About the Book: A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he’s dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists.
With a nod to Fargo and the best elements of the Scandinavian noir tradition, The Man Who Died is a page-turning thriller brimming with the blackest comedy surrounding life and death, and love and betrayal, marking a stunning new departure for the King of Helsinki Noir.
My Review: If someone were to tell me that a book about a Finnish Mushroom entrepreneur would be one I would read and recommend on Compulsive Readers I might suggest they’ve been eating some Magic Mushrooms themselves! However, I did read it and I do recommend it.
It was highly recommended to me by Jen Lucas of Jen Med’s Book Reviews as one of her favourite books so I knew I would possibly enjoy it too. What I didn’t expect was to be drawn into the book quite so quickly and get immersed in the story line from page one.
Jaakko is our main character, he’s an average, overweight, middle age business man who has been married to his wife for seven years and now owns and runs a very successful mushroom exporting company – however in the opening chapter we find out he’s dying and that he’s been slowly poisoned to death and now Jaakko is determined to find out who killed him before he dies.
This book is dark, in fact it’s so dark I would suggest a reading light is required – the humour is dry, dark and very quirky, the story line is original, the characters are brilliant, bizarre and some of them are bonkers. I don’t know what else to say, except it’s a refreshing change from the usual crime thrillers I read and as The Man Who Died has been optioned for a feature film I definitely will go and see it.
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