Status
Available
Call number
Publication
[Helsinki] : Helsinki-kirjat, 2010
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: It's two days before Christmas, and Helsinki is battling ruthless climate catastrophe: subway tunnels are flooded; abandoned vehicles are burning in the streets. People are fleeing to the far north where conditions are still tolerable. Social order is crumbling and private security firms have undermined the police force. Tapani Lehtinen, a struggling poet, is among the few still willing to live in the city. When Tapani's wife, Johanna, a journalist, goes missing, he embarks on a frantic hunt for her. Johanna's disappearance seems to be connected to a story she was researching about a serial killer known as "The Healer". Determined to find Johanna, Tapani's search leads him to uncover secrets from her past�secrets that connect her to the very murders she was investigating. Atmospheric and moving, The Healer is a story of survival, loyalty and determination. Even when the world is coming to an end, love and hope endure..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ebyrne41
This is a crime book with a difference: it is set in the not-too-distant future where climate change is wreaking havoc and society is breaking down, indeed already largely has. It is also set in a city not often featured in (crime) books I come across, namely Helsinki, a city I have visited, so my
Though the constant downpour ensures that the setting is gloomy, this book is far from so. The plot is conventional enough, but well constructed. This is not a fast-paced book, but it does build to a nice climactic ending. As another reviewer said, “nothing happens very fast”. It is well written (and translated), Antti Tuomainen’s largely simple prose style is a plus and adds much to the atmosphere. Indeed the atmosphere, and the vision of the future are probably its strongest aspects; a world ravaged by major climatic change, a city and society in decline, lawlessness, hunger, distrust, a constant gloom, a dystopia. It does tickle your imagination this. It has been well received since it was first published, winning the Best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2011, and is the first of Tuomainen's novels to be translated into English. I think we can look forward to his next.
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curiosity was raised somewhat. But if I had hoped for some sense of place, some sense of familiarity, then that hope was certain to be quashed a little, as by the very nature of the story the city and the society have been greatly altered by the climatic catastrophe (in Helsinki’s case, mostly in the form of torrential rain) that has engulfed the world. As much as I gleamed from it was familiarity with some place-names and locations I recognised as struggling poet Tapani traveled the city in search of his journalist wife Johanna who had gone missing. But that is where the familiarity largely ended. In his attempts to find Johanna, Tapani has to contend with vigilante-type local security groups who operate largely in the absence of law and order, and some shady and dangerous characters, none more so than the serial killer known as ‘The Healer’ with whom Johanna’s disappearance, while investigating a series of murders, seems to be inextricably tied up. In his search Tapani discovers things about Johanna, about her past life, that he was never aware of. Though the constant downpour ensures that the setting is gloomy, this book is far from so. The plot is conventional enough, but well constructed. This is not a fast-paced book, but it does build to a nice climactic ending. As another reviewer said, “nothing happens very fast”. It is well written (and translated), Antti Tuomainen’s largely simple prose style is a plus and adds much to the atmosphere. Indeed the atmosphere, and the vision of the future are probably its strongest aspects; a world ravaged by major climatic change, a city and society in decline, lawlessness, hunger, distrust, a constant gloom, a dystopia. It does tickle your imagination this. It has been well received since it was first published, winning the Best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2011, and is the first of Tuomainen's novels to be translated into English. I think we can look forward to his next.
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LibraryThing member greydoll
Soon it will be Christmas in Helsinki. Every day brings rain and it is cold. This is a world where the climate is changing, the Arctic melting and the waters rising. Those who can afford to are moving further north as the streets of the coastal towns flood. In turn, the homes that they leave are
Poet Tapani Lehtinen is worried about his journalist wife, Johanna. The last call he had from her was about her search for a serial killer who dubs himself "The Healer". She was setting out, with her paper's photographer, for some kind of meeting but Tapani has heard nothing since. Her phone is unanswered. This isn't like Johanna, Tapani and Johanna keep in touch all the time. But Tapani knows that the police will or can do very little. If anyone finds Johanna - it has to be him....
For fans of Nordic Noir with roots in societal change, this book moves that change into Tuomainen's brilliantly imagined flooded future. This is not a story of a cataclysmic event, but a crime story set in the decline and disintegration brought about by the effects of climate change. It is also a love story. A story about the lengths that a man whose faith in his and his wife's mutual love will go in order to find her. But as Tapani uncovers more about the killer and about Johanna's life before their marriage, the story ups its pace. Gripping, violent, suspenseful and ultimately a moving story.
The unabridged audiobook of "The Healer" - well narrated by Simon Shepherd - is a great atmospheric listen.
