The entry begins:I’m reading an excellent book, Witness the Night, by Kishwar Desai. Here’s a blurby description:About Helsinki White, from the publisher:
A family is slaughtered. Thirteen people poisoned, stabbed, and burned. The only suspect: the lone survivor, a fourteen year-old girl who appears to have been raped, beaten and found tied to her bed. Her guilt or innocence is of less importance than the reputations of those involved. Witness the Night is a plunge down the rabbit hole to...[read on]
Two days after their daughter is born, Kari Vaara drops a bombshell on his American wife, Kate: He has a brain tumor ... and he's been handpicked to run a rogue black-ops unit, using crime to fight crime.Learn more about the book and author at James Thompson's website and blog.
After recovering from surgery, he gets to work. The black-ops unit is small, and reports directly to Finland's national chief of police. They have secrecy, autonomy, and the cash to buy all the high-tech gear. Soon the unit is cleaning house, robbing Helsinki's mobsters blind of their cash, dope, and illegal firearms. But Kari's team is too good, and their actions have unintended consequences....
Meanwhile, Finland roils with hatred as its most extreme right political party gains popularity despite having no agenda besides xenophobia. When the country's leading immigrants' rights advocate is assassinated and her head sent by mail to the Finnish Somalia Network, the president assigns Kari to the murder. Cracking this case will involve the unsolved kidnapping of a billionaire's children, a Faustian bargain with a former French legionnaire-and Kate.
The Page 69 Test: Snow Angels.
The Page 69 Test: Helsinki White.
Writers Read: James Thompson.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
