The Moose Paradox – Antti Tuomainen – 06.08.24
The Beaver Theory – Antti Tuomainen – 12.08.24
I’m not sure what I made of this comedy thriller trilogy set in Finland (and translated from the original work written in Finnish).
The main character, Henri is an ex-actuary and probably autistic spectrum maths whizz with limited people skills and a logical and maths based take on the world around him.
At the start of the trilogy Henri loses his job and shortly after discovers his brother has died and left him his adventure park (like a big kids soft play indoor slides etc type place) as well as big debts and some very bad guys trying to recoup what they lent him.
What follows is like a Mr Bean farce – murderous people try to scare/kill Henri and end up accidentally killing themselves in weird ways. This pretty much happens in all three books – Henri feels a duty to help keep the adventure park open and save the jobs of the people who work there, but is also constantly in danger and the police are sniffing around him because bad guys keep either going missing or turning up dead in his vicinity.
I liked Henri’s character, and there was a certain tension in wondering how he was going to get out of each new dilemma, but I did start to roll my eyes a bit that yet another murderous thug has been accidentally impaled/decapitated/crushed etc. I liked it enough to read all three books, and I enjoyed following Henri’s story (there was a kind of funny cast of characters who worked in the adventure park, but I got very irritated by the descriptions of one character that went on and on about how much he farted). I liked how Henri went on an emotional and character development journey and I quite like how it all resolved for him.
Sarah Wray Writer 