The Burning Stones by Antti Tuomainen (translated by David Hackston)

Anyone who has been following my blog for a while will know I'm a fan of Finnish writer Antti Tuomainen - search under his name on the blog and you will see my previous reviews. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to read his new book, The Burning Stones, translated into English by David Hackston. Big thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invite and to the publisher for my review copy. I will be buying a paperback copy of my own in due course. 

The Blurb

Saunas, love and a ladleful of murder…

A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest moment: the new head of a sauna-stove company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?

The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and the victim’s successor at Steam Devil.

And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’s too late…

My Review

As I mentioned earlier I'm a big fan of Antti's work and absolutely loved The Rabbit Factor trilogy. Here we have a very different setting and completely different characters, but the quirkiness of the individuals is still there, and I love that. And his trademark humour is there but I do feel The Burning Stones has a darker feel than his recent books. 

Steam Devil is a successful company selling sauna stoves. It's a small company with just a few staff and it's just been announced that Ilmo Räty will take over the running of the company as founder Erkki 'The Stove King' Ruusula stands down. Until Ilmo is murdered, quite creatively, I might add. Suspicions fall in the rest of the cast but particularly saleswoman Anni Korpinen, who is now most likely to succeed Erkki. The evidence too, is pointing towards Anni, and she needs to find out who the real killer is... It's potentially dangerous stuff. And Anni's carrying a secret of her own and some shared history with someone else involved in the enquiry which kinda complicates things a little bit. 

I liked Anni, although she perhaps doesn't come across as the warmest character. Maybe I was drawn to her because she's a similar age to me and I like the whole idea of middle aged women having adventures! Although I'm sure Anni isn't enjoying the particular adventure she finds herself in. She's Steam Devil's top salesperson and there is not much she doesn't know about sauna stoves and saunas in general. She's very focused and driven in her work, and that's maybe because her home life is a bit of a mess. Husband Santeri is uncommonly obsessed with Formula One motor racing. I mean, obsessively so, pretty much to the expense of all else. I was not a Santeri fan, and spent much of the book wanting to shake some sense into him! 

All the staff at Steam Devil are quirky and interesting, as Tuomainen's characters often are, eccentric, maybe, and it was fun trying to imagine them in my head. But I think my favourite character was Steam Devil customer, Lauri Kahavouri, with whom Anni is trying to complete a big sales deal. Kahavouri becomes very interested in the murder case and subsequent investigation, maybe even a little bit obsessed and decides to undertake his own under into Ilmo Räty's death. 

As more evidence comes to light (someone please tell me that bumlets are a thing!) which puts suspicion firmly on Anni, she comes into contact with policeman Janne Piirto with whom she hasn't spoken in many years and clearly has some history so that's an interesting addition to the story and fleshes Anni out a bit more. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, there is plenty of dry humour to be found here, the tone of the whole thing felt darker. Maybe it's the setting.

So let's talk about that for a moment. The Finnish countryside sounds beautiful, full of forests and lakes. But this little community does feel quite isolated, with the houses situated in woodlands, overlooking lakes. It's prime country for someone to creep about and Antti uses the setting to help increase the tension, emphasising the dark and denseness of the forest, the expanse of the lake. It works. 

The storyline is great - creepy and tense in places, a little comical in others, full of interesting, eccentric characters. And Antti Tuomainen does what he does so well - taken a very ordinary person and put them in an extraordinary situation. Recently I heard him speaking at a book festival where he said The Burning Stones walkabout 'saunas and middle age'. He's right, of course, it is, but as the blurb says there's also a little bit of love. And death. And a whole lot of suspicion and mistrust. A cracking story which is well worth checking out. 

The Author

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, his third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. 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 and is now a Finnish TV series. Palm Beach, Finland (2018) and Little Siberia (2019) have both been adapted for the screen, airing shortly, and also shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA

International Dagger, and winning the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The international bestselling Rabbit Factor trilogy is filming now for Amazon Studios, starring Steve Carrell. Antti lives in Helsinki with his wife.