Cold Courage (Studio Series Book 1)
Contents:
Cold Courage by Pekka Hiltunen. The Innocence Game by Michael Harvey. To view the pick of the month from other crime fiction readers, head over to Mysteries in Paradise which has a useful round up reviewers choices. Books have a dystopian or other-worldly feel to the setting which adds to the sense of dislocation and loss.
Cold Courage by Pekka Hiltunen is an unusual story about a Finnish expat living in London who unwittingly witnesses the aftermath of a violent murder of a Latvian prostitute and becomes drawn into the hunt for the murderer. This narrative strand would be interesting enough but Lia also meets a fellow Finn, Mari, who claims to be able to read the thoughts of the people around her.
Their latest target is a far-right politician whose violent domestic life and dodgy tax schemes are about to be revealed. Hiltunen has an instinctive feel for the city and in particular the sense of isolation that accompanies expat life. The brief description of how she has professionally crawled her way into a decent job as a graphic designer on a newspaper rings true; London is the city where careers can be made by those willing to devote their time and energy in the pursuit of success.
Her meeting with Mari comes on a night of drinking with colleagues and again the writer captures the manic, booze sodden feel of these evenings. The murder of the woman from Latvia is an obsession for Lia and we are given glimpses of the Latvian community of woman sex workers who live in London. I personally found more interesting the story of Mari and her secretive organisation.
It seemed a little under-developed here but will make for a cracking series if Hiltunen writes any more novels. I found the book to be an attractive and engrossing read and I hope that Hiltunen picks up some new fans through this publication. They are loyal to Mari, and she has bound them to her by granting them life-changing favors. When Lia shares the thoughts plaguing her about the murder, Mari thinks she and the members of the Studio can help where the police have failed. But Mari and Lia are about to set foot into extremely dangerous territory, especially as Mari is not above using the Studio to unscrupulous ends.
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Other books in this series. Studio Series Artist's Tiles: Lia is much easier to understand and I loved how she developed and grew in strength as the story progressed. The surrounding characters are strong and well defined, with a quality of writing that can't be denied. I found the slow pace increased my satisfaction towards the end and would decidedly read more by PH.
Cold Courage
Took me a while to decide if not to go for five stars. I wasn't quite sure if this was my best purchase in the begining - first hundred pages didn't feel that moving Just like that, in couple pages. Moving towards the finish, the book was Finnish and absolutely brilliant. So, very strong 4 stars, more like 4. Hiltunen is certainly an author I won't let out of my reader's sight. Jun 29, Tracy rated it it was ok. A story that went nowhere with unrealistic situations and characters. The side characters where more interesting than the two mains, who were a pair of stilted automatons.
Read in place of sleep aids. Hieno, mukaansatempaava ja tiivistunnelmainen kirja. Innolla odotan seuraavan osan lukemista! It took a Long time to get going, and Mari seemed a lil unbelievable. But once the story got going, it reminded me a lot of Stieg Larsson. Lontoossa asuneena suomalaisena naisena erityisesti.
Crime author and book reviewer
Feb 27, James Perkins rated it it was ok. Lia Pajala is a Finnish expat living in London who becomes involved with the Studio, a small organisation that operates slightly below the law to manipulate social justice as its owner Mari Rautee, another Finnish expat, sees fit.
Second, it was translated from Finnish. The brief description of how she has professionally crawled her way into a decent job as a graphic designer on a newspaper rings true; London is the city where careers can be made by those willing to devote their time and energy in the pursuit of success. The main problem is the characters. In reality, it's very difficult to remove slang, lifelong linguistic habits and idiomatic expressions from thought processes and regular speech, and a distinct lack of them sounds unnatural - every competent writer knows that speech idiosyncrasies are part of characterisation in fiction. Without a doubt Pekka wrote a multi-layered and complex personality, and maybe that Mari was intentionally written to be a 'shifting sands' character, with the reader making up his or her own mind about her.
When Lia witnesses the results of a brutal murder in central London and the police investigation stalls due to a lack of evidence, she works with the Studio to investigate the crime and bring the perpetrators to account. Mari is also working on a campaign to remove the Lia Pajala is a Finnish expat living in London who becomes involved with the Studio, a small organisation that operates slightly below the law to manipulate social justice as its owner Mari Rautee, another Finnish expat, sees fit.
Mari is also working on a campaign to remove the political ambitions of Arthur Fried, the leader of the ultra-right Fair Rule party, likely to gain a foothold in Parliament at the next election. Hiltunen's characters and plot were interesting enough to keep me reading to the end. The idea of placing Finns in Britain added an extra layer that showed evidence of a sly inventiveness in the author's imagination and the freedom to make a loose social commentary without borders. An occasional clash of cultures Finnish vs British also caused some amusement, although this was not really played up much in the story.
