The Moose Paradox by Antti Tuomainen

Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen has finally restored order both to his life and to YouMeFun, the adventure park he now owns, when a man from the past appears – and turns everything upside down again. More problems arise when the park’s equipment supplier is taken over by a shady trio, with confusing demands. Why won’t Toy of Finland Ltd sell the new Moose Chute to Henri when he needs it as the park’s main attraction?

Meanwhile, Henri’s relationship with artist Laura has reached breaking point, and, in order to survive this new chaotic world, he must push every calculation to its limits, before it’s too late.

About the author

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author Iin 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. Little Siberia (2020), was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The Rabbit Factor (2021), the first book in Antti’s first ever series, is in production by Amazon Studios with Steve Carell starring. The Moose Paradox, book two in the series is out in 2022.

Review

‘The Moose Paradox’ is the second book in this trilogy and it has a sardonic wit that makes it a hard book to quantify as it's so unique to everything out there at the moment. Who else in fiction has an actuary running an adventure park?? No one I tell you as it is only Antti’s brain that is able to conjure up such delights! So much so that I believed everything in there. For example, when in the later stages of the book they mention a duck tube thing I instantly tweeted him asking if this was real and if so where was it as I needed to experience this! Me! Someone who hates the very idea of a soft play type adventure park, just think of the noise. But yet I wanted to be in a tube where rubber ducks are thrown at you! But this shows that the essence of this book is pure gold. You become invested in it heart and soul and are seriously rooting for Henri! To say that this has been one of my most anticipated reads this year is an understatement! I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Rabbit Factor’ and I could not wait to be able to read this follow-up ‘The Moose Paradox’! It truly was on my moose read books of the year. See what I did there…

Henri is now getting a grip on running the adventure park. But he has a problem a paradox really. He is in a relationship with a Finnish supplier of park equipment and after crunching all the numbers has decided that he needs their Moose Chute! But they won't sell it to him even though they have a exclusive relationship with each other. It seems that they have been taken over by a dodgy trio and Henri will need to be on his toes in order to get his Moose Chute. His world is then rocked when a character from the past comes back to the adventure park and they put the whole business into peril with their actions!

I love Henri! Who thought that I would ever love an insurance mathematician? But there is just something pure and endearing about our Henri and that is a testimony to Antti’a fabulous characterisation and writing. It probably helps that I had seen Antti and Karen talk at Bloody Scotland last year about the fact that Steve Carrell would be playing Henri before I read the book. Therefore the whole way through I have been visualizing Henri as looking like Steve but with Antti’s wit. If that makes sense, and due to that it has made them one of the strongest characters I have had the pleasure of reading over the past couple of years.

I loved this book. Antti’s writing is sharp and too the point and this is a reflection of the subject and subject matter. You couldn't imagine Henri using more words or actions than he has too and therefore I love that this is reflected in the structure of the writing! Hats off to the translator David Hackston for managing to capture the essence of this book so brilliantly as I'm sure it is not an easy job translating Finnish. Is this crime fiction? For me yes but I would put it on the ‘crime comedy shelf of my bookshop (note to self create this on the website) as although it has some hallmarks of crime - extortion, murder, fraud etc it's lightened by that humour and the uniqueness of the narrative! But it is definitely not a cosy read either. Basically it just needs it a shelf of its own and what bookseller wouldn't be happy with that amazing cover staring at them all day.

I honestly can't wait for the next instalment even if it does mean it is the final one and Henri’s story is at an end!

Read this book as you would be moosefully unhappy you moosed out. Okay I will stop now!