Thursday, December 18, 2014

Helsinki Noir edited by James Thompson

Helsinki Noir edited by James Thompson

Finland is a weird place.  I love Iceland and all things Icelandic because of their “otherness” but Finland may even be a bit stranger.  Since this anthology was put together by an American who moved to Finland and has lived there for a long time he understands the uniqueness of the country and the things to emphasize that Americans would find odd.

Most of the stories in this collection are strong.  I especially enjoyed “Kiss of Santa” a story about an undercover security person working as a Santa in a department store to discover who is robbing from them.  “Stolen Lives” was simply hard to read because it was dark and heartbreaking at the same time.  The other entries are all quite good, even the confusing financial trading one that I was surprised I enjoyed, but there are a few where you can predict the ending but I think that would happen in almost any anthology to anyone who reads a lot of mysteries.

Of course this is a noir collection and Finland is painted as a shady, dark place because of the genre.  Doesn’t mean I don’t really want to go there anyway.