Snow Angels has flawed detective Kari Vaara try to get to grips with the dark side of Finnish society.

KARI VAARA is a decorated police officer in a small town in Lapland. His wife is the beautiful and successful American Kate, the manager of a major ski resort. Vaara’s quiet life is shattered when a Somali movie actress is discovered in a snow drift on a reindeer farm. She has been murdered, brutalised and degraded by a racial slur carved into her chest. The actress is only the first victim. More murders are committed as the plot twists and turns with the speed of a Finnish rally.

Author James Thompson (or Jim Thompson as he is known with his Finnish publisher) has created Vaara as a flawed detective, neither an investigative genius nor a physical superhero. Vaara is still likeable though, especially as he is copiously endowed with Finnish sisu. Vaara doggedly follows the case as it becomes personal, even though he is haunted by the ghosts of his own past.

The book takes place in the cold, bitter darkness of Lapland’s winter. The darkness is practically a character itself, showing up malevolent and dangerous alongside other memorable persons in the highly polished prose.

What is remarkable about Snow Angels is the portrayal of the dark side of Finnish society. Much of this view of Finland comes through Kate, whose rant close to the climax of the book has probably been spoken by many immigrants to Finland in their weaker moments. The depression, alcoholism, suicides and even the casual racism portrayed by the policeman Antti are uncomfortably familiar. Anyone interested in the Nordic crime genre, or in Finnish society, needs to read this book.

Late in August Thompson announced that his US publisher Putnam has extended his contract to four books in the Inspector Vaara series. As an American expatriate living in Helsinki, Thompson is uniquely qualified to write about life in Finland as the series progresses.

Snow Angels is currently available in Finnish from WSOY, in English from Putnam and several other languages.

DAVID J. CORD - HT