The Hummingbird

The setting of The Hummingbird-- especially when Hiekkapelto is describing the forests of Finland-- is extremely atmospheric and suspenseful, even a bit claustrophobic. It was difficult for me to stop feeling as though I were being watched.

The mystery that begins with the deaths of joggers on deserted running tracks is complex and unfolds slowly over a period of four months. I had no problem with the case taking that long to solve, but I do feel that the writing could have been tightened a bit in order to keep the story flowing smoothly.

The occasional italicized chapter is a sort of diary written by a young girl, and this ties into a second case that Anna takes very personally. She is absolutely convinced that a young immigrant girl is show more in very real danger of honor killing, and when she isn't spending hours trying to find a serial killer, she's spending her nights in a marked patrol car parked outside the girl's home hoping her presence will stop the girl's family from doing anything rash. It's a subplot that makes you wonder about Anna's behavior, and Anna's behavior is the only real stumbling block I had in this book.

Anna keeps not only her fellow characters at a distance but the reader, too. Combine this with the fact that I always had the feeling that more was going on than I was being allowed to see, and I soon became puzzled and a tiny bit unhappy. Once all was revealed, I did find out that I was right; there was more going on than readers were being allowed to see. Originally, this made me feel as though I could not be trusted. Once I knew what was what, I understood that there was an excellent reason for the secrecy... but I still felt snubbed. I think this means that I can be a very subjective reader from time to time. But becoming subjective means that Kati Hiekkapelto engaged my emotions as well as my mind. She's telling a story from the perspective of an immigrant woman, and in this day and age, it's a story that should always involve both heart and intellect.

The Hummingbird is a complex mystery that is a pleasure to unravel, and that's partly due to the fact that the characters do not always behave in ways that you would expect them to. Now that I've become acquainted with Anna Fekete, I want to know more, so it's on with the series I'll go! show less

The Hummingbird – Striking Debut

Kati Hiekkapelto delivers a knockout punch in the fight to be top dog in the Scandi Crime wave with her debut crime thriller The Hummingbird. It has everything you need three interwoven stories, the dark noir, the defective detective, the racist detective all in the north of Finland as summer turns to the darkness of winter. This thriller will really get under your skin as the imagery is striking and at times stark and haunting like some of the landscapes can be as the changes from summer take place towards the arctic circle.

Anne Fekete and her family escaped the war torn Yugoslavia to the cold north of Finland she no longer thought like an immigrant even though her father was dead and her mother had show more gone ‘home’ rather than stay in Finland. Even though she looked different to the Blonde Finns she felt at home part of society.

Anne recently promoted to a detective in the Police has transferred back to her home town on the coast of Finland as an investigator in the Violent Crimes Unit and been introduced to her new partner Esko, who besides smelling of beer and cigarettes just happened to be the office racist. Nor does Esko hide his prejudices from Anne while she also becomes the target of a personal campaign to unsettle her.

Anne is thrown in at the deep end when the seemingly random murder of three joggers on running tracks 20 miles apart seem to have nothing that connects them. By slowly following the clues and the red herrings they do find that all three victims besides being joggers are found with a pendant in their pockets depicting an Aztec god.

What Anne and Esko have to do is try and work out the significance if the Aztec god to their investigation, how important is a red car and what a hummingbird has to do with the murders. They are thrown plenty of curve balls so much so that it is only a twist at the end when you find out the truth.

While investigating this case, Anne is also concerned about a Kurdish refugee girl and her family and she is sure there is something wrong. So much so, that she becomes obsessed with Bihar and worried that she may become a victim of an honour killing. Throughout the thriller we hear Bihar’s voice and all her worries about her life and her future and again we really do have to wait until the end to see Bihar and what may, if anything does, become of her.

This is an excellent dark noir thriller with strong characters an excellent story dealing with modern themes and she does not hold back on whether it is on prejudices of the Finns or the Immigrants. This is an excellent addition to the Scandi Noir Thriller another excellent writer who delivers a killer of a debut. show less

THE HUMMINGBIRD opens by introducing us to Anna Fekete experiencing the first day on her new job as a senior detective in an unnamed town in northern Finland. Initially expecting to ease into her new role instead she must get up to speed suddenly when a young girl’s call to emergency services appears very troubling and then the body of a jogger is found. These two cases, which rarely for crime fiction do not become linked over time, come to haunt the members of the Crime Unit in various ways.

