James Thompson's Blog: Jimland

Brendan Lavin has a gift, like an apple with a poison core. He can break into anything, whether it be stealing a car or cracking a safe. Nowhere is denied him. After a prison jolt, he never wanted to use that gift again, opened a bakery and found happiness. But the past doesn’t allow him to keep it. Years passed and then his former colleagues demanded his talents. It was crack a safe or lose the person he loved the most. He did the job and ran to Shanghai, an act born of fear of prison and one of love. Without him, his girlfriend would be safe. But the past wouldn’t relent and the gripping novel ends in an explosive yet sad denouement. Expect great things from Kirk Kjeldsen.

Burning Down Stockholm
http://jamesthompsonauthor.com/2013/0...

http://jamesthompsonauthor.com/2013/0...

Reminding you that the group Scandinavian and Nordic Crime Fiction will start reading James Thompson's Helsinki Blood today, April 1.Don't have it? Find the lowest price here. http://jamesthompsonauthor.com/helsin...

I just want to thank everyone. The Helsinki Blood book launch exceeded my wildest dreams. Not only did HB start off like a rocket, but interest in the Inspector Vaara series because of it made the sales of the other books in the series rise (a LOT) as well. I'm grateful to all of you.

Best, Jim

Helsinki Blood, by James Thompson. Read the final book of the trilogy, to be released tomorrow. http://ow.ly/jf4Gk

OK, here we go! Same blog as the last, but this URL has working links and images.

On March 21st, Kari Vaara returns in Helsinki Blood, available for pre-order from your favorite stores in every format. You can find them on my website (I just redesigned it and am quite proud of it)

www.jamesthompsonauthor.com

What they say about the Inspector Vaara series.

“Compelling…Thompson draws on his long residence in Finland to convincingly portray a grungy northern underworld.”
—Publishers Weekly (Helsinki Blood)

“Kentucky native Thompson has created in Kari a hero as dyspeptic as Kurt Wallender and as prone to vigilante justice as Harry Hole”
—Kirkus (Helsinki Blood)

“A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (Helsinki White)

“Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series . . . readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent.”
—Library Journal (Helsinki Blood)

“James Thompson’s prose blend of chilly Scandinavian atmosphere and dark Southern Gothic is unique and jolting, like an ice-cold straight razor slashed across sweaty flesh. In Helsinki Blood there are equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood . . . and finally, sweet redemption.”
—C.J. Box, New York Times Bestselling Author (Helsinki Blood)

“Thompson’s style is on the dark end of the ‘Nordic Noir’ spectrum. The genre — with its stark and often violent police procedurals — has proved wildly successful…The marquee names have come from Sweden — think Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Henning Mankell’s Wallander series — but Norway’s Jo Nesbo and Iceland’s Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have also made their mark with international readers. Thompson stands out from that crowd by writing in English and telling Vaara’s gritty narrative in the first person. ”
—The New York Times (Helsinki White)

“In his dozen years of living in Finland…Thompson has absorbed enough cold, dark atmosphere for a spot on the roster of top Nordic crime writers—Mankell, Nesbø, Indrioason and the like.”
—The New York Post (Helsinki White)

“This was one of the first Scandinavian crime novels to be published after Norwegian Anders Breivik’s shooting spree at a youth camp in 2011, which resulted in 69 deaths, and in that context, the novel’s themes of hate, racism, and politics ring especially true… A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (starred review) (Helsinki White)

“Stellar…. Thompson elegantly threads Finland’s compelling national history with Vaara’s own demons in this taut, emotionally wrought novel.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Nazi collaboration, government cover-ups, kinky sex, a baby daughter waiting impatiently to be born and a vigilante-minded hero who talks back to his boss more irreverently than Dirty Harry. What more could you want?”
—Kirkus (starred review) (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Hamlet has always been Shakespeare’s most popular play, and some of our best contemporary writers and filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese to Cormac McCarthy, have found a large audience without sacrificing their ability to view violence as something other than an excuse for easy heroics. To take a noteworthy recent example, the superb new crime novelist James Thompson has written two books – Snow Angels and Lucifer’s Tears – that combine his extraordinary skills as a stylist and storyteller with his mature and moving sense of the costs that violence exacts from individuals and from society as a whole… The poet had a keen understanding of violence and its place in culture, and I think what Yeats writes here is imbued with meaning. From “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 1923. “We had fed the heart on fantasies. / The heart’s grown brutal from the fare.”
—The New Haven Review

