#Review by Lou of The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen @antti_tuomainen @OrendaBooks #TheWinterJob #ScandiNoir #Christmas #ChristmasRead

The Winter Job
By Antti Tuomainen

Review by Louise Cannon

Winter is upon us and the temperature is dropping, at least where I am, it’s a bit chilly, bordering on a bitterness in the air. There can be dark humour in these darker nights and it comes in the form of The Winter Job. A great Road Trip and Crime Christmas Read.

Antti Tuomainen is an interesting Scandi-Noir author and brings surprising twists and turns. If you know Scandi-Noir, it’s often quite dark in the themes and what happens. Antti Tuomainen cleverly turns some of this on its head. I first read The Rabbit Factor trilogy and saw this and he has written others that are stand-alone books, but this is the author who makes me want to read this genre. So, what did I think of this latest book that was a surprise gift left at Bloody Scotland Festival for me by Orenda Books? Find out below…

Review

There’s a Christmas promise to fulfil, a fabulous road trip which brings some unexpected people into the journey along the way, some with friendship, others with danger and there is a death.

There’s an important Christmas mission to avoid disappointment on Christmas Day. Ilmari has a piano to pick up for his daughter. There’s an important agreement to be made and he needs it for his daughter in 6 days time. It shouldn’t be too hard, but there is some poor driving and the transportation of something unexpected that defies the anything like any type of normal things that get moved. There are also suspicious businessmen along the way.

The Winter Job is not your usual Scandi-Noir nor your usual Christmas book. It’s quirky, it’s full of humour combined with dangerous twists. The big question is, will the piano get to where it needs to be in time?

For fun this Christmas with a crime theme, The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen is a great treat for readers either for yourself or a present for someone.

#Review by Lou of Dark Islands featuring Morag Pringle, Ronnie Turner, Chris Barkley @BloodyScotland #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction #psychologicalthriller @ronnie__turner @TufferBarkley #MoragPringle @PolygonBooks @OrendaBooks #ReadingCommunity

Bloody Scotland Panel – Dark Islands
Featuring Morag Pringle, Ronnie Turner, Chris Barkley

review written by Louise Cannon

Morag Pringle’s book is The Final Truth. She used to write medical romances for Mills & Boon, which appears of higher quality writing than perhaps some readers give credit to. She mentioned about the high standards and high quality that has to be adhered to and met, which in-turn honed her skills.

Ronnie Turner’s book is Small Fires she is interested in folk lore, fairytales, nature vs nurture, identity, beauty, psychology. Now, this sounds an intriguing, yet winning combination to explore.

Chris Barkley talked of Man at the End of the Stair being a metaphysical, locked room mystery.

I read and reviewed this book and it is thought-provoking with strong themes and exceedingly atmospheric. It pulls you in with its ability to intrigue and its intensity.

They drew you into their talk of their islands, creating a sense of dark, moody atmosphere as they talked of losing phone signals, creating a claustrophobic feeling. Folklore and myth being woven together like a tapestry. Ronnie was especially interested in this and in-turn made you enter that world.

Chris Barkley brings up many thought-provoking points, such as an island being a psychological symbol.
They all mentioned how trauma and guilt is a journey. You could tell, they really examined these traits of the human condition and the what happened to a person to cause trauma.

Their books aren’t all heavy, they explained how there is a sweet innocence thread through them to lighten the themes and reading experience up a bit.

The talk was really fascinating, especially at the beginning and the middle. Some of the talk of writing experiences was interesting too, but it did feel like it lingered there a little too long, when the interest was that feeling of being or actually being on an island.

#Review of The Transcendent Tide by Doug Johnstone @doug_johnstone @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #BlogTour

The Transcendent Tide
By Doug Johnstone

Review by Louise Cannon

For those following the Enceladons Trilogy, this is the grand finale, of what has been a rather urgently relevant, yet entertaining read that’s just got better and better, with this final one being one of the best. Even if you aren’t into sci-fi, which isn’t a huge genre read for me, it has much more than aliens. There’s humanity and eco-awareness too.
Discover the blurb and my review below. thanks to being on the Random T. Tours blog tour and Orenda for supplying the book. Please note, all opinions are my own.

