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WORK TITLE: Holy Ceremony
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 6/20/1963
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: Finnish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born June 20, 1963, in Helsinki, Finland.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and journalist. Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Finland, crime reporter.
AWARDS:Clue Award, 1990, 2001.
WRITINGS
“Raid” series was adapted for film and television in Finland and optioned for television in Russia.
SIDELIGHTS
Harri Nykanen is a Finnish journalist and novelist. For around two decades, he served as a crime reporter for the Helsinki-based newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat. Nykanen has published several crime novels in Finnish, two of which have received the Finnish literary prize called the Clue Award.
Raid and the Blackest Sheep and Raid and the Kid
Raid and the Blackest Sheep is the first of Nykanen’s books to have been translated to English. It is part of his “Raid” series, which stars a criminal of the same name. In this volume, Raid has been working as an assassin in Sweden and Finland. He agrees to help an aging conman named Nygren exact revenge on some of his enemies. The first is a corrupt preacher. Next, they take down a dangerous drug dealer. Raid also aids Nygren in doing a good deed for a person Nygren unfairly hurt a long time ago. A writer on the Scandinavian Crime Fiction website commented: “The hitman who is a deadly and competent killer as well as a man of conscience is something of a cliche, but Nykanen does a good job of bringing this stock figure to life.” The same writer added: “There’s a fascinating balance of sympathy and hard-headed realism in this story.”
Raid and the Kid finds Raid coming to the aid of a young man in rural Finland, who is being hunted down by Bolivian drug dealers. His actions make him a target for the drug cartel. Meanwhile, in Helsinki, a police detective called Jansson investigates a case involving the deaths of a Finnish flight attendant and blue collar worker from Bolivia. It becomes clear that these deaths are connected to the Bolivian cartel.
Nights of Awe
Nykanen begins his “Ariel Kafka Mystery” series with the 2012 book, Nights of Awe. It introduces the series’s protagonist, a Jewish cop in Helsinki named Ariel Kafka. He is investigating multiple murders that have been occurring in his city. Most of the victims are either Israeli or Arab, leaving Kafka to believe there may be some sort of international incident happening. He must find a way to continue his investigation while working alongside the Finnish Secret Services and the Israeli Mossad. In an interview with Nathan Burstein, contributor to the Times of Israel website, Nykanen discussed the protagonist of the series and his interest in Finland’s Jewish community. He stated: “I have written many stories about Finnish criminals—over twenty, in fact. After a time, though, I began to think about creating a new and different main character. For twenty years, I worked as a crime reporter for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia, and that’s how I came to know many policemen. One of the policemen I met was Jewish—his name was Dennis Pasterstein.” Nykanen continued: “This is a new phenomenon, for Finland to have Jewish policemen. I find the Jewish population to be so interesting. They have lived here for more than 200 years, but remain largely unknown, and misunderstood even by the culture that surrounds them. … I’m interested in the conflicts of everyday life and the traditions of the Jewish religion. I know that many Finnish Jews are assimilated… If there are any Orthodox Jews living in Finland, it is few.”
Reviews of Nights of Awe were mixed. “After a great first half, Nights of Awe suffers from being overcomplicated by too many conspiracy elements, and in having quite so many murdered corpses turning up—all crammed in to a short book,” remarked Maxine Clarke on the Euro Crime website. Xpress Reviews contributor, Jennifer Rogers, described the volume as “a series debut that is overly confusing and, ultimately, unsatisfying.” “The resolution will satisfy noir fans,” predicted a writer in Publishers Weekly. In a more favorable assessment in Booklist, Jessica Moyer asserted: “The clever combination of classic Jewish themes with the traditions of Nordic crime makes for a refreshing tale with wide appeal.”