“Mr. Thompson’s ability to craft complex plot/sub-plots with such powerful prose makes him unique in the family of modern-day crime writers. Startlingly original and instantly cinematic, Lucifer’s Tears unfolds in page-turning addictiveness until it delivers shock after shock in its denouement of police corruption and condemnation for those trying to rewrite history. It’s going to be tough for other crime writers to beat this as Thriller of The Year. Grab yourself a copy now and see why.”
—New York Journal of Books, by author Sam Millar.

“The laconic voice of inspector Kari Vaara is at the same time dangerous and human, his world cold, barren, yet intriguingly exotic, his story fast, brutal, yet told with a sort of laid-back calm.”
—Peter Hoeg, author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow (Snow Angels)

“This book is wonderful. It took me right in, dropped me into a strange new world, and kept me captivated from first to last page. James Thompson has done a masterful job with Snow Angels!”
—Michael Connelly (Snow Angels)


What they say about Helsinki Blood. Sorry, these aren't linked. Something went wrong and I don't have time to fix it. They'll all be on FB later today.

Kirkus review—Helsinki Blood

And Kirkus! http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features...

Publishers Weekly: Helsinki Blood

Jennsbookshelves

A bookshelf of new Nordic noir

Nordic Crime fiction continues to captivate readers, new titles from Sweden and Finland.

Booklist (review preview)
Kossu vodka, muscle relaxants, cortisone shots—it takes an arsenal of painkillers to move Finnish cop Kari Vaara out of his depression over his last case and off the couch in this, the fourth in the Inspector Vaara series. But what really galvanizes Vaara is a brick bearing the message, “There are ten million ways you could die,” thrown through the window near where his infant daughter sleeps.

Library Journal (preview)
Finnish inspector Kari Vaara has been beaten down so thoroughly (after Helsinki White) that all bets are off as to his integrity or ability to handle the black-ops work his team has taken on. His wife has left him, but their baby is in Kari’s care. Meanwhile, thugs are targeting him because of his last case, reminding him of his vulnerability. Once that problem is addressed, Kari agrees to help an Estonian woman find her kidnapped daughter, who has Down syndrome. Wading into the dismal morass of human trafficking, Kari’s team goes vigilante. Clearly, there is no turning back. VERDICT Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series, and his bleak and crushingly violent opening will put off some readers; I still miss the Kari of Snow Angels. But readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/12.]

Bookreporter: Helsinki Blood

Sydney Jones—Scene of the Crime (an overview of the Inspector Vaara series) A “Long, Dark Winter”: Jim Thompson’s Finnish Noir

Mystery People—Get to Know Jim Thompson—(and another one)

The Culture Must Change to End the Slaughter – An Interview With James Thompson, by Elizabeth White

OK, I think that's plenty. Did I get you to want to read the book yet? Hope so!

Jim









Use this area to offer a short preview of your email's content.
View this email in your browser









On March 21st, Kari Vaara returns in Helsinki Blood, available for pre-order from your favorite stores in every format. You can find them on my website (I just redesigned it and am quite proud of it)

www.jamesthompsonauthor.com

What they say about the Inspector Vaara series.

“Compelling…Thompson draws on his long residence in Finland to convincingly portray a grungy northern underworld.”
—Publishers Weekly (Helsinki Blood)

“Kentucky native Thompson has created in Kari a hero as dyspeptic as Kurt Wallender and as prone to vigilante justice as Harry Hole”
—Kirkus (Helsinki Blood)

“A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (Helsinki White)

“Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series . . . readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent.”
—Library Journal (Helsinki Blood)

“James Thompson’s prose blend of chilly Scandinavian atmosphere and dark Southern Gothic is unique and jolting, like an ice-cold straight razor slashed across sweaty flesh. In Helsinki Blood there are equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood . . . and finally, sweet redemption.”
—C.J. Box, New York Times Bestselling Author (Helsinki Blood)

