characters, we stopped for a bit of dinner and then went on the easter egg hunt. There are 9 eggs hidden around the town centre that have all been decorated by local schools. Each one has information about it and the answers to the questions in the trail booklet. Tristan's favourite thing to do is a treasure hunt/trail, so he was really happy using the map to figure out where all the eggs were. I got confused by the map and used the list of places instead! 

The egg hunt is on till the 16th of April and there's a chance to win £100 in vouchers if you fill in the trail booklet questions and hand back in at the Ask Me point in the Mall. There are also activites on daily which all look really fun, so I'm sure we'll be back another day to check them out.