Behind God's Back and Holy Ceremony
Kafka returns in Behind God’s Back, which was released in 2014. In this volume, he is determined to solve the murder of Samuel Jacobson, a fellow member of the Helsinki’s Jewish community. Kafka has a personal connection to the case, as Jacobson’s daughter is his ex-girlfriend. Karen Meek, critic on the Euro Crime website, suggested: “Behind God’s Back is an interesting read and Ari is a typical fictional cop. … The pace is steady, there are no dips, and overall it’s a solid police procedural.” Writing in Reviewer’s Bookwatch, Michael J. Carson asserted: “Behind God’s Back is highly recommended and entertaining. An enduringly popular addition to any community library collection.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the book as “intricately plotted.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called it “perhaps the oddest Scandinavian mystery to have crossed the ocean yet, a mixture of Jo Nesbo’s portraits of Nordic political corruption with Jerome Charyn’s waggish Borscht Belt tales.”
Holy Ceremony finds Kafka investigating the mysterious death of a mentally disturbed young women named Roosa Nevala. Connected to the case are various cryptic religious references. Kafka’s job is further complicated when Nevala’s body disappears. Lynn Harvey, reviewer on the Euro Crime website, compare Holy Ceremony to the other books in the series, describing it as “slightly less satisfying than the previous Nights of Awe and Behind God’s Back. Perhaps it is the final grand explanatory reveal.” However, Harvey added: “A great twist of emphasis emerges and the story remains an engaging, conspiratorial mystery.” Writing on the New York Journal of Books website, Michael J. McCann suggested: “Nykanen’s writing style is clean, direct, and unadorned. As with Michael Connelly, his skill with words seems to have been well-honed through years of experience as a journalist. He describes with economy whatever is necessary to paint the scene and leaves the rest to the active imaginations of his readers. Dialogue is realistic.” “Readers will look forward to Kafka’s next outing,” predicted a Publishers Weekly critic. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews stated that the book was “less distinctively woolly than Behind God’s Back (2014) but just as intricate in its layers upon layers of corruption, murder, suspect cops and public officials, and seriously dirty secrets.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2012, Jessica Moyer, review of Nights of Awe, p. 21.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2014, review of Behind God’s Back; February 1, 2018, review of Holy Ceremony.
Publishers Weekly, March 12, 2012, review of Nights of Awe, p. 40; December 8, 2014, review of Behind God’s Back, p. 58; January 22, 2018, review of Holy Ceremony, p. 65.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, March, 2015, Michael J. Carson, review of Behind God’s Back.
Xpress Reviews, March 30, 2012, Jennifer Rogers, review of Nights of Awe.
ONLINE
Elina Ahlback Literary Agency website, https://www.ahlfbackagency.com/ (July 10, 2018), author profile.
Euro Crime, https://eurocrime.blogspot.com/ (May 5, 2012), Maxine Clarke, review of Nights of Awe; (May 4, 2016), Karen Meek, review of Behind God’s Back; (March 15, 2018), Lynn Harvey, review of Holy Ceremony.
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (June 8, 2018), Michael J. McCann, review of Holy Ceremony.
Scandinavian Crime Fiction, https://scandinaviancrimefiction.wordpress.com/ (November 8, 2010), review of Raid and the Blackest Sheep.
Times of Israel Online, https://www.timesofisrael.com/ (April 30, 2012), Nathan Burstein, author interview.
Series
Raid
1. Raid and the Blackest Sheep (2010)
2. Raid and the Kid (2012)
Ariel Kafka Mysteries
1. Nights of Awe (2012)
2. Behind God's Back (2014)
3. Holy Ceremony (2018)
QUOTED: "I have written many stories about Finnish criminals — over 20, in fact. After a time, though, I began to think about creating a new and different main character.
For 20 years, I worked as a crime reporter for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia, and that’s how I came to know many policemen. One of the policemen I met was Jewish — his name was Dennis Pasterstein."
"This is a new phenomenon, for Finland to have Jewish policemen. I find the Jewish population to be so interesting. They have lived here for more than 200 years, but remain largely unknown, and misunderstood even by the culture that surrounds them. ... I’m interested in the conflicts of everyday life and the traditions of the Jewish religion. I know that many Finnish Jews are assimilated… If there are any Orthodox Jews living in Finland, it is few."
