Welcome to my stop on this Blog Tour for THE MAN WHO DIED – the lastest novel from the rather excellent
I would like to say that I am blown away to be invited onto this blog tour! Particular thanks to Anne Cater, Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books and of course the ever awesome Antti Tuomainen who gifted me an early copy of THE MAN WHO DIED. I am forever grateful and promise that the review below is 100% honest and of my own views.
To kick off, we have the “blurb” for the book;
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. With a nod to Fargo and the best elements of the Scandinavian noir tradition,
The Man Who Died is a page-turning thriller brimming with the blackest comedy surrounding life and death, and love and betrayal, markinng a stunning new departure for the King of Helsinki Noir
So, you want to know what I think?
I’ve already fallen in love with Antti as a human being. A pretty awesome, lovable human being at that! So I was a little worried when I picked up THE MAN WHO DIED as I kept thinking “what if I don’t like it? Even though I love the author himself?’ I needn’t have worried though…. THE MAN WHO DIED blew every expectation I had about this book out of the water.
The first thing I wasn’t expecting from this book was the level of dark humour at play throughout. It is a unique take on a story which has a pretty serious undertone to it. Having something different about this book made me want to turn the pages as quickly as I could to see whether this momentum could be kept.
Antti has a beautiful way of writing characters that get the reader invested from page one. From that first page, we are drawn into Jaakko’s life and we feel so much emotion about his situation and how he will try and get himself out of it.
Mirroring the views of other bloggers, the ending scene of this book is, in simple terms – perfection! Written perfectly, the plot comes to a head and we get ‘the final showdown’ as such with some of our central characters. It is one of those scenes that will stay with you forever!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to see THE MAN WHO DIED turned into a feature length film. It has everything you would want from a slightly comedic crimw story