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taken over by immigrants from even further south, those lands and cities already under water. Finnish social structure is crumbling. The police are underfunded and understaffed. Private security firms rule the streets....Poet Tapani Lehtinen is worried about his journalist wife, Johanna. The last call he had from her was about her search for a serial killer who dubs himself "The Healer". She was setting out, with her paper's photographer, for some kind of meeting but Tapani has heard nothing since. Her phone is unanswered. This isn't like Johanna, Tapani and Johanna keep in touch all the time. But Tapani knows that the police will or can do very little. If anyone finds Johanna - it has to be him....
For fans of Nordic Noir with roots in societal change, this book moves that change into Tuomainen's brilliantly imagined flooded future. This is not a story of a cataclysmic event, but a crime story set in the decline and disintegration brought about by the effects of climate change. It is also a love story. A story about the lengths that a man whose faith in his and his wife's mutual love will go in order to find her. But as Tapani uncovers more about the killer and about Johanna's life before their marriage, the story ups its pace. Gripping, violent, suspenseful and ultimately a moving story.
The unabridged audiobook of "The Healer" - well narrated by Simon Shepherd - is a great atmospheric listen.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
At some point in the future climate change has had the devastating environmental impact scientists have warned us about for years and in Helsinki the social order has all but collapsed as those who can afford to flee north, and those remaining fight each other over housing, food, jobs or for no
If, like me, you’re all ‘serial killered out’ have no fear: this novel is barely about the killer at all. It’s not even really about the attempt to find and stop him. To me it’s a story about a man’s love for his wife and his need to hold on to that one thing while the world he has known collapses. And given that I am the least romantic person on the planet it’s a bit of a surprise then that I liked the book so very, very much.
One of the many things I adored about this book is its length. At under 250 pages it’s almost a short story in comparison to the doorstop-sized tomes being published these days but I’m not just happy to have come across a book that didn’t require weightlifting skills to read it. I truly believe it takes more talent to write with brevity and conciseness, especially when you still manage to produce as a thoroughly satisfying novel as someone who has double the word count at their disposal. And the writing here is incredibly good, each word imbued with heft and meaning, nothing extraneous. I imagine it’s difficult enough to produce a beautifully written book in one language. To turn someone else’s words into beauty in a second language must be infinitely harder and so I am truly humbled by Lola Rogers’ contribution as translator.
The characters are another striking feature of the novel. Tapani is a poet (though he’s the first to admit an unsuccessful one) whose life is given structure and direction by the process of writing. He is therefore in some ways the classic fish out of water when he is forced to dive into the physical world of investigation, though some of his the skills he uses in his work, such as a deep reservoir of patience, serve him well in his new role too. He makes new connections too including an African cab driver who has come to the city because it offers more opportunities than his homeland and a policeman who has lost access to virtually all the usual tools of his job due to the crumbling economy and social structure but has, oddly I suppose, retained his integrity. These two and several other people Tapani meets along the way help build a delicate hope that a future society burdened by the product of our shortcomings will not entirely have lost its humanity.
It’s not all romance and poetry though, there’s a first-class tale of suspense told too as Tapani goes after any lead, however insubstantial or tangential it appears. As he talks to her boss, her best friend and others he learns things he never knew about his wife’s past which helps to narrow down what has happened in her present. At the same time he reflects on their shared history and these flashbacks, short and sparsely written though they may be, are utterly gorgeous in the simple way they depict the couple’s love.
Although it’s a relatively minor theme here I can’t help but be struck by how often the changing nature of the media crops up as a theme in the European fiction I read. Liza Marklund, Thomas Enger and Stieg Larsson have all written stories which rail passionately against the modern trend towards populism over ‘real’ journalism. Tuomainen also addresses this theme such as when Johanna’s boss explains to Tapani the crux of the problem
Then I’ve got reporters like, for instance, Johanna, who want to tell the people the truth. And I’m always asking them, what fucking truth? And they never have a good answer. All they say is that people should know. And I ask, but do they want to know. And more importantly, do they want to pay to know?.
Indeed.
It’s difficult to explain how a book set in a deteriorating world in which it is almost constantly raining and where a serial killer is at large can be uplifting but THE HEALER is somehow life-affirming and beautiful despite its grim demeanour. Perhaps it’s the presence of a poet in the pages (for even unsuccessful poets have, I think, a different kind of soul than the rest of us) but somehow Tuomainen has written a sad but hopeful book that was an absolute treat to read. Highly recommended, and not just to crime fans.
