David Hackston – Peter turns the page

Translated by David Hackston @countertenorist

Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/ @OrendaBooks

Publishing date 12 October 2023

295 pages ISBN 9781914585968

The Beaver Theory is the final instalment in the YouMeFun trilogy. Click on the links to read my reviews of The Rabbit Factor and The Moose Paradox the previous books in the series.

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and the Publisher.

The cover

Another madcap, eye-catching cover which is in the same style of the previous two books and is perfect for this series.

My thoughts

As with the previous instalments the novel commences with a generous dose of slapstick violence resulting in death. This time it is death by ice cream, in the form of an eighteen-inch steel and plastic cornet which is rammed down the throat of the proprietor of the Somersault City adventure park. We know this because our intrepid hero, Henri Koskinen, was there to see it happen and now realises he is in trouble. Henri the former insurance actuary, is the owner of the YouMeFun adventure park and he shouldn’t be on site, he was there trying to conduct a little industrial espionage. Who knew adventure parks could be so dangerous. Now he will become the prime suspect and to think only a few days previous life was so good.

Just a week previous Henri had bid farewell to his old apartment and along with his cat Schopenhauer moved in with his girlfriend Laura Helanto and her daughter Tuuli. A truly momentous occasion for a man so uptight and set in his ways to finally embrace domesticity. Then when he returns to YouMeFun he discovers that business wasn’t slack it was non-existent, the park had literally no customers at all. How could this happen?

There is a new competitor in town, Somersault City, planning to make a big impact. No only is their admission free, but they are offering free hot dogs (regular, vegetarian and vegan!) Our man of logic and most importantly mathematics realises that this is not the way to run a business, along with all the marketing cost costs, zero income means a significant loss. Not something to be sustained for long but clearly intended to put Henri out of business, hence the need to a little snooping around.

So, now Henri must discover who the murderer is whilst also battling to save his own park and keep the police at bay. He has previous run ins with DI Pentti Osmala of the Joint Division of the Helsinki Organised-Crime and Fraud Unit and developed a strange status quo as he approaches retirement. This time he faces the young guns Lastumäki and Salmi who are out to make their names.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, so the idiom says, and this fits the series to a tee. Everything the reader will have loved about the first two books is here, but there has been a significant distance travelled. Many novels within series can be enjoyed out of order, but this is one I would urge to start at the beginning to appreciate how perfectly everything is developed and then brought to a fitting and pleasing finale.

Henri is the numbers obsessed staid actuary who believes that no matter the problem, mathematics and statistics will provide the answer, and in his world they usually do. Throughout the series we see him out of his comfort zone, learn to accept that there can be chaos and that he must just adapt to the situation. Moreover, for a man who doesn’t understand people, because numbers are far more predictable, he must learn how to love and accept people as they are. He realises the importance of family, finally recognising that he now is part of not one but three families in a loose sense. The changes are slow but remarkable and heartwarming. There may be fewer ‘duck out of water’ situations for him but there are still plenty of uncomfortable moments as be volunteers to join the ‘dads club’.

The adventure park team develop from a bunch of misfits to a tight unit working together and now respecting Henri and caring about the place, whilst remaining a bunch of misfits. They still provide a rich vein of humour, whimsical, nonsensical, surreal and in the case of Esa toilet with his unpleasant bodily functions. Esa is a man with his own exclusion zone to be breached at your peril.

David Hackston’s work on the translation perfectly captures the warmth, silliness and humour of the text, making reading a joy.

It is Esa who has a more prominent role, with his over-the-top military like approach to security. It is Esa who when he and Henri go undercover decides they need a ‘safe word’ and comes up with pseudonyms that are truly inspired. His Walter Mitty like claims from his murky early career start to look less fanciful. Can he really have trained with the South Korean Secret Service? Surely not…

So, with The Beaver Theory our journey comes to an end, and what a ride it’s been, packed with ups and downs, a lot of laughter and plenty of corpses. I’m going to miss Henri, Laura and the gang but it’s a fitting finale that feels right, much better that than going on too long. I think it’s only right that Henri’s makes the final observation that happiness resides where love and mathematics combine, that’s good enough for me.

The Beaver Theory can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author Iin 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. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. Little Siberia (2020), 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. The Rabbit Factor (2021), the first book in Antti’s first ever series, is in production by Amazon Studios with Steve Carell starring. The Moose Paradox, book two in the series is out in October 2022.

The translator

David Hackston is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. Notable publications include The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel At the Edge of Light, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller Birdbrain, two crime novels by Matti Joensuu and Kati Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series (which currently includes The Hummingbird, The Defenceless and The Exiled, all published by Orenda Books). He also translates Antti Tuomainen’s stories. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David is also a professional countertenor and a founding member of the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki.

Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this Blog Tour: