THE SITE FOR DIE HARD CRIME & THRILLER FANS
FeaturesNews

First look: new from Finland

1 Mins read

DarkasmyHeart_firstlook_540_01You know that we’re crazy about cold climate crime here on Crime Fiction Lover, and in 2013 I was lucky enough not only to visit Finland but to do so just as I was reviewing Antti Tuomainen’s first crime novel The Healer. It was an icy January and I was in my element. Good fortune struck again in 2014 when I went to Iceland Noir and actually managed to meet the author. And now we’re three times lucky because his latest book has landed on the Welcome mat here at CFL HQ. Dark As My Heart is the title, and I can’t wait to get started.

As endings go, The Healer was pretty dark, and going by the title alone it looks as though Dark As My Heart will continue in the same vein. It’s a story of vengeance as a man called Aleksi decides to find out who killed his mother 20 years ago. He thinks he knows who’s responsible – the wealthy Henrik Saarinen.

Aleksi becomes obsessed with his quest to find out whether or not Saarinen did it and in doing so is drawn close to the man’s daughter and the Saarinen family’s dark secrets. Needless to say, this puts him in danger and the press release likens it to James Ellroy’s My Dark Places, a Greek tragedy and a Hitchcockian mystery. We’ll have to find out when we review it. Hopefully we’ll get to see the cop Jaatinen from The Healer again… who knows.

The author is an acclaimed poet and his first crime novel won the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel from the Finnish Crime Society. It’s on sale 1 October at £12.99 as a paperback and £5.49 for Kindle. Pre-order yours here.

DarkasmyHeart_firstlook_540_02
Darkasmyheart_firstlook_540_03


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related posts
Features

Prisoner – the Danish crime drama comes to BBC Four

The Killing star Sofie Gräbøl returns to our screens, swapping the knitwear for a prison-issue blue shirt in Prisoner, which begins airing on BBC Four at 9pm on Saturday 24 February 2024. It’s a crime show where the perpetrators are already in prison – but…
KindlePrintReviews

Blood on the Broadcast by SDW Hamilton

There’s religious strife brewing in Belfast, but it’s not what you might expect. A group known as the Followers of Eden have been operating in and around the city for years, although their power and influence have reached significant heights of late. Led by shadily…
KindlePrintReviews

The Dancer by Óskar Guðmundsson

Translated by Quentin Bates — The Dancer is Icelandic author Óskar Guðmundsson’s second book translated into English, following The Commandments in 2021. It’s a fast-paced psychological thriller linked to the world of dance. Tony has trained as a dancer since childhood with lessons from his…
Crime Fiction Lover