“Thompson’s style is on the dark end of the ‘Nordic Noir’ spectrum. The genre — with its stark and often violent police procedurals — has proved wildly successful…The marquee names have come from Sweden — think Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Henning Mankell’s Wallander series — but Norway’s Jo Nesbo and Iceland’s Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have also made their mark with international readers. Thompson stands out from that crowd by writing in English and telling Vaara’s gritty narrative in the first person. ”
—The New York Times (Helsinki White)

“In his dozen years of living in Finland…Thompson has absorbed enough cold, dark atmosphere for a spot on the roster of top Nordic crime writers—Mankell, Nesbø, Indrioason and the like.”
—The New York Post (Helsinki White)

“This was one of the first Scandinavian crime novels to be published after Norwegian Anders Breivik’s shooting spree at a youth camp in 2011, which resulted in 69 deaths, and in that context, the novel’s themes of hate, racism, and politics ring especially true… A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (starred review) (Helsinki White)

“Stellar…. Thompson elegantly threads Finland’s compelling national history with Vaara’s own demons in this taut, emotionally wrought novel.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Nazi collaboration, government cover-ups, kinky sex, a baby daughter waiting impatiently to be born and a vigilante-minded hero who talks back to his boss more irreverently than Dirty Harry. What more could you want?”
—Kirkus (starred review) (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Hamlet has always been Shakespeare’s most popular play, and some of our best contemporary writers and filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese to Cormac McCarthy, have found a large audience without sacrificing their ability to view violence as something other than an excuse for easy heroics. To take a noteworthy recent example, the superb new crime novelist James Thompson has written two books – Snow Angels and Lucifer’s Tears – that combine his extraordinary skills as a stylist and storyteller with his mature and moving sense of the costs that violence exacts from individuals and from society as a whole… The poet had a keen understanding of violence and its place in culture, and I think what Yeats writes here is imbued with meaning. From “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 1923. “We had fed the heart on fantasies. / The heart’s grown brutal from the fare.”
—The New Haven Review

“Mr. Thompson’s ability to craft complex plot/sub-plots with such powerful prose makes him unique in the family of modern-day crime writers. Startlingly original and instantly cinematic, Lucifer’s Tears unfolds in page-turning addictiveness until it delivers shock after shock in its denouement of police corruption and condemnation for those trying to rewrite history. It’s going to be tough for other crime writers to beat this as Thriller of The Year. Grab yourself a copy now and see why.”
—New York Journal of Books, by author Sam Millar.

“The laconic voice of inspector Kari Vaara is at the same time dangerous and human, his world cold, barren, yet intriguingly exotic, his story fast, brutal, yet told with a sort of laid-back calm.”
—Peter Hoeg, author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow (Snow Angels)

“This book is wonderful. It took me right in, dropped me into a strange new world, and kept me captivated from first to last page. James Thompson has done a masterful job with Snow Angels!”
—Michael Connelly (Snow Angels)











What they say about Helsinki Blood.

Kirkus review—Helsinki Blood

And Kirkus! http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features...

Publishers Weekly: Helsinki Blood

Jennsbookshelves

A bookshelf of new Nordic noir

Nordic Crime fiction continues to captivate readers, new titles from Sweden and Finland.

Booklist (review preview)
Kossu vodka, muscle relaxants, cortisone shots—it takes an arsenal of painkillers to move Finnish cop Kari Vaara out of his depression over his last case and off the couch in this, the fourth in the Inspector Vaara series. But what really galvanizes Vaara is a brick bearing the message, “There are ten million ways you could die,” thrown through the window near where his infant daughter sleeps.

Library Journal (preview)
Finnish inspector Kari Vaara has been beaten down so thoroughly (after Helsinki White) that all bets are off as to his integrity or ability to handle the black-ops work his team has taken on. His wife has left him, but their baby is in Kari’s care. Meanwhile, thugs are targeting him because of his last case, reminding him of his vulnerability. Once that problem is addressed, Kari agrees to help an Estonian woman find her kidnapped daughter, who has Down syndrome. Wading into the dismal morass of human trafficking, Kari’s team goes vigilante. Clearly, there is no turning back. VERDICT Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series, and his bleak and crushingly violent opening will put off some readers; I still miss the Kari of Snow Angels. But readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/12.]