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reason at all. Johanna Lehtinen is a journalist who has been contacted by someone calling themselves The Healer who has claimed responsibility for a series of murders of prominent people whose common trait is that they are, in the killer’s eyes, especially responsible for the environmental degradation everyone is living with. Johanna is determined to track down this vicious killer even without the help of the resource-depleted police. Three days before Christmas in this unspecified future year Johanna disappears along with the photographer who was on assignment with her. Her husband,Tapani, is bereft but becomes single-minded in his quest to find his wife, alive and healthy.If, like me, you’re all ‘serial killered out’ have no fear: this novel is barely about the killer at all. It’s not even really about the attempt to find and stop him. To me it’s a story about a man’s love for his wife and his need to hold on to that one thing while the world he has known collapses. And given that I am the least romantic person on the planet it’s a bit of a surprise then that I liked the book so very, very much.
One of the many things I adored about this book is its length. At under 250 pages it’s almost a short story in comparison to the doorstop-sized tomes being published these days but I’m not just happy to have come across a book that didn’t require weightlifting skills to read it. I truly believe it takes more talent to write with brevity and conciseness, especially when you still manage to produce as a thoroughly satisfying novel as someone who has double the word count at their disposal. And the writing here is incredibly good, each word imbued with heft and meaning, nothing extraneous. I imagine it’s difficult enough to produce a beautifully written book in one language. To turn someone else’s words into beauty in a second language must be infinitely harder and so I am truly humbled by Lola Rogers’ contribution as translator.
The characters are another striking feature of the novel. Tapani is a poet (though he’s the first to admit an unsuccessful one) whose life is given structure and direction by the process of writing. He is therefore in some ways the classic fish out of water when he is forced to dive into the physical world of investigation, though some of his the skills he uses in his work, such as a deep reservoir of patience, serve him well in his new role too. He makes new connections too including an African cab driver who has come to the city because it offers more opportunities than his homeland and a policeman who has lost access to virtually all the usual tools of his job due to the crumbling economy and social structure but has, oddly I suppose, retained his integrity. These two and several other people Tapani meets along the way help build a delicate hope that a future society burdened by the product of our shortcomings will not entirely have lost its humanity.
It’s not all romance and poetry though, there’s a first-class tale of suspense told too as Tapani goes after any lead, however insubstantial or tangential it appears. As he talks to her boss, her best friend and others he learns things he never knew about his wife’s past which helps to narrow down what has happened in her present. At the same time he reflects on their shared history and these flashbacks, short and sparsely written though they may be, are utterly gorgeous in the simple way they depict the couple’s love.
Although it’s a relatively minor theme here I can’t help but be struck by how often the changing nature of the media crops up as a theme in the European fiction I read. Liza Marklund, Thomas Enger and Stieg Larsson have all written stories which rail passionately against the modern trend towards populism over ‘real’ journalism. Tuomainen also addresses this theme such as when Johanna’s boss explains to Tapani the crux of the problem
Then I’ve got reporters like, for instance, Johanna, who want to tell the people the truth. And I’m always asking them, what fucking truth? And they never have a good answer. All they say is that people should know. And I ask, but do they want to know. And more importantly, do they want to pay to know?.
Indeed.
It’s difficult to explain how a book set in a deteriorating world in which it is almost constantly raining and where a serial killer is at large can be uplifting but THE HEALER is somehow life-affirming and beautiful despite its grim demeanour. Perhaps it’s the presence of a poet in the pages (for even unsuccessful poets have, I think, a different kind of soul than the rest of us) but somehow Tuomainen has written a sad but hopeful book that was an absolute treat to read. Highly recommended, and not just to crime fans.
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LibraryThing member hairball
This is a very short book. I was disappointed by this when I received it, but relieved once I started reading; while this may be a function of the translation, the prose lacks flow, or appeal, or just something that's hard to put my finger upon--it seems sort of flat. There's a lot of telling, not
The Healer attempts to combine speculative fiction with mystery and, I suppose, social commentary/criticism. Climate change has finally taken its toll, in various ways, and everyone in the more southern parts of Europe is flocking North--way north, to Helsinki and beyond, where the geographic names (other than Helsinki) do not roll trippingly off the tongue. The main character's wife, a journalist (the last real journalist!) has disappeared! Oh woe! Is a larger plot at hand? There must be; he just knows something is wrong, and we know he knows, because he tells us, often. The police are overwhelmed, so he plays boy sleuth.
Observations:
1. Journalists must be really, really well-paid in Finland. The main character is a poet, and all he does is sit at home and write, while his wife does the bread-winning. Apparently, he's not had a job during their entire marriage.
