Cover Image: The Mine

The Mine

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Member Reviews

Fans of the environmental thriller will enjoy this one for it's interesting setting in Finland and strong protagonist in Janne. There's secrets, lies, corruption and murder- and a good read.

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Review: THE MINE by Antti Tuomainen

Wow! This author is incredibly gifted! I was expecting gritty Finnish crime; he is, after all, considered "The King of Helsinki Noir." I couldn't have expected his talent at exploring sensory imagery, riffing on each and every sense. He must have a hundred different metaphors, similes, and analogies for snow (which is important to me). He views the world as a painter would, drawing out the lines, then vivifying the natural world. And oh, does his love of the environment shine, in the pristine beauty of frozen Finland, but throughout the planet at large, that poor, environmentally toxic ecosystem which is all we have.

When he turns his view to humanity, he is a genius here too. A contract killer who suddenly determines to enter the life of his son after an absence of 30 years. A journalist driven by his need to expose Truth, even at the expense of his relationship and his own fatherhood {and yes, also driven by his own unacknowledged self-righteousness}. An earlier journalist whose quest for truth resulted in tons of research, but few completions. A suspicious Northern Finland nickel mine purchased for two euros, which is not as purported, whose board of directors are dying one by one, in bizarre "accidents."

I couldn't stop reading this fabulous mystery of Literary Noir.

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Antti has given us a story with a horrendous environmental exposure to the people of Finland. It starts with a internet letter to Janne describing the situation with the mine. At the time Janne is having marital problems with his wife because he is a workaholic and forgets making payments for his daughter for her nursery. At the same time he meets his father who has been absent for over 30 years, wanting to get back into his life and with his mother. At the time of the meeting he does not know what his father does for a living. In reality he is a hit man. The story evolves into his father killing people while he makes a mess of his marriage by messing with another women, who is the daughter of the former journalist in his spot.

The story continues with his second visit to the mine where one of the people he is with gets shot through the neck and killed. His father, unknown to Janne, is there to rescue is son. Antti crafts the story to flow with what happens with his characters. The story evolves into a logical ending. I"d day happy ending leading to the nest book. I would recommend this book to my readers.

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It all begins with an anonymous email. Investigative reporter Janne Vuori’s interest is piqued when he gets a message that a mine in northern Finland is poisoning the environment. Travelling there doesn’t get him much. Security is high & the locals are strangely tight lipped. Back in the city Janne begins to track down the company’s executives but oddly enough, they seem to be dropping like flies before he can even get an interview.

But once Janne senses a story, his obsessive nature kicks in & soon he’s mixing it up with eco-warriors & company thugs as he continues to dig. His search for the truth becomes all consuming & causes cracks in his relationship with Pauliina. She wants a partner who’s home for dinner & present to care for their daughter.

Janne loves his family but it’s not like he had a role model for the job. His father walked out when he was a little boy & neither he nor his mother heard from him again. Until now. Emil reappears one day & over the course of the book we learn where he’s been & why he left. In alternate chapters we follow a nameless hitman as he quietly & efficiently eliminates the mining company’s head honchos.

There are many threads to the plot & everyone seems to have a hidden agenda. Janne is up against powerful men with secrets they’ll do anything to protect including killing those who get too close. Janne’s personal life also evolves as the story progresses. His relationship with Emil develops slowly & he’s in for a few shocks as he gets to know his father.

The setting is another character in the book & the author uses descriptions of the cold winds & unrelenting snowfall to create a dark & atmospheric read that will have you reaching for a sweater. Most of our time is spent with Janne, a complex & fully realized character. Emil is just as compelling & I found his story just as intriguing as the main plot. Pauliina is less developed but she is a secondary character that we get to know mostly through Janne’s eyes.

It’s a story about greed & the abuse of power that touches on the battle between industrial progress & protecting the environment. Kudos to David Hackston for an smooth translation that allows the reader to get caught up in this smart, tense thriller.

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A beautifully written (and translated) story about a dedicated journalist. Janne Bjork, who gets an anonymous e-mail that sends him after what he thinks will be the story of his career. He travels to the North of Finland to investigate a mining company's illegal dumping into the region's sources of drinking water. The company's Board of Directors dies one by one under mysterious circumstances.
We learn of Janne's father. who has returned to Reykjavik to meet and reconnect with the family he left 30 years ago.
Janne's life spirals out of control as he obsessively chases the story, neglecting his life partner and their little daughter. His partner has had enough, especially now there are death threats against the family.
The atmosphere of the book is totally absorbing, you can feel the icy snow hitting your face; the intense cold and hazardous drives made me shiver. The writing is exquisite, there's a sense of foreboding and I even had a feeling of empathy for Janne's father, who didn't really deserve it. The killings and violence are not graphic, which was a pleasant surprise.
The ending puzzled me at first, but after a few hours things slotted into place. Highly recommended!
Thank you Netgalley and Orenda books for the eARC.

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I struggled a lot with this book. The author drops you right into things, so I kept feeling like I was missing part of the story even though I wasn't. I also never developed any real connection to the characters, nor did I care much at all about the mystery. The story is written alternately in first and third person, which is a style that I personally don't enjoy. This was a miss for me.

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What a great romantic comedy this was...no, sorry, happy april fool's day. The book is actually not funny at all or particularly romantic, it's a story of a 30 year old journalist who stumbles upon a potential doozy of a story. He stubbornly pursues it, too wrapped up in his world to prevent his family from unraveling. And if that wasn't enough to deal with, his father returns to town after missing for 30 years, which he spent killing others. And if that wasn't enough, it's January, in Finland, and, at the risk of sounding redundant, a particularly brutal one. What drew me to this book was the location, I like to read internationally and wanted to read a Finnish author. The armchair traveler in me was left satisfied, Tuomaiten writes well and the snowy windy forbidding atmosphere really comes across. The mystery aspect of the plot left me fairly indifferent, it was done competently, but it wasn't the sort of logistical puzzle to boggle the mind and a large company sort of cover up just isn't as compelling as a good old fashioned murder. Actually, the setting would make for a really compelling murder mystery or even something with hints of supernatural. The dramatic writing was very enjoyable, though, and moved at a nice pace, very dialogue driven, made for a quick read. And an entertaining one too. Thanks Netgalley.

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Investigative journalist Janne Vuori is looking into the illegal and unethical practices of a mining company that has been wreaking havoc on the Finnish countryside. While Janne believes he will do whatever it takes to get the story, when the executives at the mining company begin to die suspiciously, he realizes that this story may cost more than he’s willing to pay. The sense of place is so strong in this story, it’s almost a character in and of itself. This is a new author for me, and a welcome addition in the world of Nordic Noir

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