Helsinki Blood - (Inspector Vaara Novel) by James Thompson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

James Thompson's incomparable Inspector Vaara is back in a new chilling Nordic mystery.

An Estonian woman begs Inspector Kari Vaara to find her daughter, Loviise, a young woman with Down syndrome who was promised work and a better life in Finland... and has since disappeared.

One more missing girl is a drop in the barrel for a police department that is understaffed and overburdened, but for Kari, the case is personal: it's a chance for redemption, to help the victims his failed black-ops unit was intended to save, and to prove to his estranged wife, Kate, that he's still the man he once was.

His search will lead him from the glittering world of Helsinki's high-class clubs to the darkest circles of Finland's underground trade in trafficked women and straight into the path of Loviise's captors, who may be some of the most untouchable people in the country.

Review Quotes

Praise for Helsinki Blood

"Thompson has absorbed enough cold, dark atmosphere for a spot on the roster of top Nordic crime writers."--The New York Post

"A tough book, beautifully and hauntingly told."--The Denver Post

"Compelling...Thompson draws on his long residence in Finland to convincingly portray a grungy northern underworld."--Publishers Weekly

"Unique and jolting...Equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood...and finally sweet redemption."--C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Force of Nature and Breaking Point

"Like the books of the late Stieg Larsson, Thompson's reflect the gray cold of Nordic winters...But Thompson's books move more quickly (and violently) than Larsson's."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"I can't get enough of this author. No one writes noir better, Nordic or otherwise."--Leighton Gage, author of Blood of the Wicked

"Kentucky native Thompson has created in Kari a hero as dyspeptic as Kurt Wallender and as prone to vigilante justice as Harry Hole."--Kirkus Reviews

"I can't get enough of this author. No one writes noir better, Nordic or otherwise."--Leighton Gage, author of Blood of the Wicked

"Unique and jolting...Equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood...and finally sweet redemption."--C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Force of Nature and Breaking Point

"Helsinki Blood is as dark and bracing as a Nordic winter...Kari Vaara blasts other maverick cops out of the (icy) water."--M.J. McGrath, author of Blood of the Wicked

Praise for the Inspector Vaara novels

"Thompson's style is on the dark end of the 'Nordic Noir' spectrum...Think Stieg Larsson's Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Henning Mankell's Wallander series...Thompson stands out from that crowd by writing in English and telling Vaara's gritty narrative in the first person."--The New York Times

"A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell."--Booklist

"The tone evokes Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but the plot takes off fast, the themes are universal and James Thompson tells a nighttime tale as only a bartender can."--Michael Simon, author of The Last Jew Standing

"The stark Nordic setting will appeal to fans of Scandinavian crime fiction...Will remind readers of Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park."--Library Journal

About the Author

James Thompson, eastern Kentucky-born and -raised, has lived in Finland for more than a dozen years; he now resides in Helsinki with his wife. His debut novel, Snow Angels, was selected as a Booklist Best Crime Novel Debut of the Year and was nominated for Edgar(R), Anthony, and Strand Magazine critics awards. Before becoming a full-time writer, Thompson studied Finnish--in which he is fluent--and Swedish, and worked as a bartender, bouncer, construction worker and soldier. His other Inspector Vaara novels are Lucifer's Tears and Helsinki White.