Finland’s Jewish answer to ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’
Veteran crime novelist Harri Nykanen tells the Times of Israel why his latest hero, Ariel Kafka, is a Jewish detective who's equally skeptical of Israelis and Arab Finns
By Nathan Burstein
30 April 2012, 1:33 pm
If its detective novels are any indication, Scandinavia is full of unlikely crime fighters: hackers with unusual tattoos, and now Jewish policemen living in Helsinki.
In “Nights of Awe,” Finnish writer Harri Nykanen, 58, introduces readers to Ariel Kafka, a hardened Jewish investigator who’s clearly spent some time in religious school. Newly translated into English, the book opens with a mysterious set of murders in Helsinki, then expands into a case involving Arab terrorists, drug traffickers, a beautiful actress and the Mossad. Set during the Jewish calendar’s High Holy Days, the novel is named in reference to the Days of Awe, the period of self-reflection between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, when the Jewish Kafka is as concerned with the crimes of others as on his own sins. (With the exception of an El Al flight scheduled for just before the start of Yom Kippur, the novel gets its Jewish details correct.)
The novel is named in reference to the Days of Awe, the period of self-reflection between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, when the Jewish Kafka is as concerned with the crimes of others as on his own sins
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Engaging and unexpected, the book marks the first of four novels Nykanen has written about Kafka, a gruff but likable antihero focused here on a possible terrorist plot against Israel’s foreign minister.
In an e-mail exchange with the Times of Israel, the non-Jewish Nykanen explains where he got the idea for his latest crime fighter, describes the research that made the character credible, and discusses how Finland’s tiny Jewish minority is viewed by its neighbors. He also reflects on similarities between Finland and Israel, proper food-sharing etiquette in saunas, and that famous “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
Nykanen’s comments have been edited for length and continuity.
Where did the idea for a Jewish detective come from? Are there any in Helsinki?
I have written many stories about Finnish criminals — over 20, in fact. After a time, though, I began to think about creating a new and different main character.
For 20 years, I worked as a crime reporter for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia, and that’s how I came to know many policemen. One of the policemen I met was Jewish — his name was Dennis Pasterstein. (There was another Jewish policeman there as well, but I didn’t meet him.)
This is a new phenomenon, for Finland to have Jewish policemen. I find the Jewish population to be so interesting. They have lived here for more than 200 years, but remain largely unknown, and misunderstood even by the culture that surrounds them.
When I started writing the Ariel series, I asked Dennis many simple questions. For example:
– If you are in a sauna with your friends and they offered you barbecue sausage. (perhaps containing pork), would you eat it to be polite?
– Can you go to work during the Sabbath?
– What does your family think of your profession?
– What do you fellow workers think of your background?
I’m interested in the conflicts of everyday life and the traditions of the Jewish religion. I know that many Finnish Jews are assimilated… If there are any Orthodox Jews living in Finland, it is few.
Of course, I went to visit the Jewish community of Helsinki. When I was there, I met Dan Kantor, the executive manager of a synagogue. After this, I read many books about Jewish traditions, culture (Jewish humor, too), the history of the Finnish Jews and Ha-Kehila (a magazine for the local Jewish community.)
‘Due to my career as a crime journalist, I know that anything is possible’
I know one Finnish person who lives in Israel. He is not Jewish. He was a policeman here and a criminal as well; he smuggled drugs and guns. He sold fake dollars too. He told me many unbelievable stories. I have also met with a Finnish Jewish man who is an officer in the Israeli army.
Due to my career as a crime journalist, I know that anything is possible.
However, please keep in mind that Ariel is a detective/crime story, not a non-fiction book. That´s why there may be many inaccuracies — maybe clichés, too.
How did you come up with his name, Ariel Kafka?
Kafka is a real Finnish-Jewish name. A Mr. Kafka used to own a well-known secondhand shop in Helsinki. In fact, it’s where I bought my first American Lee jeans in 1968. (Remember that this was a time of extreme poverty in Finland.) Later, when I was in the army, I encountered another man named Kafka, and he was Jewish as well.
What inspired the story? Do you have Jewish background or a personal connection to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
No, I’m not Jewish, but I have spoken with several Jews and Arabs. And of course I have read about the conflict.
I think that Finland’s relationship with Israel is very good. The Jewish population here is very small (1,300), but it is an important part of the culture. There are many Jewish artists, musicians, writers, journalists (Ruben Stiller, I know him. Nice fellow), lawmen and entrepreneurs (a politician, too: parliament member Ben Zyskowicz).
I think that Finland is a good country for Jews to live in, or at least I really hope it is.
Speaking about the Second World War, 350 Jews fought in the Finnish army on the front lines. There were many heroes, too.
The Second World War was a very strange situation for the Finnish Jews. Finland was in a military alliance with Germany against Russia, but many Jews fought in the Finnish army on the front lines. There they had their own tent synagogues, and German soldiers were amazed by that. Finland didn’t extradite any Finnish Jewish people to Germany, even though the leader of the Gestapo (Himmler) put pressure on them to do so. [By contrast, eight Austrian Jews who had sought refuge in the country were deported. — NB]
How have Finnish readers responded to the book? How has it sold compared to your others?
Very welI, I think. It isn’t a bestseller, but Finland is a small country.
Will the book be translated into languages other than English?
All four of the Ariel Kafka books have been translated into German, and will be translated into Russian as well.
As a longtime crime novelist from Scandinavia, what do you think of the success of Stieg Larsson’s “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series? Have they influenced you in any way?
Larsson’s story is amazing. His books are too perverse, long and lack a sense of humor (at least for me), but the series has opened many doors for Finnish writers.
Finland has generally had a positive relationship with Israel, but the current foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja, has made some highly controversial statements. Last year he called Israel an “apartheid state,” and in 2001 he said it was treating Palestinians the way Jews were treated in 1930s Europe. Do you think most Finns agree with his views?
I don’t think so. Finnish people understand the situation in Israel because we fought against Russia from 1939 to 1944, and we are a small country as well. Tuomioja is a ’60s radical. He is clever, but I think often [sees the world in] “black and white.” Judging Israel is a simple way to tell others, “I’m an intellectual.”
Myself, I’m not interested in politics. I appreciate Israel and the Jewish people, but I think that Israel makes mistakes, as do Finnish people.
One of your characters refers to Finland as “our little northern paradise,” even though you also make repeated mentions of Finnish neo-Nazis and skinheads. From outside the country, it does seem like Finland has avoided tensions over the Middle East and Middle Eastern immigrants that have resulted in violence in Denmark and Norway. Has Finland been lucky, or is there something different there that has allowed it to avoid the worst of these problems?
‘It’s strange, but neo-Nazis don’t think that Jews are the enemy. They think that Finnish Jews are Finnish citizens. They fight instead against Arab immigrants’
[Bad things have] happened, but we don’t have many neo-Nazis or skinheads, and those who are tend to be young. The Finnish secret police, Supo, doesn’t consider them a dangerous group. It’s strange, but neo-Nazis don’t think that Jews are the enemy. They think that Finnish Jews are Finnish citizens. They fight instead against Arab immigrants, black people and all Muslims, except for the Finnish Tatars. Tatars are a 150-year-old Turkish community (with 900 members) in Finland. They have their own mosque in Helsinki.
But Finland certainly isn’t paradise, and we have many problems. We have had two serious shooting attacks in schools that killed many young people. In fact, Finland is the most violent country in Scandinavia.
Personally, I don’t like people who are too fanatical. I think too many Muslims are. They seem to not understand that Finland, Sweden and Denmark are democracies, and that the people in them want to have the freedom to say what they think.
How many more books do you plan to write about Ariel Kafka? What will the next one be about?
Who knows? I don’t have any plans as of now. Usually, though, I get struck with a good idea, and then this becomes the basis for the storyline of my next book.
