Antti Tuomainen Books In Order

Publication Order of Rabbit Factor Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Antti Tuomainen is an award-winning mystery author from Finland that made his debut into the International mystery world with his novel “The Healer” first published in 2010. It was his third novel and it went on to be shortlisted for the Glass Key Award and won the Best Finnish Crime Novel of 2011. He was crowned the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ by the Finnish Press when he published “Dark As My Heart” in 2013. Tuomainen writes with an evocative and piercing style that challenged the conventional Scandinavian crime mystery formula. It is this style combined with a hilarious, poignant and dark writing that made his novels international bestsellers, far surpassing many other Scandinavian authors that came before him. He is known for combining all manner of writing styles including dark, moody noir alongside a dark laconic sense of humor. For instance, while he was known for dark mystery, a critic from the Times in reviewing Palm Beach, Finland called him the funniest author in Europe.

Since Antti Tuomainen started translating and publishing his novels in English, he has become one of the most popular mystery authors across the globe. His novels are currently published in more than 27 countries with “The Healer” his blockbuster breakout novel published in more than 23 languages. All together his works have been published in more than 25 languages. Antti asserts that he finds crime fiction the perfect framework to tell the histrionic stories that are always going through his mind. It provides him with the opportunity to explore and investigate human beings that have to deal with extreme circumstances. His writing came very naturally as he says that he writes the stories that he liked and would have liked to read. Antti’s crime fiction works are informed by the human condition which he finds so imperfectly perfect and yet so wonderfully flawed. Antti writes about how people can be so bad as well as so good. He is also interested in how people respond in a variety of situations, desperate situations and in times of crisis. He has always combined a variety of elements when writing his novels. Tuomainen is influenced by the likes of Raymond Chandler that he finds not so much hard-boiled as he had been painted, and Joyce Carol Oates who he believes is a genius when it comes to creating suspense and tension. From Finland he has said that he was influenced by Juha Seppala and Veijo Meri.

Antti novels can all be read as standalones since they are thematically different even if they have similar writing styles. “The Healer” his breakout novel is a combination of a love and crime story. It is set in a Helsinki suffocating under the weight of climate change, where a man is searching for his wife that had gone missing. Tapani Lehtinen, the lead character is a poet married to Johanna a journalist. They have been hanging on in a city that is almost becoming inhospitable since they just cannot leave. But then everything goes haywire when Johanna goes missing while on a job investigating a series of mysterious homicides. It was “The Man Who Died” that gave Tuomainen the tile “The King of Helsinki Noir.” In the novel, he showed his multifaceted ability in a bizarre Fargo like story that asks the question what can one do when their loved ones turn against them? In “Little Siberia” Antti asks the question what would happen when a meteorite falls onto your car. Mixing horror and tongue in cheek characterization it tells the story of a man whose car gets hit by a valuable meteorite. It is a combination of black comedy and crime fiction about disbelief and faith, death and love.

“The Healer” is Antti Tuomainen’s dystopian novel that is set in a futuristic Helsinki. It is two days to Christmas and Helsinki is in the grip of a ruthless climate disaster as burning vehicles are left burning in the streets, the subway is flooded, and there have been warnings about the plague, malaria, Ebola, and tuberculosis. People have been fleeing to Norway and Finland which have not been so badly affected by the climate catastrophe. Social conditions are deteriorating and private security firms have become more important than the police force. A struggling poet and his wife a newspaper journalist still live in the city. But then Johanna, the poet’s wife goes missing while investigating some murder and Tapani goes on a frantic search for her. All clues point to a politically motivated serial killer that she had been investigation before she went missing. The man has been nicknamed “the Healer” and he is one of the most vicious killers in Helsinki. But in his search for his wife, Tapani is forced to uncover some dark secrets about her past.

“The Man Who Died” has been called the Finnish version of Fargo as mixes some dark comedy with Scandinavian Noir. The lead is Jaako Kaunisma, a successful entrepreneur who farms and sells mushroom to Japanese customers who love his product. But the man is dying as he has been poisoned and the doctors do not have anything to help him. Even as he is dying, he is determined to find the man who wants him dead. Life is getting even complex as a competitor just set up a mushroom business and wants to take the market away from him. Things could not be worse as he learns that his wife has been cheating on him with the delivery driver. He thinks they may have been behind the attempt on his life. It does not help that he had gone really hard against his competitors who are more than ever determined to finish him off – at least in the business sense. As Jaako investigates, he goes on a rollercoaster ride where he meets decidedly bizarre characters that are scary as well as hilarious. There are also wonderful turns and twists that are impossible to see coming as the novel is more like driving blindfolded where you know the road so well but do not know just what is coming round the bend.

In Antti Tuomainen’s “Little Siberia,” a man is taking swigs from a bottle of vodka while speeding through the snow-covered Finnish roads. He is taking the car to the limits as he boasts that the top speed depends on the driver and not what the manufacturer recommends. His drive comes to an abrupt stop when a meteorite seemingly from nowhere crashes into his car. It turns out that it is a very valuable meteorite that could be sold for millions of Euros. He is thinking of all the money he could make and decides to take it to the museum run by a friendly priest named Joel for safekeeping. But Joel is distracted by the fact that his wife just announced that she is expectant and he knows the baby is not his. In addition to trying to discover who his wife was cheating with, he has to repeatedly fend off thieves who want the meteorite for themselves. The mysteries are enough to keep him wide awake the whole night.