So, after maintaining this blog, then getting backlogged, then never catching up, then posting again for awhile, then abandoning the whole effort, I decided (a half hour ago, while reading in the tub) to try again. I'm starting my count and year anew, with Oct. 1 as the launch date. So here's what I've read so far this month:
Snow Angels by James Thompson is the first in a new series, set in Finland. I wanted to read this book partly because I enjoy Scandinavian crime fiction. (I know it's trendy, but I've been reading it for several years--before the advent of Stieg Larsson's books--and I tend to enjoy some of the lesser-known writers most, while I'm not a particular fan of Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum, or Camilla Lackberg.) However, most of what I've read has been set in Sweden or Norway, and of course Arnadur Indridason exquisitely portrays Iceland. I'd never read or encountered any crime (or other, for that matter) fiction set in Finland, a country for which I have sort of an affinity because of the unique strain of orchestral metal that has originated there (I'm thinking HIM, Nightwish, Apocalyptica, maybe a few others I'm forgetting).
All that said, I found Snow Angels somewhat disappointing. Thompson may find his voice as he continues to write, but I found his style in this novel a bit too Hemingway-esque and elliptical. I think it was intended to convey the starkness of winter above the Arctic Circle, but to accomplish that, a certain amount of character depth was compromised. There was much telling rather than showing.
Weaknesses aside, Thompson does convey the toll of northern Finland's winter days of darkness: alcoholism, a high suicide rate, domestic violence, and religious extremism. At the center of the novel is the macabre murder of a Somali actress, a crime that highlights the country's xenophobia and racism.
Will I read the next installment? I'm not sure yet....
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