2. Somehow, one can be married for a decade and know absolutely nothing about one's spouse's past. ("I never knew this about her, but why would she tell me? It happened before we met...") So what did they talk about for ten years?
The conclusion seemed quite rushed. And the plot quite contrived, considering it depended upon the husband knowing absolutely nothing about his wife (except their love, the color of her eyes, and that something was wrong). Apparently every single other person in their lives knew more about her than he did--and knew her longer than he did. The mystery/larger plot was meh.
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showing, is one way I might put it, even though that's not always a negative in a book.The Healer attempts to combine speculative fiction with mystery and, I suppose, social commentary/criticism. Climate change has finally taken its toll, in various ways, and everyone in the more southern parts of Europe is flocking North--way north, to Helsinki and beyond, where the geographic names (other than Helsinki) do not roll trippingly off the tongue. The main character's wife, a journalist (the last real journalist!) has disappeared! Oh woe! Is a larger plot at hand? There must be; he just knows something is wrong, and we know he knows, because he tells us, often. The police are overwhelmed, so he plays boy sleuth.
Observations:
1. Journalists must be really, really well-paid in Finland. The main character is a poet, and all he does is sit at home and write, while his wife does the bread-winning. Apparently, he's not had a job during their entire marriage.
2. Somehow, one can be married for a decade and know absolutely nothing about one's spouse's past. ("I never knew this about her, but why would she tell me? It happened before we met...") So what did they talk about for ten years?
The conclusion seemed quite rushed. And the plot quite contrived, considering it depended upon the husband knowing absolutely nothing about his wife (except their love, the color of her eyes, and that something was wrong). Apparently every single other person in their lives knew more about her than he did--and knew her longer than he did. The mystery/larger plot was meh.
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LibraryThing member bjbookman
The Healer by Antti Tuomainen
In this dystopian thriller of a world in chaos, The Healer, a serial killer was
thought to have die years ago. Poet Tapani Lehtinen's newspaper wife is sent on a story that maybe the healer is still alive. She does not return home. This is the story of Tapani's ordeal to
Tuomainen first chapter was brilliant. It really set the tone of the book for me, I felt I was living in Tapani's dystopian Helsinki, I could picture the streets, the weather, the hopelessness of the people, and what one has to do to survive.
I recommend this novel to fans of thrillers, noir crime, or anyone who wants a well written novel. I did enjoy this writer and his novel.
In this dystopian thriller of a world in chaos, The Healer, a serial killer was
thought to have die years ago. Poet Tapani Lehtinen's newspaper wife is sent on a story that maybe the healer is still alive. She does not return home. This is the story of Tapani's ordeal to
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find her. For three days he follows every lead and learns about his wife's past that was unknown to him.Tuomainen first chapter was brilliant. It really set the tone of the book for me, I felt I was living in Tapani's dystopian Helsinki, I could picture the streets, the weather, the hopelessness of the people, and what one has to do to survive.
I recommend this novel to fans of thrillers, noir crime, or anyone who wants a well written novel. I did enjoy this writer and his novel.
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LibraryThing member bfister
Set in Helsinki in a dystopian future, when global warming has advanced to the point that anyone who can afford it has moved north to heavily-fortified compounds, social services are failing in the face of crime, disease, and chaos, and the rain never stops, a poet is searching for his wife who has
The novel is not entirely successful as crime fiction.Our narrator is most definitely an amateur sleuth, though he has some of the trappings of the hardboiled PI. He stumbles upon clues, makes leaps that are based more on coincidence and convenience than detection, falls into fugue states where he reminisces about his relationship with Johanna.
The plot - the search for Johanna and her involvement with The Healer - is not the driving force of the novel. Rather, its the vision of a not-so-distant future in which a poet and a policeman have very little to sustain them other than a belief that they must go on, doing what they believe in. This is in contrast to The Healer, whose fanaticism is blind and violent.
In one passage, an angry character sketches out how the world got to such a terminal state. After a period of idealistic activism, the public mood turned to radicalism, followed by "disillusioned withdrawal ... that fight was won by big business--in other words, a few thousand people who were already superrich, who once again masked their own interests in the mantle of economic growth for the common good. The return to the old ways was echoed by the desire of a populace tired of momentary scarcity, of consuming less, to live like they had before: self-absorbed, greedy, and irresponsible--the way they'd always been taught to live."
In the end, both radical responses to environmental catastrophe and individualistic consumerism turn out to have more in common than Lehtinen's more modest belief in trying to do the right thing and in the power of his love for Johanna. There's something very likable about Lehtinen, who seems quintessentially Finnish in a Finland that has changed beyond recognition.
