The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen

Happy Wednesday! The week is halfway over. Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Antti Tuomainen's latest, The Winter Job. 

All Ilmari Nieminen wants to to buy his daughter a piano for Christmas. With six days to go, his wages as a postal worker in 1982 Helsinki aren't near enough to make the purchase. So he takes a small, last-minute gig, requiring him to take time off from his job, transporting an antique couch across Finland. 

But Ilmari isn't the only one with eyes on this job or this couch. He's being tracked by a Saab and a Lada and the people inside each have their own agendas. 

Ilmari's own vehicle has issues from the start and a fortuitous stop to tackle some repairs not only helps him elude his followers (unbeknownst to him) but also puts him in the path of a friend from long ago who joins him on his journey. 

Antti is known for his humor and heart. There's a reason Steve Carrell is attached to an adaptation of his work Rabbit Factory.

The Winter Job continues that tradition in what is essentially a buddy road trip crime novel. 

Poor Ilmari is so bright eyed and full of hope. The reader wants him to succeed because his motivations are pure: to please his daughter in the wake of his divorce. But he has no money. It's all going to child support and rent. Which is why the job of transporting a couch is impossible to resist. 

 But this isn't an ordinary job from the start. The antique dealer responsible for passing over the couch (and securing the van Ilmari will be using) is only out for himself and tries to trick Ilmari. And the job only fell into Ilmari's lap because the first guy got sick. Ilmari has no idea what is so special about this couch. He has no idea he's being tracked. And he has no idea the lengths the others will go to in order to take it all for themselves. 

Meanwhile, he's thrown into a confrontation with an old friend that's been years in the making as the two men travel cross country. Needless to say, in Tuomainen style, hijinks ensue well beyond just faulty windshield wipers and crazy old aunts. 

This is a perfect addition to Tuomainen's growing list of titles. A great starting place for readers who are new to his work as well.

(This would be a great holiday crime movie, to anyone out there with the power to make it happen!)

Huge thanks to Random Things and Orenda for having me on the tour today!

Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson Anniversary Edition

Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for the 10th anniversary edition of Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind!

Ari Thorne is fresh out of the academy when he's sent to the isolated town of Siglufjörður. It means leaving his girlfriend behind in Reykjavik. It also means settling into a village that has just one point of entry: a tunnel. And in storms and bad weather, even that is cut off. A call about an intruder leads Ari into a web of intertwined cases that illustrate just how much can be hiding even in the most idyllic situations. 

But first, readers are treated to Fadeout. See, Snowblind isn't Ari's introduction. Fadeout finds the theology student searching for his missing father!

It's amazing to me that Snowblind has been out for over a decade now (ten years in English). It kicked off the Nordic Noir sub genre, as it is today. 

And sure, it wasn't the first to be translated to English. It wasn't THE FIRST of the subgenre. But it absolutely can be argued as one of the first that really got international readers to pay attention.

And Snowblind boasts some of the best hallmarks of Nordic Noir: a small, isolated village; insular culture; a whodunit where anyone could be the killer; and a detective new on the job looking for respite in a small town and getting anything but that!

I actually came to the Dark Iceland series after Hidden Iceland trilogy (now adapted for tv). I've been a fan of the author's work ever since. And in truth, the subgenre has got me through 2020 when I had such a hard time concentrating on reading. 

If you've never read Jonasson, this is your chance! Find out what all the fuss is about (trust me, you'll love it!).

Huge thanks to Orenda and Random Things for having me on the tour!

Darker Days by Thomas Old Heuvelt

Good morning! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Thomas Old Heuvelt's Darker Days!

Bird Street might seem like the perfect neighborhood. The kids are talented--prodigies event, the families seem perfect...but all is not as it seems on this idyllic street. See the residents made a deal. A deal that requires a death. A deal that turns their lives into nightmares every November. A deal that begs the question, is it worth it?

Ha! So first off, I love Thomas Old Heuvelt. His ability to dig into the meat of human fears, human feelings as a whole, is something that sticks with me every time I read his work. 

Second, I don't trust anyone on Bird Street! At least not the adults.

It's a street made up of just five houses. Five families. And the kids are affected the most by the deal these families have made. Because in November they go feral. I don't have a better way to describe it. We know from the start that the kids go on lockdown after Halloween. We know at least one has been hospitalized in recent years. And we know that this behavior is not the norm for these kids. 

We also know they're aware of it and they're exceptionally privileged the rest of the year!

It's not giving too much away to say this is a play on Faust. It's in the description. And yet it's not limited to just one person. It's the whole street. Five households colluding to manipulate fate or whatever may be in order to prosper and get their way. At the risk of everyone around them. See, I don't trust them! Because people willing to make deals with the devil...well, you'll find out what kind of people they are when you read. 

I loved Darker Days. It's told in part from the kids' perspectives, which gives it a shadow of coming-of-age feel, something I very much appreciate. And it balances out the adults' perspectives as well, giving the reader a chance to see who's really getting the short end of the stick. 

I don't want to spoil it in any way though. If you like horror about the human condition you should definitely pick this one up. And if this is your introduction to Thomas Old Heuvelt then congrats! You have a fun ride ahead of you!

Huge thanks to Random Things and PRH UK for having me on the tour!

Darker Days is out now in the UK and will be out shortly in the US.