Although very much a procedural novel THE HUMMINGBIRD is at least as interested in its characters as it is in solving the crimes committed within it. And as the centrepiece of the investigative team Anna makes for interesting reading. She is a show more lifelong outsider. As a child she was part of a minority population – a Hungarian in the former Yugoslavia – and when she moved with her family to Finland she was an immigrant. Even now, despite her having lived in the country since she was seven and served with the Finish military, her immigrant status is the most significant thing about her for many people, even those who view it as a positive thing. Anna’s sense of isolation is depicted very credibly, manifesting itself in numerous ways. Although this theme is not a new one for fiction to explore I thought Hiekkapelto did an above average job of letting the reader really get a sense of what a grind it must be to always feel as if you don’t quite belong.

One of her new colleagues, a middle-aged policeman named Esko, does not attempt to hide his racism from the moment they first meet. This is not an auspicious beginning to a relationship and I was a little wary that it would tread a very predictable path but ultimately it proves to be a highlight of the book when it veers away from the norm. It is certainly a very believable depiction of this kind of tension that is repeated the world over. The team is rounded out by two more colleagues, both of whom are a lot more sympathetic towards Anna and add interesting elements of the story in their own right. Sari is the policewoman who appears to ‘have it all’ – a loving husband and two children on top of the great job – while their male colleague Rauno is struggling to keep his own marriage intact.

Hiekkapelto does not forget to develop a decent plot and the crimes here are both complex; requiring a good deal of investigative shoe leather. Anna becomes somewhat fixated on the case of Bihar: the young Kurdish girl who rang emergency services claiming her father was going to kill her then recanted when police visited the house. Although told to leave the matter alone due to lack of evidence she is convinced that something is wrong and uses what free time she has to keep an eye on the family. It’s not much of a stretch to see that she identifies with Bihar on some level which makes her fixation entirely understandable. Meanwhile the case of the murdered runner proves a difficult one for the team and a couple more bodies have to pile up before there is a satisfactory resolution. n some ways this main plot thread was the least interesting part of the book for me but only because the rest of it was so good.

There are a few wooly elements to this debut novel – such as the unnecessary inclusion of a minor thread in which both Anna and Sari are threatened by mysterious texts – but overall I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Anna and the rest of the team. I liked the way that this was allowed to be a character driven novel that still had a strong plot and explored some interesting themes such as what seems to be a thorny issue in all countries: immigration. I am already looking forward to the next installment of the series which is due to be translated into English this year. show less

The Hummingbird is Finnish writer Kati Hiekkapelto’s debut novel and features Anna Fekete, a new Detective Constable with the violent crimes division of the police. Her first assignment is to help investigate why a gunshot victim, found on a local jogging path, has been killed. Just a short time later, another jogging victim is found and a medallion identical to the one found on the first victim seems to tie the cases together. When a third jogger is killed, Anna knows they are looking for a serial killer.

There are three story lines going on at the same time. In addition to the murder plot, we also get to know Anna and her story. She came to Finland as a young immigrant, and while she's been fully integrated into Finnish society, she show more still feels like an outsider. Her mother has already returned to eastern Europe and her brother has become a drunk, living off Finnish social services. Her own background has convinced her that a local Kurdish family may be forcing their teenage daughter into an arranged marriage, so she spends her free time keeping an eye on them.

I think this book has too much going on in each plot to be totally successful. Since this is a debut novel, I think the story about Anna's past is vital, plus the jogging killer story. I think this author has a lot of promise so I am planning to try the next book in the series, The Defenceless, which won the award for Best Finnish crime novel of 2104. show less

The Hummingbird is Finnish writer Kati Hiekkapelto’s debut novel and features Anna Fekete, a new Detective Constable with the violent crimes division of the police. Her first assignment is to help investigate why a gunshot victim, found on a local jogging path, has been killed. Just a short time later, another jogging victim is found and a medallion identical to the one found on the first victim seems to tie the cases together. When a third jogger is killed, Anna knows they are looking for a serial killer.

There are three story lines going on at the same time. In addition to the murder plot, we also get to know Anna and her story. She came to Finland as a young immigrant, and while she's been fully integrated into Finnish society, she show more still feels like an outsider. Her mother has already returned to eastern Europe and her brother has become a drunk, living off Finnish social services. Her own background has convinced her that a local Kurdish family may be forcing their teenage daughter into an arranged marriage, so she spends her free time keeping an eye on them.

I think this book has too much going on in each plot to be totally successful. Since this is a debut novel, I think the story about Anna's past is vital, plus the jogging killer story. I think this author has a lot of promise so I am planning to try the next book in the series, The Defenceless, which won the award for Best Finnish crime novel of 2104. show less

This serial killer mystery was well written and engaging, and it was interesting perspective on immigration issues. What put me off was the lack of awareness of the relationship between the workplace racism and sexism in the police force, and the domestic violence that caused the murders. What you walk past, you accept.