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disappeared while following a story. She's a journalist investigating a string of murders committed by a man who calls himself The Healer, who is targeting those who he believes are responsible for crimes against nature. Tapani Lehtinen is sure something bad has happened to Johanna, but he knows there is little the police can or will do. They are barely able to investigate homicides, much less missing persons. Yet Lehtinen is able to make an alliance of sorts with Harri Jaatinen, a tired police inspector who knows Johanna and thinks she was on to something. He gives Lehtinen what he knows about The Healer. Both of them are persistent in spite of having very little to give them hope. The novel is not entirely successful as crime fiction.Our narrator is most definitely an amateur sleuth, though he has some of the trappings of the hardboiled PI. He stumbles upon clues, makes leaps that are based more on coincidence and convenience than detection, falls into fugue states where he reminisces about his relationship with Johanna.
The plot - the search for Johanna and her involvement with The Healer - is not the driving force of the novel. Rather, its the vision of a not-so-distant future in which a poet and a policeman have very little to sustain them other than a belief that they must go on, doing what they believe in. This is in contrast to The Healer, whose fanaticism is blind and violent.
In one passage, an angry character sketches out how the world got to such a terminal state. After a period of idealistic activism, the public mood turned to radicalism, followed by "disillusioned withdrawal ... that fight was won by big business--in other words, a few thousand people who were already superrich, who once again masked their own interests in the mantle of economic growth for the common good. The return to the old ways was echoed by the desire of a populace tired of momentary scarcity, of consuming less, to live like they had before: self-absorbed, greedy, and irresponsible--the way they'd always been taught to live."
In the end, both radical responses to environmental catastrophe and individualistic consumerism turn out to have more in common than Lehtinen's more modest belief in trying to do the right thing and in the power of his love for Johanna. There's something very likable about Lehtinen, who seems quintessentially Finnish in a Finland that has changed beyond recognition.
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LibraryThing member es135
Ever since the massive success of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, translated to English from its original Swedish, there has been an increase in translated novels to the American marketplace. And while some of these foreign authors have really resonated with the American public, think Larsson
In the Healer, a novel by Finnish author Antti Tuomaninen, poet Tapani Lehtinen navigates a post-apocalyptic Helinski, in search of his missing wife, Johanna. Johanna is a journalist who works for a newspaper that is struggling to maintain its relevance in this strange new world. Immediately before here disappearance, she was investigating a serial killer known as "The Healer". The Healer is known for murdering prominent businessmen, politicians, and their families, all because of their involvement in pursuits that harm the environment. As Tapani studies Johanna's research into the murders, he realizes that she was close to discovering the identity of The Healer. Now he worries that she is pursuing this known serial killer, or worse, The Healer is pursuing her.
This post-apocalyptic world, as imagined by Tuomaninen, falls in line with the bleak views that most of these European authors write about. Society has failed, medicine and doctors are hard to come by, and the police have been made obsolete by a lack of government, money, technology, and manpower. Therefore, the recover of Johanna falls on the shoulders of her husband, Tapani. As he investigates further into her disappearance, he uncovers secrets from her past that threaten to unravel everything he thought he knew about the woman he loves.
Despite the promising premise, I felt that the author was simply going through the motions on this one. I enjoyed the fast pace and entertainment value of the story, but any deeper meaning is either nonexistent or lost in the translation from the original text. There is never enough backstory or emotional depth to make any of the characters worth rooting for. In the end, the motivation behind The Healer's killings is almost laughable. It seemed that the author was trying to make some kind of political statement that comes across as misplaced within the context of the novel. Are we really supposed to believe that with all the chaos and corruption taking place and threatening lives, a person has decided to protect the environment? In this world where infrastructure has failed and disease threatens to spread at plague like speed, it is far more plausible that The Healer would be more concerned with saving his own life, rather than taking others for some political statement. Despite these shortcomings, I have to admit that the novel kept my attention, and I read it easily over the course of an afternoon. While it is not the pinnacle of foreign writing, it is an entertaining read that displays the promise of reading some of these translated novels.
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and Jo Nesbo, others seem to have been lost in translation. In the Healer, a novel by Finnish author Antti Tuomaninen, poet Tapani Lehtinen navigates a post-apocalyptic Helinski, in search of his missing wife, Johanna. Johanna is a journalist who works for a newspaper that is struggling to maintain its relevance in this strange new world. Immediately before here disappearance, she was investigating a serial killer known as "The Healer". The Healer is known for murdering prominent businessmen, politicians, and their families, all because of their involvement in pursuits that harm the environment. As Tapani studies Johanna's research into the murders, he realizes that she was close to discovering the identity of The Healer. Now he worries that she is pursuing this known serial killer, or worse, The Healer is pursuing her.
