The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal. Until he is faced with the incalculable, after a series of unforeseeable events.
After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from some dangerous men who are very keen to get their money back.
All improbable and complicated problems. But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, a happy-go-lucky artist with a chequered past, whose erratic lifestyle bewilders him. As the criminals go to increasingly extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri’s relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets.
About the author.
Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author in 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. A TV adaptation is in the works, and Jussi Vatanen (Man In Room 301) has just been announced as a leading role. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. His latest thriller, Little Siberia, 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. In total, Antti Tuomainen has been short- and longlisted for 12 UK awards.
Review
Well, I never thought I was going to turn round and ask my husband ‘Do you know the difference between an adventure park and an amusement park’?! Plus I genuinely wanted to know if he knew. What have you done to me Antti?
What happens when an insurance mathematician inherits an adventure park from his brother? Chaos it what happens, beautiful chaos. Henri has just been fired from his job as he is unable to embrace the new open plan, open forum style of working when he is informed his brother has died. His only dying wish is for Henri to carry on running his park. One that is full of breaking equipment, very weird employees, and oh yeah the massive loans his brother took out with the mafia! What happens is pure comedy! Truly outstanding comedy.
‘The Rabbit Factor’ is easily my book of 2021 so far. It's a deliciously dark but extremely funny book. I picked my copy at Bloody Scotland and I started to read it between panels and I honestly was annoyed I had to put it down to listen to people speak. I was hooked from the first page. It's a vividly real book as you read it, as in all the images are projected into your mind as the prose is beautifully descriptive, sharp, compact and pure. Antti has a compelling writing style which is very unique. Despite how far-fetched the situations Henri finds himself in, they are completely believable. In my mind, Henri being chased through a room full of mirrors by a huge man with excellent knife-throwing skills was utterly plausible.
As you read ‘The Rabbit Factor’ you KNOW you are reading something special. Henri is odd, the type of person you might avoid. His life is dominated by mathematics, where everything has an answer that is pre-determined or solved through pure science. He is rigid in his ways, doesn’t like change but he is then thrust into a world full of people with emotions, desires, a landscape full of problems and an underworld of sneaky so and so’s. Does he flounder or flourish? Well you will need to read it to find out! Henri is a unique character and I can totally see Steve Carrell as Henri. Antti actually did say that he was watching the American Office whilst he was writing the book so it is a perfect casting. I honestly can not wait till I can see the whole concept on-screen.
Although, this book is marketed as a dark comedy, I found it to be a book with a heart, a soul. An opportunity to show that people can evolve, how unexpected circumstances can lead to exciting situations and that the weirdos might even end up being your family.
Truly breathtaking!