Lia's experience of the sometimes isolated expat life was realistic and her PTSD well-described - it was nice to see some less common themes novelised in more detail than is usual in popular fiction.
See a Problem?
Unfortunately, there was plenty not to like about this book. First and foremost, the author has enjoyed a career of over 20 years as a journalist. A journalist has the potential to be an excellent novelist, but the problem here was that he seemed to forget that his format was supposed to be different. The result was short, pointed sentences and paragraphs that read more like an online newspaper report than a novel.
Second, it was translated from Finnish. Translated works can be very, very good, but they have to be properly fluent; this one read so that it was painfully obvious that it was a translation.
Narrative flow was sacrificed for an almost complete grammatical accuracy, and the characters spoke and thought in a bland language almost entirely without idiom, unless it was highlighted to show "Yes this person is ", as when the Finns used Finnish words that have no English equivalent. In reality, it's very difficult to remove slang, lifelong linguistic habits and idiomatic expressions from thought processes and regular speech, and a distinct lack of them sounds unnatural - every competent writer knows that speech idiosyncrasies are part of characterisation in fiction.
Third, the male Latvian characters were bad-guy pimps, whose female Latvian victims were prostitutes, cardboard characters who were either entirely good or entirely bad, reinforcing eastern European stereotypes without depth or dimension. Fourth, the book was set in London, but I got no sense of place from it - a few place names and bus routes are not enough. Where were the smells, the tastes, the sounds, the bustle, the crowdedness?
The Nominees
Part of the story happened around Christmas, but there was barely any mention of Yuletide London - the city virtually transforms itself at that time of year, as any local or tourist will tell you, but the author failed to evoke any seasonal feeling whatsoever. Fifth, the Studio was just a bit too full of overtalented stereotypes the computer nerd, the grizzled detective, etc. This is supposed to be a crime novel. Suspense is what makes the story work. Really, if this book won awards, it must have lost something essential in translation.
Some press reviews have compared him to Stieg Larsson, but he doesn't come anywhere close. I want to give this novel a higher grade, but there's far too much wrong with it - every other Nordic crime writer I've read all in English translation has done far better work, even the ones to whom I've only given three stars.
I'm not going to read the sequel, nor any more by this writer. It just didn't impress me enough, and life's too short to read authors that I don't like. Ce n'est pas possible, me direz-vous? Eh bien ici, je vous assure que non. Il contient de l'action, de l'implication de la part des personnages mais aussi de fortes relations entre eux. May 22, Julia Molloy rated it it was ok. With the successful trend of European thrillers comes the translation Cold Courage by Pekka Hiltunen.
When a Latvian woman is brutally murdered in the middle of London, Lia, a Finnish graphic designer, is more than usually affected by the event despite not knowing the victim. On her quest to find out what happened, she encounters Mari and the Studio, an enigmatic group attempting to deliver its own justice on the world. Will Lia succeed in discovering the truth or will she lose herself and her m With the successful trend of European thrillers comes the translation Cold Courage by Pekka Hiltunen.
Will Lia succeed in discovering the truth or will she lose herself and her morality along the way? Relatively new to this particular genre, I expected to find out what all the fuss surrounding psychological thrillers was about. Hiltunen has certainly succeeded in creating a dark murder story that at times becomes quite graphic in its description of the killings whilst still keeping the realistic element of modern day London. The setting is easy to relate to and Hiltunen clearly knows London well enough to be able to recreate it accurately in his psychological thriller.
The main problem is the characters. The murdered woman fades into the background despite her death forming the whole story, Mari is something of a control freak and Lia is far too gullible and subordinate to sympathise with. The result was that I read Cold Courage with a sort of detachment, which for a psychological thriller is disappointing. The mystery and intrigue surrounding her character would have been better maintained without these excerpts, which added nothing to the plot and only increased a dislike of her.
Cold Courage, whilst having a good plot, certainly left me feeling cold.
Cold Courage has ratings and 50 reviews. (Studio #1) To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. More lists with this book. .. It's been compared a lot lately to Stieg Larsson's Millenium series but I think there is . Cold Blood. Cold Case. Cold Courage. When Lia witnesses a disturbing scene on her way to work, she, like the rest of the City of London, is captivated and.
It was difficult to feel any sort of closure at the end of the book. An interesting read, but perhaps meant for the avid fan of this particular genre. Jun 13, Sarah-Jayne Briggs rated it really liked it Shelves: I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways.
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This review may contain spoilers. I did think this book was quite good. The characters were fairly interesting and I found myself continuing to read, eager to see what was going to happen.