The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen - Blog Tour Review

As always I'm extremely happy to be part of an Orenda Books blog tour and I was exited to be able to read Antti Tuomainen's next book The Man Who Died after  thoroughly enjoying his book The Mine (my review for that is here). 

The Man Who Died

A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he’s dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists.

My Review

I could not put this book down! Such a cleverly written book and a really interesting concept. Jaakko finds out that he is dying from a slow acting poison and so he decides to try and find out who is killing him. I like the idea of the victim solving their own murder. As Jaakko isn't in the detective business, he's a mushroom exporter, he has no idea how to go about figuring it out and this leads to all sorts of situations that he shouldn't have got himself into. 

Jaakko is an interesting character and I enjoyed watching his journey of emotions, his paranoia that it could be anyone and the determination to find out who the culprit is and save his hard earned company from them. He discovers things about the people around him that he never knew and it all adds to the mystery of what has been happening to him. 

The translation is excellent and the words flow and it feels very much like it was written in English to start off with. I also have to take a moment to actually mention the cover of The Man Who Died as I think it is absolutely stunning and extremely eye catching. 

There are twists and turns throughout the story and each one kept me hooked as I just needed to know who had been poisoning Jaakko and why. I ended up devouring The Man Who Died in one sitting as I didn't want to surface until I knew what had happened. As always with crime novels, I don't like to go into the plot too much as I would hate to ever spoil something for someone wanting to read it themselves. 

Overall an excellent book and one which I will recommend with gousto. 

I gave this book 5 stars. 

About The Author

Finnish Antti Tuomainen (b. 1971) was an award-winning copywriter in the advertising industry before he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The critically acclaimed Veljeni vartija (My Brother's Keeper) was published two years later. In 2011 Tuomainen's third novel, Parantaja (The Healer), was awarded the Clue Award for 'Best Finnish Crime Novel 2011'. Thus emerged a bright new star in the field of crime and noir. The Finnish press labeled Parantaja – the story of a writer who is desperately searching for his missing wife in a post-apocalyptic Helsinki – as "unputdownable". With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen is one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula. Antti Tuomainen lives in Helsinki.

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

The Mine by Antti Tuomainen - Review - The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour

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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