The arrival of a new name in the Scandinavian thriller landscape is always exciting for fans of the genre. And especially if he can compete with the greats of this universe – which is undoubtedly the case of the Finn Arttu Tuominen.
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
The oath is his fifth title, but it is the first translated into French; it has also earned him the Grand Prix for the best Finnish thriller in 2020, in addition to having found himself in 2021 among the finalists of the prestigious Glass Key prize for the best Scandinavian thriller, which rewarded none other than Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbø or Arnaldur Indridason.
It is therefore with great expectations that we immersed ourselves in this intrigue which managed to meet our expectations. All the ingredients are there to make it a very successful detective novel, in the purest tradition of the genre: detectives with complex personalities, who hide a troubled past or unmentionable secrets, veils that hide the present and take root in the distant past… as the icy wind and unforgiving darkness of November descend upon this northern region.
It all starts when a man is brutally stabbed during a drunken party, in a chalet in the middle of the forest, on the outskirts of Pori, a small town in southwestern Finland. The interim commissioner Jari Paloviita is responsible for the investigation which seems, as soon as opened, already in the process of being completed, since the suspect is almost immediately found. Especially since in Finland, “the motive for most murders [est] totally futile”, writes the author, which pushes the investigators to want to quickly close the file.
This is where the plot begins, because the suspect and the victim are not strangers to Commissioner Paloviita. The latter, who also juggles marital tensions at home, then sees the opening of scars that he thought had been closed for 27 years. Between round trips from 2018 to 1991 an old story is revealed which will have repercussions on the present and will threaten the policeman’s career. The suspense will not let up as we delve into the ramifications of the case – where it is not a question of guessing who is really responsible for the crime, but rather of understanding all that the facts can hide.
The open end certainly leaves us with the desire to find these characters to discover the mysteries of their darkness. And according to the information gleaned from the internet, Jari Paloviita is the hero of two other subsequent titles already published in Finland, which are just waiting to be translated. To be continued.
The oath
Arttu Tuominen (translated from Finnish by Anne Colin du Terrail)
La Martiniere
432 pages