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…
Antti Tuomainen has a very unique sense of humour and it completely shines through in his writing. Mixing crime with humour in a Scandi setting, it's almost like a genre in its own right as there is nothing else quite like it.
The Burning Stones is set in a sauna-stove company where it would appear that one of the employees will kill to get promoted. As she is the favourite to get promoted, and the evidence is pointing towards her, Anni is the prime suspect and the police have a grudge against her family so they don't want to listen to her side of the story. Anni needs to catch the killer before she is arrested for the crime herself.
It's a very race against the clock sort of book as Anni attempts to identify the killer before the police gather enough evidence to arrest her. Speaking of races...I actually snorted out loud at Anni's husband watching old Formula 1 races and discussing the result with his friends as if the race had just happened. It's that sort of subtle humour that is sprinkled throughout the book and it made me laugh when I least expected it.
The Burning Stones is a fun crime caper that both gripped and amused me. You definitely need a good sense of humour to read it and I can totally see this following in the footsteps of Antti Tuomainen's previous novels and being adapted for TV. If you're looking for something a bit different to read then I would recommend The Burning Stones.
I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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About the author:
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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 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 Carell. Antti lives in Helsinki with his wife.
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