Winter Job

A desperate father's Christmas promise sparks a wild Finnish road trip involving an antique sofa, unexpected passengers and danger ... A darkly humorous and warmly touching suspense novel about friendship, love and death, The Winter Job flies at 120 kilometres an hour straight into the darkest heart of a Finnish winter night. `Another wonderfully lean slice of European noir by one of its finest exponents. As darkly fun as any Coen brothers' offering Vaseem Khan`The king of the humorous crime caper Abir Mukherjee`It may seem hard to find good comic crime-writers, but clearly we haven't been looking in Finland TelegraphThe NEW standalone darkly funny, poignant and uber-tense thriller from 'The funniest writer in Europe' (The Times)Fargo meets Carl Hiassen and Fredrik Backman via the Coen Brothers____Sofas, secrets and a snowbound road to trouble Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go and no money he's desperate. A last-minute job offers a solution: transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjarvi, the northernmost town in Finland. With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada. That's when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special. And that's when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble A darkly funny and unexpectedly moving thriller about friendship, love and death The Winter Job tears through the frozen landscape of northern Finland in a beat-up van with bad steering, worse timing, and everything to lose ________Praise for Antti Tuomainen`Humour drier than a desert snake's belly Ian Moore`You don't expect to laugh when you're reading about terrible crimes, but that's what you'll do when you pick up one of Tuomainen's decidedly quirky thrillers New York Times`Deftly plotted, poignant and perceptive in its wry reflections and very funny Irish Times`Laconic, thrilling and warmly human Christopher Brookmyre`Right up there with the best Times Literary Supplement`Finland's greatest export M.J. Arlidge`A refreshing change from the decidedly gloomier crime fiction for which Scandinavia is known Publishers Weekly`Fresh and witty Chris Ewan`Charming, funny and clever Literary Review`Thrilling and hilarious Liz Nugent`A delight from start to finish Big Issue`Tuomainen has a talent for creating offbeat characters that you can't help rooting for Guardian