This post-apocalyptic world, as imagined by Tuomaninen, falls in line with the bleak views that most of these European authors write about. Society has failed, medicine and doctors are hard to come by, and the police have been made obsolete by a lack of government, money, technology, and manpower. Therefore, the recover of Johanna falls on the shoulders of her husband, Tapani. As he investigates further into her disappearance, he uncovers secrets from her past that threaten to unravel everything he thought he knew about the woman he loves.
Despite the promising premise, I felt that the author was simply going through the motions on this one. I enjoyed the fast pace and entertainment value of the story, but any deeper meaning is either nonexistent or lost in the translation from the original text. There is never enough backstory or emotional depth to make any of the characters worth rooting for. In the end, the motivation behind The Healer's killings is almost laughable. It seemed that the author was trying to make some kind of political statement that comes across as misplaced within the context of the novel. Are we really supposed to believe that with all the chaos and corruption taking place and threatening lives, a person has decided to protect the environment? In this world where infrastructure has failed and disease threatens to spread at plague like speed, it is far more plausible that The Healer would be more concerned with saving his own life, rather than taking others for some political statement. Despite these shortcomings, I have to admit that the novel kept my attention, and I read it easily over the course of an afternoon. While it is not the pinnacle of foreign writing, it is an entertaining read that displays the promise of reading some of these translated novels.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
We have managed to ruin the plant, temperature extremes drive many from their homes, illnesses and diseases are rampant, the world is in chaos and a man, a minor poet, is looking for his wife. This was a very different type of Nordic noir novel, and while there were times I was fascinated, at times
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I was also impatient. Much happens in a few short days and there is also a serial killer, called the healer, whose story plays a part, but I think the real star of the story was the chaos and the desperation of people trying to live their lives in abnormal times. This is the first time this author's novel has been translated to English and released here. Look forward to reading more. Show Less
LibraryThing member caitemaire
Scandinavian mysteries have a reputation for being a bit bleak, but this one adds an element that takes it to a whole new level.
It is set in Helsinki in the near future, a city falling apart, in a world falling apart.
We are in the midst of a global ecological collapse, constant rain and flooding,
Well, that is unless you are very rich. Then you hire one of the many private security companies to protect you and your family and to buy the scare resources.
But it seems even a great deal of money can not offer total protection. The city has a killer, a serial killer, who calls himself The Healer. He is killing whole families of people he feels are guilty for creating the situation the world is in and the police seem helpless to stop him. Detectives are few, things like DNA testing or fingerprints almost impossible to get done.
Just one more terrible thing Tapani Lehtinen can do nothing about ...until his wife Joanna disappears. She is an investigative report, a dying breed, as is the newspaper she works for. But she is one of the few who feels a sense of duty, to try and do good. Tapani is a poet who still writes poetry every day that no one will read, as his wife is a writer after a story that no one really cares about. She never came home from work days ago and does not answer her phone. As her husband tries to find her, he discovers that she seems to have had a lead on the Healer and her last act may have been to meet with someone who had information on him. He also finds out a number of other things about the people in his life that in less shocking times might be shocking. Now, not so much.
Some things like greed and love, revenge and hatred, good and evil persist, regardless of what is going on in the world. Even if society is collapsing around you, human nature remains human nature.
OK, I will warn you, this is a dark book, in both its plot and setting. I think the sun appears for only one day in the whole story. It is a dark mystery set in a dark place.
But...except for one little issue, I really enjoyed this book. So let's get the issue out of the way. At times it can get a little preachy, a bit simplistic about the whole climate change issue. I think we get the author's point on that. I could do without the lecture.
Now, on to the good! Tapani is a great character, very likable, very smart and willing to go to any lengths to find his wife. Several of the minor characters, like a sympathetic police detective and a life saving immigrant cab driver are excellent as well. The plot, the actual mystery, is good, even if with a point or two that stretch believability. The writing is beautiful, odd to say about a story set in such a harsh world, with the translator, Lola Rogers, doing a fine job.
But I dare say what you will remember about this book when you finish it will be that world the author creates, a world literally rotting. And the question it raises..what makes some people go on when faced with a hopeless situation. Can love, even a love as strong as Tapani's make a difference? Are they the good, the brave, doing the right thing, or are they fools? You decide, right until the very last page and it shocking ending.
It is set in Helsinki in the near future, a city falling apart, in a world falling apart.
