... the day finally loses its power altogether. It slumps behind the trees along the side of the road, leaving me behind just as it has done around thirteen thousand times before, to be replaced with a growing darkness that soon engulfs everything. [loc. 819]
Tuomainen has been described as a Finnish Carl Hiaasen, but I don't see the similarities: there's much less humour here, and what there is, is darker.
Hurmevaara is a remote village in Finland, near the Russian border. The quiet and uneventful existence of the townsfolk is disrupted by the precipitous arrival of a meteorite, which turns out to be worth a million euros. Naturally, it is kept under guard in the village museum: equally naturally, a number of people would very much like to steal it.
Joel, the pastor, volunteers to keep watch at night. (The other potential candidates all have commitments.) Joel's mind is not on the meteorite, but on his wife's pregnancy: he's certain the child is not his, and determined to discover the identity of the man with whom Krista committed adultery. Unfortunately, his role as watchman attracts attention from several more-or-less shady villagers, all hoping to acquire the meteorite -- and all, in Joel's opinion, making unexpected remarks about his marriage to Krista.
It's a hectic, headlong and often blackly comic adventure, with some unexpected twists, various types of conflict, and several well-drawn characters. Joel's capability (most of the time) and his military past are balanced by his faith, and by his determination to do good. He's an unusual and likeable protagonist.
But overall, I found this a fairly mundane thriller. There are few female characters, and all (as far as Joel is concerned) have flaws. (The femme fatale, the unfaithful wife, the mousy secretary making advances ...) The scenery's lovely and the narrator achieves some emotional resolution: the translation is transparent, in that I didn't notice any clunkiness. But I am damning with faint praise, because this didn't wow me.
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