Well, okay. I really enjoyed the setting, both as premise and description. In this respect at least, it's not bad writing. It's also not a small amount of the book, so that weighs heavy in my rating.

However. There is a practical limit on how many unique, lurid murders and coincidental subplots you can work into a story before it becomes absurd and off-putting. This had arguably too many for a series, never mind a single book. Crime novels are candy for the logic and puzzle-solving appetite of my brain, but only when they have a bit of reason and logic in them.

Will I read another one? Yeah, probably. On the chance that the things I didn't like were just a rush of first-novel enthusiasm. ( )

More a note to myself than a review, cause otherwise I'll just forget the book entirely.
I wanted to give it 3 stars because I obediently read it for hours and finished in three days, but... no.
At the beginning I thought the plot was quite interesting and I even continued reading after excruciatingly detailed description of the victim's wounds and suffering.
But when the story goes further the amount of shit happening per page becomes just unbelievable.
I am not going to read more of this series but I kinda hope the next one will be set in Helsinki or another big city, because if the author again kills a bunch of people in this small town (or was it a village even?) there will be no one left. ( )

Sufia Elmi, a beautiful Somalian refugee-turned-actress is brutally murdered on a reindeer farm, with a racial slur carved into her chest. Inspector Kari Vaara investigates and suspicion justly falls on the philandering boyfriend of his callous ex-wife; however, the autopsy reveals that two more possible suspects, one of whom commits suicide, substantially complicating the investigation because of his identity. Kari's pregnant American wife helps him remain grounded, acting a sounding board for his theories until the ex-wife ends up killed by a tire necklace, introducing yet another suspect. Scandanavian politics and life in perpetual winter are an integral part of the story. 3.5 stars.
( )

In what can be described as noir-procedural, James Thompson introduces Inspector Vaara, a Police Chief limping among the villages and ski resorts of northern Finland. Snow Angels is the first novel of an expected series, and it opens with the mutilation murder of a Somali-born star of Finnish B-movies.

As the mystery begins to wend its way into Vaara's personal life, the bodies pile up and his home-life suffers. He never seems to take action, letting events roll over him until he is forced to act, then inevitably makes the wrong decision. He is blind to the simple explanations, instead choosing to believe his own concoction of wealthy conspirators and international intrigue. In the final pages, little he has done has helped solve the mystery.

Thompson writes all of this in the present tense, which I presume is meant to make it feel more immediate, but just feels more like a gimmick than anything else. Plus, it creates confusion: "I've still never figured out if [he] is a good actor, smarter than he seems, or if he really is the complete dolt I take him for." When did this thought happen? Is it at the time of the events happening in the next sentence, or is it in retrospect, after the case has been closed?

But, Thompson is excellent at conveying a sense of place. His Finland in December is dark, depressing, and drunk, and through Vaara's American wife, the reader understands exactly how forbidding this place is to outsiders. It's rare for a novel set in Europe to feel foreign, but Thompson accomplishes this quite well.

Overall, Snow Angels was uneven and unbelievable, but Thompson shows some promise. ( )

Snow Angels is the first of a series of books that I will definitely be sticking with. It is the story of a Finnish Police Inspector, Kari Vaara, who solves the myteries that happen in his town. Well, that is what happened in the first book, anyway.

Inspector Vaara solves the murder of Sufia Elmi, an actress/model from Somolia. The murder was a bit gruesome and some of the details may turn some folks off, but I did not find it offensive. The author, James Thompson weaves you through this story and the town that it is set in with great ease. I liked the character development, as well as the characters and felt like I am getting to know them all very well in preparation for the upcoming books. I have already purchased book #2, [b:Lucifer's Tears|8854839|Lucifer's Tears (Inspector Kari Vaara, #2)|James Thompson|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mk+PHN3VL._SL75_.jpg|13729960] and will be getting to that soon. (I need to thaw out from the cold, first)

I don't know how long the series can continue if this same number of murders continues in each book. I loved the part of the book where Inspector Vaara's wife, Kate recaps the case. She goes through and names all the players and tries to recreate a timeline etc...I found it to be very helpful and there was some humor added in.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in murder/mystery. My only minor critism of this book was that there seemed to be a lot of murders/death in this small town. ( )