Bookreporter: Helsinki Blood

Sydney Jones—Scene of the Crime (an overview of the Inspector Vaara series) A “Long, Dark Winter”: Jim Thompson’s Finnish Noir

Mystery People—Get to Know Jim Thompson—(and another one)

The Culture Must Change to End the Slaughter – An Interview With James Thompson, by Elizabeth White

OK, I think that's plenty. Did I get you to want to read the book yet? Hope so!

Jim

On March 21st, Kari Vaara returns in Helsinki Blood, available for pre-order from your favorite stores in every format. You can find them on my website (I just redesigned it and am quite proud of it)

www.jamesthompsonauthor.com

What they say about the Inspector Vaara series.

“Compelling…Thompson draws on his long residence in Finland to convincingly portray a grungy northern underworld.”
—Publishers Weekly (Helsinki Blood)

“Kentucky native Thompson has created in Kari a hero as dyspeptic as Kurt Wallender and as prone to vigilante justice as Harry Hole”
—Kirkus (Helsinki Blood)

“A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (Helsinki White)

“Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series . . . readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent.”
—Library Journal (Helsinki Blood)

“James Thompson’s prose blend of chilly Scandinavian atmosphere and dark Southern Gothic is unique and jolting, like an ice-cold straight razor slashed across sweaty flesh. In Helsinki Blood there are equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood . . . and finally, sweet redemption.”
—C.J. Box, New York Times Bestselling Author (Helsinki Blood)

“Thompson’s style is on the dark end of the ‘Nordic Noir’ spectrum. The genre — with its stark and often violent police procedurals — has proved wildly successful…The marquee names have come from Sweden — think Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Henning Mankell’s Wallander series — but Norway’s Jo Nesbo and Iceland’s Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have also made their mark with international readers. Thompson stands out from that crowd by writing in English and telling Vaara’s gritty narrative in the first person. ”
—The New York Times (Helsinki White)

“In his dozen years of living in Finland…Thompson has absorbed enough cold, dark atmosphere for a spot on the roster of top Nordic crime writers—Mankell, Nesbø, Indrioason and the like.”
—The New York Post (Helsinki White)

“This was one of the first Scandinavian crime novels to be published after Norwegian Anders Breivik’s shooting spree at a youth camp in 2011, which resulted in 69 deaths, and in that context, the novel’s themes of hate, racism, and politics ring especially true… A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (starred review) (Helsinki White)

“Stellar…. Thompson elegantly threads Finland’s compelling national history with Vaara’s own demons in this taut, emotionally wrought novel.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Nazi collaboration, government cover-ups, kinky sex, a baby daughter waiting impatiently to be born and a vigilante-minded hero who talks back to his boss more irreverently than Dirty Harry. What more could you want?”
—Kirkus (starred review) (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Hamlet has always been Shakespeare’s most popular play, and some of our best contemporary writers and filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese to Cormac McCarthy, have found a large audience without sacrificing their ability to view violence as something other than an excuse for easy heroics. To take a noteworthy recent example, the superb new crime novelist James Thompson has written two books – Snow Angels and Lucifer’s Tears – that combine his extraordinary skills as a stylist and storyteller with his mature and moving sense of the costs that violence exacts from individuals and from society as a whole… The poet had a keen understanding of violence and its place in culture, and I think what Yeats writes here is imbued with meaning. From “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 1923. “We had fed the heart on fantasies. / The heart’s grown brutal from the fare.”
—The New Haven Review

“Mr. Thompson’s ability to craft complex plot/sub-plots with such powerful prose makes him unique in the family of modern-day crime writers. Startlingly original and instantly cinematic, Lucifer’s Tears unfolds in page-turning addictiveness until it delivers shock after shock in its denouement of police corruption and condemnation for those trying to rewrite history. It’s going to be tough for other crime writers to beat this as Thriller of The Year. Grab yourself a copy now and see why.”
—New York Journal of Books, by author Sam Millar.

“The laconic voice of inspector Kari Vaara is at the same time dangerous and human, his world cold, barren, yet intriguingly exotic, his story fast, brutal, yet told with a sort of laid-back calm.”
—Peter Hoeg, author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow (Snow Angels)

“This book is wonderful. It took me right in, dropped me into a strange new world, and kept me captivated from first to last page. James Thompson has done a masterful job with Snow Angels!”
—Michael Connelly (Snow Angels)


What they say about Helsinki Blood. Sorry, these aren't linked.

Kirkus review—Helsinki Blood

And Kirkus! http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features...

