I have read many books in this series, and I just expected more from Nordic writers. There was only one story in the collection that I liked at all, and that was Leena Lentolainen's story. Some of the stories were just down right rapey creepy stuff. Not the best collection for women readers.

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Another in the Akashic series of noir collections by city, this one is set in Helsinki, Finland. It reads easily and is amazingly noir. There are young hoodlums out on the town for a little joyful tormenting, serial killers, stolen children, savage wrestling matches in the halls of finance, devil's bargains, drugs and alcohol. I don't recall quite so many hate-filled, misogynistic rotters, some of whom get their comeuppance, in one book before.

In spite of seasonal variations, I came away feeling that Helsinki was perpetually dark, as well as economically divided, massively prejudiced against immigrants, and poisoned by its own version of testosterone. I had some inkling of this before, from Finns who came to the U.S. It was certainly borne out. This bleak portrait of Helsinki did not beckon me to see the real thing. ( )

I don't know much about Finland except for what I've seen through the movies of Aki Kaurismaki which bring to mind lots of drinking, cold ice and snow, general depression, and a seriously dark sense of humor. To be honest, some of these stories were a little rough even for me -- particularly the ones that included some sexual violence. Although there was generally some kind of revenge / divine retribution, being in a narrative with a really horrible character can get a little old. The best stories were those that relied on a solidly written detective character (particularly Leena Lehtolainen's "Kiss of Santa" and Jarkko Sipila's "Silent Night." [Also, Finnish names are really weird, guys.] A few of the stories were originally written in English, but most were translated from Finnish for this book. The editor notes in his preface that Finnish authors don't usually see a lot of crossover appeal because there is something unusual about Finland that just doesn't translate to other cultures. I could definitely see a little bit of that here, but that oddness and untranslatability often added to the creepy noir feeling of the stories.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2015/07/helsinki-noir-edited-by-james-thompson.htm... ] ( )

Like other reviewers, I found this collection of short stories to be dark in a disturbing way. The authors are exceptional in their ability to keep a grim, gritty, twisted atmosphere. I found that it easier to read the stories in small chunks rather than all together. I was less likely to have nightmares that way. I wonder how representative of Finnish Noir this collection is. I'm not well versed in Finnish literature; but if this IS representative, I'm pretty sure I won't be reading more.

**This was an advanced reader copy won through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.** ( )

A blizzard struck again this week depositing snow knee-deep and now it’s snowing again. Temperatures hover in the single digits to low 20s. Snow, sleet, and ice rotate ad nauseam requiring out of body moments to escape. The brief charm of snowfall is quickly replaced by the lasting smears of dirty white and mud. Life seems treacherous.

In Helsinski Noir, that kind of winter shrouds the characters with predictably dark consequences. Dampness and cold infuse down to the bone. Things smell like wet dogs and all surfaces are frozen. The landscape is unforgiving.

Images of bad women, stupid men, and suspicious alleys may be elements found in Hollywood’s noir films but the 14 stories in this collection, most translated from their original Finnish, feature a world more twisted. Children feature prominently in some of the stories, (“The Hands of Ai”) as do themes of human trafficking and racism. Some of the stories are strange, unsettling and difficult to grasp; “St Peter’s Street’ is one. Four pages in length, it features an island, some ice and a sauna. But what precisely happens? “Little Black” involves violence and degradation of immigrant women. A point is made but getting there is grim.

If you can deal with hard-boiled grittiness times two, you can learn something about Finland from these stories. Like Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy set in Sweden, these stories debunk the more positive associations with Finland. Sweden is not always the sunny pictures in an Ikea catalog, and Finland is not merely the “affluent postmodern” Finland with Nokia, a point elaborated on in “Snowy Sarcophagus.” This story also is closer to more mainstream detective stories with the sympathetic inspector, plugging away at the details of a crime to solve it. It is one of the less overtly grisly and macabre tales.

My favorite story was the last one, “Stolen Lives” in which the narrator follows the footsteps of Patricia Highsmith’s famous sociopath, Tom Ripley. Yet one would have to acknowledge that it is the not-for-the-faint-of-heart flavor of most of the other stories in this collection that leaves the reader with a sense of Helsinki and Finnish culture, distilled down to its darkest layer. Despite all the nastiness of many of these characters, you may be tempted to try other books in the Noir series published by Akashic Books. See what evil still lurks in the hearts of men when seemingly endless winter isn’t a major player.