“Nights of Awe” is the first part in the Ariel series. There are four books in all. The second one is called “Ariel and the Spiderwoman,” the third one is “Behind God’s Back” and the last one is “Holy Ceremony.” I don’t know yet if they will be published in English.
My other book series are “Raid” and “Johnny & Bantzo” (a comedic crime story). I have also written a nonfiction book about the underworld of Helsinki, and several TV series’ scripts and screenplays.
Harri Nykänen is an industrious novelist who draws on his 20 years of experience as a crime reporter at Helsingin Sanomat, the largest daily in the Nordic countries. An author since 1986, he has written dozens of books portraying the customs and rules of the Helsinki underworld – through the eyes of both criminals and members of the police force. Nykänen has won the Finnish crime writing award The Clue twice, and was nominated for the Glass Key for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel in 2004.
Nykänen’s brutal antihero Raid, starring in ten of his books, has become iconic in Finland. His story has also been adapted into a movie and TV series. Television rights to the original Finnish series have been sold in Russia, and Nykänen has also received interest in television remake rights from the U.S. His newer Ariel Kafka series, starring a cool-headed policeman who is also a member of Helsinki’s Jewish community, has received praise in international press. Drawing from current events, the series is firmly rooted in the streets of the Finnish capital. In his latest standalone novel, To Earth Again (Mullasta maan, CrimeTime 2014), a crime story set in Northern Finland, he delves into “Arctic Noir.”
Harri Nykänen, born in Helsinki in 1953, was a well-known crime journalist before turning to fiction. He won the Finnish crime writing award "The Clue" in 1990 and in 2001. His fiction exposes the local underworld through the eyes of the criminal, the terrorist and, most recently, from the point of view of an eccentric Helsinki police inspector.
QUOTED: "less distinctively woolly than Behind God's Back (2014) but just as intricate in its layers upon layers of corruption, murder, suspect cops and public officials, and seriously dirty secrets."
Nykanen, Harri: HOLY CEREMONY
Kirkus Reviews. (Feb. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
NykAnnen, Harri HOLY CEREMONY Bitter Lemon Press (Adult Fiction) $14.95 3, 13 ISBN: 978-1-908524-898
The third case for Lt. Ariel Kafka, of Helsinki's Violent Crimes Unit, begins with a twice-disappearing corpse and just gets wilder.
It doesn't take a minute for medical examiner Dr. Esko Vuorio to identify the body found in an apartment in the TA A lA district: it's psychiatric patient Roosa Nevala. And Vuorio should know, because he examined her only yesterday in the city morgue, from which her body has been stolen, laid out, and adorned with scriptural references. There's no sign of violence but many signs of weirdness, not the least of which is the vanishing of Roosa's body from the morgue a second time so that it can be immolated in a forest outside the city. Roosa's boyfriend, Reijo "Reka" LaurA@n, a cellist with a criminal past who's worked most recently at a funeral home, is clearly implicated, since he lived in the apartment her corpse visited briefly. But LaurA@n, who in his school days at the repressive Daybreak Academy belonged to a secret society called the Sacred Vault, insists he's not a killer.. Maybe Reka hasn't killed Roosa, but the trail that begins at Daybreak Academy leads to an awful lot of other suspicious deaths. Is Reka seeking revenge on Vesa SAnrkijAnrvi, the old teacher who's been accused of abusing many of the boys in his care, and other figures who may have covered up his assaults? Or has someone else battened on to the ancient grievance Reka shares with several other schoolmates, some of them slated for their own homicidal ends, for an even more sinister purpose?
Less distinctively woolly than Behind God's Back (2014) but just as intricate in its layers upon layers of corruption, murder, suspect cops and public officials, and seriously dirty secrets.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nykanen, Harri: HOLY CEREMONY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461650/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ead7997a. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461650
QUOTED: "Readers will look forward to Kafka's next outing."
