Today I’m joining the blog tour for The Winter Job. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Sofas, secrets and a snowbound road to trouble…

Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go – and no money – he’s desperate.

A last-minute job offers a solution: transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland.

With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada.

That’s when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special.

And that’s when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble…

A darkly funny and unexpectedly moving thriller about friendship, love and death – The Winter Job tears through the frozen landscape of northern Finland in a beat-up van with bad steering, worse timing, and everything to lose…

Review:

My reading mojo has suffered a bit lately, but The Winter Job was the perfect book to get me out of it! I’ve loved all of Antii Tuomainen’s previous work and this novel had just the right mix of his trademark humour and the gripping tension of a crime novel to make it very difficult to put the book down! I must give so much credit to the translator for ensuring the author’s inimitable style reaches the page so effectively.

From the moment the protagonist, Ilmari, outlines his mission in the first few pages, I felt totally sympathetic to his plight and completely invested in his journey. I knew it wouldn’t be plain sailing and I loved the jeopardy throughout the story – it was absolutely bonkers! The chapters are told from the perspective of the different parties involved in the chase and I found this really interesting as it allowed me to understand the motivation of each group.

Although there are several moments of humour in the story, I also loved some of the more emotional aspects of the characters’ lives. I loved being able to see more deeply into their situation and gain more understanding of it. Antii Tuomainen writes really sensitively about some important issues and this provides a welcome change in tone from the chaos throughout the novel.

The ending leaves The Winter Job open for a sequel and I would absolutely love this!

The Winter Job is available from Amazon.

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