Blurb

It’s been eighteen months since the Enceladons escaped the clutches of an American military determined to exterminate the peaceful alien creatures.

Lennox and Vonnie have been lying low in the Scottish Highlands, Ava has been caring for her young daughter Chloe, and Heather is adjusting to her new life with Sandy and the other Enceladons in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Greenland. But fate is about to bring them together again for one last battle.

When Lennox and Vonnie are visited by Karl Jensen, a Norwegian billionaire intent on making contact with the Encedalons again, they are wary of subjecting the aliens to further dangers. But when word arrives that Ava’s daughter has suffered an attack and might die without urgent help, they reluctantly make the trip to Greenland, where they enlist the vital help of local woman Niviaq.

It’s not long before they’re drawn into a complex web of lies, deceit and death. What is Karl’s company really up to? Why are sea creatures attacking boats? Why is Sandy acting so strangely, and why are polar bears getting involved?

Profound, ambitious and immensely moving, The Transcendent Tide is the epic conclusion to the Encedalons Trilogy – a final showdown between the best and worst of humanity, the animal kingdom and the Encedalons. The future of life on earth will be changed forever, but not everyone will survive to see it…

Review

The Transcendent Tide couldn’t be more timely, with a certain US President kicking off, greedily looking at Greenland, one of the most important and vital countries to save planet earth, if left virtually untouched. I’ve always reckoned that nature will always win-out, not humans in the end and this book is a fine example of nature vs humans and makes stark points of why we need to work with, not always against it. Who will win, can there be any winners, will anything turn out alright in the end?

What Doug Johnstone has created is a deeply profound trilogy, which has grown even deeper still come this final book. The way he gets the most important points across, mixed with a bit of entertainment, is done to a highly skilled quality. It’s thought-provoking and intelligently done, so that, if you’re worldly aware, you can join the dots between the events that are happening in the book to what’s happening in the world with the ideas of certain world politicians.

There are twists and turns, secrets and lies which forms some of the entertaining parts of the book, not that this dilutes any of the important points, it does however add to the readability of the plot.

I highly recommend The Transcendent Tide and the previous 2 books in the trilogy.

#Review by Lou of Happy Is The One by Katie Allen #MeetRobin @KTAllenWriting @OrendaBooks #HalleysComet #HappyIsTheOne

Happy Is The One
By Katie Allen

Review by Louise Cannon

Happy is the One is great for those who enjoy reading Rachel Joyce’s books. I also thought her debut, Everything Happens For A Reason to be a great read. Both are excellent for book clubs and for reading outwith them too. Today I am on the blog tour with a review. See below for more details about this book and my opinions on it as well as a bit about the author.

Blurb

hat if halfway through your life was just the beginning?

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin.

And he’s hiding even more from her…

For fans of Hazel Prior, Rachel Joyce and Jonas Jonasson

Review

Katie Allen poses a question that I am sure I am not the only other person who has thought of: What would you do if you knew the exact moment you were going to die and how would you then proceed to live your life? Deep and thought provoking for readers to ponder and for her main characters to navigate.

Robin whole-heartedly believes he knows when he’s going to die. It’s all linked to a theory he’s been told since he was a child to do with Halley’s Comet and that he won’t die until it orbits earth again. He’s now 37.

The book explores humanity and emotions of grief. Robin lost his mother when he was young and as if that isn’t enough to contend with, his father is also very unwell. . It also explores the impact on this very well and believably through Robin then wanting to design and plan the perfect life to the point of obsession. You can totally empathise with him as he’s far from being present and enjoying things, he’s always working on steps ahead. You can really see why he’s focusing on certain things and doing more existing than truly living life as it’s a lot to deal with.