We are in the midst of a global ecological collapse, constant rain and flooding,
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food and drinking water become more scarce as each day goes by, electric and Internet unreliable, hundreds of millions of people try to move north to places they feel might be livable for a bit longer. Bangladesh has sunk into the ocean, unstoppable fires are consuming the rain forests of the Amazon, the US has been attacked by missiles from Mexican drug lords, the European countries that are left are at war. Things like police protection have become impossible, as most cops have left their jobs, medical care almost impossible to get, as those doctors left try to deal with widespread epidemics of TB, Ebola and the plague.Well, that is unless you are very rich. Then you hire one of the many private security companies to protect you and your family and to buy the scare resources.
But it seems even a great deal of money can not offer total protection. The city has a killer, a serial killer, who calls himself The Healer. He is killing whole families of people he feels are guilty for creating the situation the world is in and the police seem helpless to stop him. Detectives are few, things like DNA testing or fingerprints almost impossible to get done.
Just one more terrible thing Tapani Lehtinen can do nothing about ...until his wife Joanna disappears. She is an investigative report, a dying breed, as is the newspaper she works for. But she is one of the few who feels a sense of duty, to try and do good. Tapani is a poet who still writes poetry every day that no one will read, as his wife is a writer after a story that no one really cares about. She never came home from work days ago and does not answer her phone. As her husband tries to find her, he discovers that she seems to have had a lead on the Healer and her last act may have been to meet with someone who had information on him. He also finds out a number of other things about the people in his life that in less shocking times might be shocking. Now, not so much.
Some things like greed and love, revenge and hatred, good and evil persist, regardless of what is going on in the world. Even if society is collapsing around you, human nature remains human nature.
OK, I will warn you, this is a dark book, in both its plot and setting. I think the sun appears for only one day in the whole story. It is a dark mystery set in a dark place.
But...except for one little issue, I really enjoyed this book. So let's get the issue out of the way. At times it can get a little preachy, a bit simplistic about the whole climate change issue. I think we get the author's point on that. I could do without the lecture.
Now, on to the good! Tapani is a great character, very likable, very smart and willing to go to any lengths to find his wife. Several of the minor characters, like a sympathetic police detective and a life saving immigrant cab driver are excellent as well. The plot, the actual mystery, is good, even if with a point or two that stretch believability. The writing is beautiful, odd to say about a story set in such a harsh world, with the translator, Lola Rogers, doing a fine job.
But I dare say what you will remember about this book when you finish it will be that world the author creates, a world literally rotting. And the question it raises..what makes some people go on when faced with a hopeless situation. Can love, even a love as strong as Tapani's make a difference? Are they the good, the brave, doing the right thing, or are they fools? You decide, right until the very last page and it shocking ending.
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LibraryThing member groundedforlife
The world is falling apart, literally. Its damaged and the people are damaged. And it RAINS All the time and if thats not enough there's a Serial Killer on the loose. So, a Thriller? Yes, but actually more of a love story. The characters are distant, hurried and scared. Throw in all the above and
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do so in about 250 pages and you might think it would be a mess if not a very strange serial killer love story. And it is in a sense and it's supposed to be. I found it very original, intriguing and a very quick read, but was captivated by Taipani and his urgency to find the woman he loves his wife. Good first book. I recommend and look toward to the next offering from Anntti Tuomainen. Show Less
LibraryThing member 4leschats
Set in the near future, climate change is wrecking havoc on the world with long range consequences: flooding, excessive rain, loss of infrastructure, rising crime, etc. When the book opens 2 days before Christmas, the protagonist, Tapani, is searching for his missing wife, Johanna who is a
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reporter. She was working on a story about a serial killer known as The Healer who has been killing the families of those responsible for the most devastating climate changes. Most of this short work covers only the couple of days leading up to Christmas. However, in spite of the compressed time, the action moves very slowly with much more introspection than is typical of crime or sci-fi, so that some areas seem to drag significantly while the Finnish names made following some of the characters a bit difficult. Show Less
LibraryThing member ansate
I just didn't like it. It didn't really feel like scifi, it didn't really feel like mystery. Yes, it's in the future, but other than the environment falling apart, there's nothing science fiction going on. It's not a mystery because we aren't given the clues. Our narrator investigates, but he just
I didn't find him sympathetic at all - times are tough, and so his wife has a dangerous job corresponding with murderers and he sits home and writes unpublishable poetry. Even his attempts at investigation involve him being saved repeatedly by a character that isn't fleshed out and has no motivation to help him.
The whole thing treats Johanna as an object, and as the plot progresses, it even undermines the skills it claims she has. She never feels like a real person in any of it, just a trophy that is being fought over.
