BOOK SYNOPSIS
Just one spreadsheet away from chaos…
What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.
And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.
But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets…
Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life.
The book opens with a breath taking chapter in which we find our main character Henri Koskinen being chased by a man who is actually throwing knives at him (I know, the audacity of some people!!!) Then the story slips back to exactly three weeks and five days earlier and we learn about the events that led up to him finding himself in such a incalculable situation. It all starts when Henri who is a actuary suddenly finds himself forced to resign from his job, then he is visited by a lawyer who informs Henri that his brother has died and that Henri is now the owner of a amusement park. Henri's immediate reaction is to inform said lawyer that it's a adventure park not a amusement park, there is vast differences between the two different types of parks.Henri has absolutely no idea how to run a amusement park but then,as far as he knows, neither did his brother and his initial plan is to have as little to do with the place as possible. But when he goes to inform the staff that Junani was dead and that he is now their boss,he is suddenly overcome with unexpected feelings of responsibility for the eclectic group of individuals who worked there. It was his brother's wish that Henri would keep the park ticking over for him and as much as it didn't make mathematical sense to him, that was exactly what he was going to do. Little did Henri realise how much of a impact in both good and bad ways being the owner of a adventure park will have on both his life and way of thinking.
I would say that our Henri was a bit of a introvert, he was happy in his minimalist home with only his cat as company, he thought other people were irritating and that gossip was a unnecessary waste of time. Everything he did was planned out using mathematics right down to the tiniest detail and any deviation from the plan was simply not logical. He came across as a distant relative of Mr Spock and to be honest I initially found him rather annoying but as the story unfolded and his character underwent some significant changes, he started to worm his way into my heart. I found myself rooting for him during his battle to outsmart the bad guys of the story, save the park and stop Inspector Osmala who appeared to think he was a distant relative of Columbo from uncovering exactly what Henri had done to protect the park. As Henri became more acquainted with his employees and especially close to Laura Helanto, he was surprised to discover that maybe there was actually more to life than mathematics. That life can be more exciting and unpredictable if you change the equation a bit, move the decimal point around and take the occasional uncalculated risk. What did fate have in store for Henri, his employees and the adventure park and would anyone figure out a way to stop the giant rabbit's ear from falling off?
The Rabbit Factor is a perfectly plotted blend of thriller,character development, hero in danger and romance with a added dash of humour that hooks the reader in from the first page. This very talented author has a wonderful imagination and he describes his settings so vividly that you could close your eyes and picture everything so clearly that you could actually be there with his realistic characters. This story has been commissioned to be adapted into a movie staring Steve Carrell and I look forward to watching his interpretation of Henri's quirky personality and character traits. A mesmersing, entertaining read and very very highly recommended.
AUTHOR BIO
Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author in 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. A TV adaptation is in the works, and Jussi Vatanen (Man In Room 301) has just been announced as a leading role. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. His latest thriller, Little Siberia, was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/ Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. In total, Antti Tuomainen has been short- and longlisted for 12 UK awards.
PUBLICATION DATE: 28th October 2021
PRE-ORDER/PURCHASE LINK...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rabbit-Factor-Antti-Tuomainen-ebook/dp/B08WS4BH3P/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KPJGDNEF3EH&dchild=1&keywords=the+rabbit+factor&qid=1633893335&s=books&sprefix=The+rabbit+%2Cstripbooks%2C217&sr=1-1
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