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A review by ridgewaygirl
Kar Melekleri by James Thompson
2.0
Snow Angels is a dark mystery/thriller written by an American but set in a small skiing town a hundred miles north of the Arctic circle in Finland during the cold winter darkness. Kari Vaara is in charge of a small police station when the mutilated body of a Somali film actress is found on a reindeer farm in his jurisdiction. Suspicion quickly falls on her Finnish lover who, coincidentally, is also the man his ex-wife left him for some thirteen years earlier.
Thompson has lived in Finland and describes the land and culture with an outsider's eye, which is to say, he is attuned to what is unusual and noteworthy. He uses Vaara's wife, an American, to voice criticism of Finnish culture, a touch that felt very real to me. Unfortunately, Vaara himself sounded American in places, Finnish in others. That quibble aside, this book has a wealth of details about life in Finland, from offshoot religious groups to the importance of alcohol in daily life.
That said, the mystery itself defied reason. It had its moments, but didn't hold together, especially the unbelievable ending. This was clearly a debut novel, but Thompson shows signs of being able to develop an interesting series, he just isn't there yet.
Thompson has lived in Finland and describes the land and culture with an outsider's eye, which is to say, he is attuned to what is unusual and noteworthy. He uses Vaara's wife, an American, to voice criticism of Finnish culture, a touch that felt very real to me. Unfortunately, Vaara himself sounded American in places, Finnish in others. That quibble aside, this book has a wealth of details about life in Finland, from offshoot religious groups to the importance of alcohol in daily life.
That said, the mystery itself defied reason. It had its moments, but didn't hold together, especially the unbelievable ending. This was clearly a debut novel, but Thompson shows signs of being able to develop an interesting series, he just isn't there yet.