Publishers Weekly: Helsinki Blood

Jennsbookshelves

A bookshelf of new Nordic noir

Nordic Crime fiction continues to captivate readers, new titles from Sweden and Finland.

Booklist (review preview)
Kossu vodka, muscle relaxants, cortisone shots—it takes an arsenal of painkillers to move Finnish cop Kari Vaara out of his depression over his last case and off the couch in this, the fourth in the Inspector Vaara series. But what really galvanizes Vaara is a brick bearing the message, “There are ten million ways you could die,” thrown through the window near where his infant daughter sleeps.

Library Journal (preview)
Finnish inspector Kari Vaara has been beaten down so thoroughly (after Helsinki White) that all bets are off as to his integrity or ability to handle the black-ops work his team has taken on. His wife has left him, but their baby is in Kari’s care. Meanwhile, thugs are targeting him because of his last case, reminding him of his vulnerability. Once that problem is addressed, Kari agrees to help an Estonian woman find her kidnapped daughter, who has Down syndrome. Wading into the dismal morass of human trafficking, Kari’s team goes vigilante. Clearly, there is no turning back. VERDICT Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series, and his bleak and crushingly violent opening will put off some readers; I still miss the Kari of Snow Angels. But readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/12.]

Bookreporter: Helsinki Blood

Sydney Jones—Scene of the Crime (an overview of the Inspector Vaara series) A “Long, Dark Winter”: Jim Thompson’s Finnish Noir

Mystery People—Get to Know Jim Thompson—(and another one)

The Culture Must Change to End the Slaughter – An Interview With James Thompson, by Elizabeth White

OK, I think that's plenty. Did I get you to want to read the book yet? Hope so!

Jim









Use this area to offer a short preview of your email's content.
View this email in your browser









On March 21st, Kari Vaara returns in Helsinki Blood, available for pre-order from your favorite stores in every format. You can find them on my website (I just redesigned it and am quite proud of it)

www.jamesthompsonauthor.com

What they say about the Inspector Vaara series.

“Compelling…Thompson draws on his long residence in Finland to convincingly portray a grungy northern underworld.”
—Publishers Weekly (Helsinki Blood)

“Kentucky native Thompson has created in Kari a hero as dyspeptic as Kurt Wallender and as prone to vigilante justice as Harry Hole”
—Kirkus (Helsinki Blood)

“A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (Helsinki White)

“Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series . . . readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent.”
—Library Journal (Helsinki Blood)

“James Thompson’s prose blend of chilly Scandinavian atmosphere and dark Southern Gothic is unique and jolting, like an ice-cold straight razor slashed across sweaty flesh. In Helsinki Blood there are equal measures of violence, detection, pathos, blood . . . and finally, sweet redemption.”
—C.J. Box, New York Times Bestselling Author (Helsinki Blood)

“Thompson’s style is on the dark end of the ‘Nordic Noir’ spectrum. The genre — with its stark and often violent police procedurals — has proved wildly successful…The marquee names have come from Sweden — think Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Henning Mankell’s Wallander series — but Norway’s Jo Nesbo and Iceland’s Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have also made their mark with international readers. Thompson stands out from that crowd by writing in English and telling Vaara’s gritty narrative in the first person. ”
—The New York Times (Helsinki White)

“In his dozen years of living in Finland…Thompson has absorbed enough cold, dark atmosphere for a spot on the roster of top Nordic crime writers—Mankell, Nesbø, Indrioason and the like.”
—The New York Post (Helsinki White)

“This was one of the first Scandinavian crime novels to be published after Norwegian Anders Breivik’s shooting spree at a youth camp in 2011, which resulted in 69 deaths, and in that context, the novel’s themes of hate, racism, and politics ring especially true… A must-read for fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.”
—Booklist (starred review) (Helsinki White)

“Stellar…. Thompson elegantly threads Finland’s compelling national history with Vaara’s own demons in this taut, emotionally wrought novel.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Nazi collaboration, government cover-ups, kinky sex, a baby daughter waiting impatiently to be born and a vigilante-minded hero who talks back to his boss more irreverently than Dirty Harry. What more could you want?”
—Kirkus (starred review) (Lucifer’s Tears)

“Hamlet has always been Shakespeare’s most popular play, and some of our best contemporary writers and filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese to Cormac McCarthy, have found a large audience without sacrificing their ability to view violence as something other than an excuse for easy heroics. To take a noteworthy recent example, the superb new crime novelist James Thompson has written two books – Snow Angels and Lucifer’s Tears – that combine his extraordinary skills as a stylist and storyteller with his mature and moving sense of the costs that violence exacts from individuals and from society as a whole… The poet had a keen understanding of violence and its place in culture, and I think what Yeats writes here is imbued with meaning. From “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 1923. “We had fed the heart on fantasies. / The heart’s grown brutal from the fare.”
—The New Haven Review

“Mr. Thompson’s ability to craft complex plot/sub-plots with such powerful prose makes him unique in the family of modern-day crime writers. Startlingly original and instantly cinematic, Lucifer’s Tears unfolds in page-turning addictiveness until it delivers shock after shock in its denouement of police corruption and condemnation for those trying to rewrite history. It’s going to be tough for other crime writers to beat this as Thriller of The Year. Grab yourself a copy now and see why.”
—New York Journal of Books, by author Sam Millar.

“The laconic voice of inspector Kari Vaara is at the same time dangerous and human, his world cold, barren, yet intriguingly exotic, his story fast, brutal, yet told with a sort of laid-back calm.”
—Peter Hoeg, author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow (Snow Angels)

“This book is wonderful. It took me right in, dropped me into a strange new world, and kept me captivated from first to last page. James Thompson has done a masterful job with Snow Angels!”
—Michael Connelly (Snow Angels)











What they say about Helsinki Blood.

Kirkus review—Helsinki Blood

And Kirkus! http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features...

Publishers Weekly: Helsinki Blood

Jennsbookshelves

A bookshelf of new Nordic noir

Nordic Crime fiction continues to captivate readers, new titles from Sweden and Finland.

Booklist (review preview)
Kossu vodka, muscle relaxants, cortisone shots—it takes an arsenal of painkillers to move Finnish cop Kari Vaara out of his depression over his last case and off the couch in this, the fourth in the Inspector Vaara series. But what really galvanizes Vaara is a brick bearing the message, “There are ten million ways you could die,” thrown through the window near where his infant daughter sleeps.

Library Journal (preview)
Finnish inspector Kari Vaara has been beaten down so thoroughly (after Helsinki White) that all bets are off as to his integrity or ability to handle the black-ops work his team has taken on. His wife has left him, but their baby is in Kari’s care. Meanwhile, thugs are targeting him because of his last case, reminding him of his vulnerability. Once that problem is addressed, Kari agrees to help an Estonian woman find her kidnapped daughter, who has Down syndrome. Wading into the dismal morass of human trafficking, Kari’s team goes vigilante. Clearly, there is no turning back. VERDICT Finnish noir is the current tone of Thompson’s series, and his bleak and crushingly violent opening will put off some readers; I still miss the Kari of Snow Angels. But readers who are already invested in this character ache to see him succeed. Just the fact that Thompson can make the situation believable and make us care is evidence of his talent. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/12.]

Bookreporter: Helsinki Blood

Sydney Jones—Scene of the Crime (an overview of the Inspector Vaara series) A “Long, Dark Winter”: Jim Thompson’s Finnish Noir

Mystery People—Get to Know Jim Thompson—(and another one)

The Culture Must Change to End the Slaughter – An Interview With James Thompson, by Elizabeth White

OK, I think that's plenty. Did I get you to want to read the book yet? Hope so!

Jim

Making the NYT list has been a longstanding goal for me. The publication date is March 21st. Pre-sales count toward the first week of sales, and it takes an average of about 3000 copies sold in a week to get on the list, so this is my best opportunity. I hate people pushing books on me, saying I must read their breathtaking works of staggering genius, and I won't do that to you either. If the book interests you and you intend to read it at some point, you will have my gratitude if you buy it now rather than later. E-books as well as hardcovers count, so if you order from outside the U.S. and buy a download for your e-reader, that helps too. All of the books in the Inspector Vaara series are available from all major retailers in all formats. You can find them all linked on my website. Thanks everyone!

With Warm Wishes – Jim

www.jamesthompsonauthor.com

Room No. 10, by Åke Edwardson
Review by James Thompson
New York Journal of Books
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/revie...