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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The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto - Review - The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour

I am extremely excited to be a part of The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour, introducing two Finnish authors to more English readers. 

My first blog post today is a review of The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto. 

The Exiled 

Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe. How long will it take before everything explodes? Chilling, taut and relevant, The Exiled is an electrifying thriller from one of Finland’s most celebrated crime writers.

Review

The Exiled is the third book in the Anna Fekete series, but I can genuinely say that if it's read as a stand alone, it wouldn't affect your reading experience. 

The story follows Anna, who is supposed to be on holiday in her home town but she gets drawn into investigating the death of the thief who stole her handbag when she thinks that it is not being looked into properly by the local police force. 

I really liked Anna and I felt that this story was as much about her and her growth as the murder investigation. She really learns more about herself as the case brings up things that are hard for her to think or talk about. She also grows in her relationships with both her friends and her family which is really good to see. I also thought that the other characters were extremely well written and each had their own personality. 

The story itself was really well written and was really interesting, I didn't want to put the book down as I needed to know what happened. I really was kept guessing until the end to figure out who did what and why!

There are a lot of quite important and relevant topics covered in this book too, mainly about refugees and people trafficking. The book covers how countries and the public see these people coming through where they live, with extremely differing views. It's definitely very brave to touch upon these subjects, but I think that they have been covered very well by the author. 

I also have to mention the translation for this book to me seems really good. Reading it, you can't tell that it wasn't originally written in English. The only give aways are the use of Finnish here and there. 

Overall an excellent book and one I have already recommended to people. I will also be looking forward to more books by Kati Hiekkapelto. 

I gave this book 5 stars.

About The Author

Kati is an international crime writer, punk singer and performance artist. Kolibri (The Hummingbird) was published in Finland by Otava in 2013 and Suojattomat (The Defenceless) in 2014. To date, they have been translated into seven languages. The Hummingbird was shortlisted for the Petrona Award in the UK in 2015 and The Defenceless won the prize for the best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year 2014. The Defenceless was one of the top ten bestselling books in Finland last year, across all genres.

Kati Hiekkapelto

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