The Hummingbird by Kati Hiekkapelto
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston
Arcadia Books
978-1-909807-56-3
$21, 363 pgs

The Hummingbird is Finnish writer Kati Hiekkapelto’s debut novel, an entrant in the Scandinavian crime fiction genre which is so hot right now. Anna Fekete is a Hungarian immigrant to Finland and a brand new detective in the violent crimes unit. On her first day at her new job, a body is found on a jogging path, dead of a gunshot wound, with a strange medallion found in the pocket of her jacket. Before long another body is found on another jogging path, dead of a gunshot wound with the identical medallion in his pocket, and the hunt is on for a serial killer.

The Hummingbird piqued my interest on page one but show more didn’t deliver on that initial promise. Anna is a likable and complex character but I grew weary of reading about how tired she was. She’s stressed and homesick and depressed – I get it - but it made me tired. On the other hand, depression is monotonous so maybe it’s Hiekkapelto's way of viscerally conveying Anna's precarious state of mind. If the latter is the case then she succeeded The details about the private lives of her colleagues proved superfluous to the story. Inserted at odd points, making for abrupt and clumsy segues, these details merely served to interrupt the flow of the narrative. Anna’s partner Esko, the one colleague that we need to know more about, isn’t given a back story at all and no details of his life outside the office are offered. This is unfortunate because their relationship is important and the evolution of that relationship develops in such a way that I was curious and wished I’d known more about him. The identity of the killer is a surprise, as it should be, but it is such a surprise because there are negligible clues to entice the reader, lead you on and reward your perseverance. The reader is denied that satisfaction and has no opportunities to grin and think, "Aha! That's a clue." We like to congratulate ourselves on our sleuthing abilities - this genre should be interactive. In addition, when the antagonist is revealed there is no back story and little to no explanation offered as to homicidal motivation. Serial killers do not kill randomly. This genre demands psychology. Otherwise the author seems to be offering up a killer at random.

Serial killers are well- and oft-trod ground and there needs to be an element that sets a story apart from so many others. In this case that element is immigration. Hiekkapelto is at her best when channeling the immigrant experience. “Anna…also knew from experience that it would be futile talking to Esko [her partner] and people like him about despair, fear, war, torture, oppression, discrimination, poverty and hunger, about how the world was full of people whose lives were a daily struggle against all of those terrible things.” The author’s empathy and understanding are affecting and I was truly moved. There is a subplot involving a young, Muslim immigrant girl and a case of suspected honor violence. She calls the Finnish equivalent of 911 to claim that her life is in danger. When the other detectives seemingly dismiss the case, Anna – having once been a young, Muslim immigrant girl – appoints herself the girl’s personal protector. This subplot meshes well with the main narrative, plays to Anna’s strengths, and the resolution is a pleasant surprise.

Hiekkapelto is also gifted at descriptive passages. Her characters are diverse and well-delineated. I could picture them in my mind’s eye as individuals. Her descriptive talent also applies to land- and cityscapes. A description of the ghetto new immigrants are consigned to: “The whole place was a forest built of dirty concrete, a thicket of trees as far as the eye could see, a place with trolls grunting on the pathways and creatures lurking in the corners, a place where the glimmer of a fairy tale shone only in the glazed eyes of the drug addicts.” And this: “Kids in baggy jeans were smoking something beneath the roof outside Bihar’s doorway, their presence challenging the shadows cast upon them like a life sentence by the surrounding buildings. Ducks caught in the oil, birds that nobody dressed in overalls is going to come and save.”

In stark contrast, this is the Finnish coastal forest in autumn: “When Anna had walked just over a kilometer, the path swung very close to the shoreline. The rush of iron-grey waves across the autumnal sea could be heard clearly. Anna looked out towards the sea. The wind whipped water into her eyes. If there had been flocks of sheep to clear the shrubs, as there had been centuries ago, she would have been able to see the shore, she thought. A white seagull braved the chilled air. Anna wondered how long it was planning on staying so far north. She gathered a handful of lingonberries and tasted the sweetness brought to them by the hoar frosts.”

As a debut, The Hummingbird is an acceptable first effort. In my opinion the problem has more to do with editing than with the concept, story or characters. There are a lot of adverbs and rarely did anyone just “say” anything; they screamed, cried, conferred, threatened, resolved, quipped, shrieked, exclaimed, cursed, bellowed, shouted and instructed. They even bleated. It seemed as if someone got carried away with a thesaurus. This is the sort of thing an editor is supposed to prevent. See Stephen King's On Writing for the best advice I've ever come across on this subject. There’s even a point where the third person narrative briefly jumps to first person before being yanked back into line. In sum, The Hummingbird was uneven. That said, there are complete characters, flashes of humor, evocative description and observant social commentary. A sequel is in the pipeline and there’s enough promise in this debut that I want to read the next installment before I make up my mind about Hiekkapelto. With practice and skillful editing she could be great. Stay tuned.

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