Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: October 17, 2019
Source: Personal copy
Summary:
A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.
But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the riches that have apparently rained down from heaven. His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant. Unfortunately Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn’t his. As Joel tries to fend off repeated and bungled attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also come to terms with his own situation, and discover who the father of the baby really is.
Transporting the reader to the culture, landscape and mores of northern Finland Little Siberia is both a crime novel and a hilarious, blacker-than-black comedy about faith and disbelief, love and death, and what to do when bolts from the blue – both literal and figurative – turn your life upside down.
My thoughts:
This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author, though it certainly will not be the last. I read this as a buddy read with my #NordicNoir group last month and I’m so glad that we read this one together.
I loved the mix of crime and dark humor in this book. It definitely kept me on my toes and I wasn’t sure quite what to expect with it, but in the end, I have to say I really enjoyed it. It’s not a long book at all, coming in at just under 250 pages, and but yet, it’s one that you don’t want to read too fast because you don’t want to miss anything.
I loved Joel, the main character. I was quite drawn to him and was desperate to know everything there was to know about him. I felt he was given a bad hand with what was going on with Krista, yet he hasn’t been all that upfront with her so I was curious to see how that was going to play out.
This book is full of mysterious happenings, a cast of interesting, quirky characters and dark humor that just kept me flipping the pages until the very end. It really snuck up on me just how much I enjoyed it and I am definitely going to be checking out this author’s other books as soon as I can find the time!
