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Nights of Awe (Ariel Kafka Mystery) by Harri Nykanen and Kristian London (translator) (view source)
Revision as of 13:43, 14 February 2012
, 13:43, 14 February 2012no edit summary
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Inspector Ari Kafka (no relation to the author or, indeed, the local pawn shop owner) is half of the Jewish police officers in Finland which he's sure is due to pay levels rather than religious conviction. Ari graduated 4th in his class at police academy which surprised his mother at the time. If his brother and sister could both graduate top of their university classes, what's wrong with him? His brother is always trying to encourage his attendance at family dinners and the local rabbi has to remind him where of the whereabouts of the local synagogue. All this pressure is normally water off a duck's back to Kafka, but this is about to change. When two Arab bodies are found on a railway line, he must choose between loyalties to those he loves and to those he's sworn to serve.
The author, Harri Nykanen, was a crime journalist before turning to fiction and so comes to this police procedural with a back catalogue of experience and knowledge. This isn't his first novel, in fact he has won awards and one of his books (''The Raid'') has been made into a film. However, most of his output to date has been in Finnish, a loss to the rest of us if ''Nights of Awe'' is anything to go by. This is the world's introduction to Ari Kafka, and what an introduction.