Book description
The first thriller in a new series featuring Inspector Kari Vaara: the
haunted, hardened detective who must delve into Finland's dark and
violent underbelly.
Kaamos: Just before Christmas, the bleakest time of the year in
Lapland. The unrelenting darkness and extreme cold above the Arctic
Circle drive everyone just a little insane . . . perhaps enough to kill.
A beautiful Somali immigrant is found dead in a snowfield, her body
gruesomely mutilated, a racial slur carved into her chest. Heading the
murder investigation is Inspector Kari Vaara, the lead detective of the
small-town police force. The vicious killing may have been a hate crime,
a sex crime-or one and the same. Vaara knows he must keep this
potentially explosive case out of the national headlines or else it will
send shock waves across Finland, an insular nation afraid to face its
own xenophobia.
The demands of the investigation begin to take their toll on Vaara and
his marriage. His young American wife, Kate, newly pregnant with their
first child, is struggling to adapt to both the unforgiving Arctic
climate and the Finnish culture of silence and isolation. Meanwhile
Vaara himself, haunted by his rough childhood and failed first marriage,
discovers that the past keeps biting at his heels: He suspects that the
rich man for whom his ex-wife left him years ago may be the killer.
Endless night can drive anyone to murder. 'This book is wonderful. It
took me right in, dropped me into a strange new world, and kept me
captivated from first to last page. James Thompson has done a masterful job!'
Michael Connelly
'Taut and Mesmerizing.'
Lisa Gardner
'Fast, brutal, yet told with a sort of laid-back calm.'
Peter Hoeg Born and raised in Kentucky, James Thompson has lived for
the past decade in Helsinki with his wife. Before becoming a full-time
writer, he studied Swedish and Finnish and worked as a bartender,
bouncer, construction worker, photographer, rare coin dealer, and
soldier.