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moves right along to the next thing, we aren't given anything to figure out ourselves. I didn't find him sympathetic at all - times are tough, and so his wife has a dangerous job corresponding with murderers and he sits home and writes unpublishable poetry. Even his attempts at investigation involve him being saved repeatedly by a character that isn't fleshed out and has no motivation to help him.
The whole thing treats Johanna as an object, and as the plot progresses, it even undermines the skills it claims she has. She never feels like a real person in any of it, just a trophy that is being fought over.
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Scandicrime combined with Dystopian--what could be better for a fan of both these genres? Well, the dystopian part was passable, the Scandicrime part not so much.
It's the near future and the effects of global warming have destroyed the social fabric of many areas around the world. Those who can are
The protagonist is a poet. Yes, really--that's all he does--no income, no worries, no published work. His wife is a journalist who is investigating the serial killer. She calls the poet one evening to tell him she is going on an important interview and will be late. He waits up for her, but she never comes home. He is distraught, because they Love each other, and never go more than a few hours without talking, and now she isn't answering her phone. He goes to the police, who basically laugh in his face. He decides to turn detective and find his wife.
He begins his search, and along the way starts uncovering some facts about his wife that were previously unknown to him. This is surprising, because it is most of what his wife's life history was before they met. (And remember he Loves her and they always talk--he tells us so every few pages). In addition, at the beginning of his search, he comes across an emigrant taxi driver, who keeps showing up to save him when he gets in a bind.
I read somewhere that Finland really hasn't contributed much to the current Scandicrime craze, and if this book is an example, I can see why. (It even won some kind of Finnish crime novel award). I found the descriptions of life under the global warming scenario interesting and real. Not so the characters and the plot.
1 1/2 stars
It's the near future and the effects of global warming have destroyed the social fabric of many areas around the world. Those who can are
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moving north, and as far inland as they can get. The novel is set in Helsinki, and even residents of Helsinki, those who can afford to, are moving further north. It rains all the time and tidal waters are claiming the city. Emigrants flood the city, crime is rampant, and the police are ineffective. There is a serial killer on the loose, and he is targeting corporate executives he believes are responsible for global warming and their families.The protagonist is a poet. Yes, really--that's all he does--no income, no worries, no published work. His wife is a journalist who is investigating the serial killer. She calls the poet one evening to tell him she is going on an important interview and will be late. He waits up for her, but she never comes home. He is distraught, because they Love each other, and never go more than a few hours without talking, and now she isn't answering her phone. He goes to the police, who basically laugh in his face. He decides to turn detective and find his wife.
He begins his search, and along the way starts uncovering some facts about his wife that were previously unknown to him. This is surprising, because it is most of what his wife's life history was before they met. (And remember he Loves her and they always talk--he tells us so every few pages). In addition, at the beginning of his search, he comes across an emigrant taxi driver, who keeps showing up to save him when he gets in a bind.
I read somewhere that Finland really hasn't contributed much to the current Scandicrime craze, and if this book is an example, I can see why. (It even won some kind of Finnish crime novel award). I found the descriptions of life under the global warming scenario interesting and real. Not so the characters and the plot.
1 1/2 stars
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LibraryThing member AnnieMod
Take a serial killer. Add a dose of dystopian setting. Sprinkle with a reported and set the whole thing in Finland. Now, take the husband of the reporter and send him to look for his wife.
This seems to be the premise of the Tuomainen's novel. Unfortunately the premise sounds better than the actual
The one redeeming feature of the book is the dystopian setting - the author's idea of the flooded north and his descriptions are creepy and believable. If he had tried to write a novel around this and not make it a crime novel, it would have worked a lot better. Same with having the crime novel not set there - a lot of the action was seemingly driven by the setting but... it just felt weird.
Overall - not really the best that the North can offer (not even close) but an author I would keep an eye on - different setting or genre can actually work for him.
This seems to be the premise of the Tuomainen's novel. Unfortunately the premise sounds better than the actual
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execution. Not that the novel is that bad - but most of the good parts in it are underdeveloped, the author is getting rambly on points that really do not matter and the end is unsatisfactory. The one redeeming feature of the book is the dystopian setting - the author's idea of the flooded north and his descriptions are creepy and believable. If he had tried to write a novel around this and not make it a crime novel, it would have worked a lot better. Same with having the crime novel not set there - a lot of the action was seemingly driven by the setting but... it just felt weird.
Overall - not really the best that the North can offer (not even close) but an author I would keep an eye on - different setting or genre can actually work for him.
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Subjects
Awards
Glass Key Award (Nominee — 2012)
Language
Original language
Finnish
Physical description
223 p.; 20.8 cm
ISBN
9789525874099