There is a corner that gets turned when the more relaxed Astrid appears on the scene. This doesn’t come without its challenges as there are revelations that appear.

Danny also comes to the scene and he has dreams to live out and this captures Robin into living life. The pair are like chalk and cheese and yet they work together, especially where Robin is concerned in showing a more present life rather than always looking towards the future and worrying about what may or may not occur.

Happy Is The One is ultimately a heart-warming story that will get you pondering what direction to lead your own life in, will it be always looking ahead, but forgetting about the present, or will it be more enjoying the moment whilst it lasts?

I highly recommend Happy is the One as one not to miss. It just might feed something you didn’t know you needed into your life in a positive way.

About the Author

Katie Allen was a journalist and columnist at Guardian and Observer, starting her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. Her warmly funny, immensely moving literary debut novel, Everything Happens for a Reason, was based on her own devastating experience of stillbirth and was a number-one digital bestseller, with wide critical acclaim. Katie grew up in Warwickshire and now lives in South London with her family.

#CoverReveal and Blurb of Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver @will_carver @OrendaBooks #KillThemWithKindness Coming 19th June 2025 Pre-Order Now #CarverCult

I am excited to be on the cover-reveal Orenda Books blog tour for Kill Them With Kindness. I’ve long been a fan of Will Carver’s writing and now he has another thriller that sounds original and taking a different look at the state of the world and society we live in, with many gripping twists and turns. To date, I have found his books to be compelling to the point they’re hard to put down. In my opinion they’re some of the most important, thought-provoking books in the thriller genre at the moment.
Check out the cover and blurb below of what’s coming on 19th June 2025.

Blurb

The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly.

And it’s coming.

The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together. Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.

Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice.

Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.

But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control.

Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end.

But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…

Pre-order – Click to link to many bookshops

#Review of The Burning Stones By Antti Tuomainen @antti_tuomainen @OrendaBooks #ScandiNoir #Thriller #readingcommunity #bookrecommendation #bookstoread

The Burning Stones
By Antti Tuomainen
Translated By David Hackston

After very much enjoying the quirkiness of The Rabbit Factor Trilogy, which drew me into a different type of Scandi-Noir I hadn’t seen before and enjoyed a little more than the traditional bleakness of it, I jumped at the chance to review The Burning Stones, thanks to Orenda Books for gifting me a copy.
Set in a sauna, you may never see a spa treatment in the same light again…
Find below the blurb and my review as well as buy links.

Blurb

Saunas, love and a ladleful of murder…

A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest moment: the new head of a sauna-stove company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?

The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and the victim’s successor at Steam Devil.

And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’s too late…

From the international bestselling author of The Man Who Died and The Rabbit Factor, comes a darkly funny, delightfully tense new thriller that showcases humanity at its most bare – in middle age, suspected of murder and, of course, in a sauna…

Review

I was pleased to see that Antti Tuomainen hasn’t deviated from the quirkiness. He used to write darker material pre-Rabbit Factor, but I feel he has really found his niche in taking Scandi-Noir and turning what you think you know about it on its head.

Anni works at the Sauna, Steam Devil. It’s a great name, I reckon. Anni is out to clear her name. The CEO has been murdered. It seems there’s definitely potential weapons we, now rather ironically think of as tools for wellbeing in a sauna…
Aside from that, Anni is quite a normal person, with her marriage in a bit of a rut with her Formula 1 loving husband. She could be the successor, so presents with motive, but so could anyone and all the staff upped their game when retirement was announced, but if she didn’t commit murder, then who did?

Weaving domestic life with a murder mystery is done rather well in The Burning Stones, with added dark humour. This is what Antti Tuomainen creates rather well, making it so easy to get hooked in. It really works so well and changes everything in this genre.

The Burning Stones is great for anyone wanting light relief, but still some dark mystery to solve, whether you’ve read this author previous or not and for those who like The Rabbit Factor.

Whether you’re a fan of Scandi-Noir or not, Antti Tuomainen may just change your mind or add to your reading of this genre.