Holy Ceremony
Publishers Weekly. 265.4 (Jan. 22, 2018): p65.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Holy Ceremony
Harri Nykanen.trans. from the Finnish by Kristian London. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-908524-89-8
In Nykanen's complex third mystery featuring Helsinki cop Ariel Kafka to be translated into English (after 2014's Behind God's Back), Kafka is summoned to an apartment where the naked corpse of Roosa Nevala, who had a history of psychiatric problems, lies on a sofa, her back adorned with ominous Biblical citations. The case becomes even more bizarre when the medical examiner recognizes her as the same woman who fatally overdosed on sedatives the day before and was brought to his morgue to be autopsied. Kafka is further unsettled when a letter to him is found under Nevala's body, signed by "The Adorner of the Sacred Vault," who refers to a holy ceremony that will end only after an evil dragon is slain. When Nevala's corpse vanishes again, Kafka is called by the thief, who advises him to "follow the signs of fire" to learn the truth. The solution to the subsequent murders that Kafka eventually learns of is particularly clever, and Nykanen is careful to plant the clues to whodunit and why fairly. Readers will look forward to Kafka's next outing. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Holy Ceremony." Publishers Weekly, 22 Jan. 2018, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525839783/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7e4316c9. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525839783
QUOTED: "Perhaps the oddest Scandinavian mystery to have crossed the ocean yet, a mixture of Jo Nesbo's portraits of Nordic political corruption with Jerome Charyn's waggish Borscht Belt tales."
Nykanen, Harri: BEHIND GOD'S BACK
Kirkus Reviews. (Dec. 15, 2014):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Nykanen, Harri BEHIND GOD'S BACK Bitter Lemon Press (Adult Fiction) $14.95 2, 1 ISBN: 978-1-908524-42-3
A Helsinki businessman apparently murdered by the most awkward suspect possible launches Detective Ariel Kafka, of the Violent Crimes Unit, on his second case (Nights of Awe, 2012). Helsinki's Jewish community is small enough that everyone knows everyone else. Its community of police officers is even smaller. So you'd think that Kafka, a member of both of these exclusive sets, would know the uniformed cop who gunned down office-supply-chain owner Samuel Jacobson just outside his swanky home. For better or worse, though, evidence soon points away from the police to an imposter, presumably someone hired by Leo Meir, of Cemicon Ltd., who's been under 24-hour surveillance ever since he came to town, reportedly to arrange "a high-profile assassination." So Kafka's left to make inquiries among Jacobson's circles, who correspond roughly to Kafka's own friends and relatives. Kafka used to date Jacobson's daughter Lea. His brother Eli is a corporate attorney deeply involved in Jacobson's affairs. So is Eli's law partner, Max Oxbaum, who's Kafka's second cousin. The few suspects who aren't related to Kafka directly all have close ties to Israel, from Benjamin Haranin, the suspected money launderer who owns Baltic Invest, to Amos Jakov, long suspected of being his silent partner, to Haim Levi, the exchange student who spent a term living with the Jacobsons years before being named Israel's Minister of Justice. Now Kafka, whom the dead man long since dismissed as son-in-law material, wonders if he can rise to the occasion by avenging Jacobson's death. Perhaps the oddest Scandinavian mystery to have crossed the ocean yet, a mixture of Jo Nesbo's portraits of Nordic political corruption with Jerome Charyn's waggish Borscht Belt tales of Isaac Sidel, the Pink Commish of New York.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nykanen, Harri: BEHIND GOD'S BACK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2014. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A393255057/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=68916c26. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A393255057
QUOTED: "intricately plotted."
Behind God's Back
Publishers Weekly. 261.51 (Dec. 8, 2014): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Behind God's Back
Harri Nykanen,trans. from the Finnish by Kristian London. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade paper (204p) ISBN 978-1-908524-42-3
In Nykanen's intricately plotted second Ariel Kafka novel to be published in English (after 2012's Nights of Awe), the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit cop looks into the shooting murder of Jewish businessman Samuel Jacobson, whose daughter he once dated. Jacobson's widow reveals that her husband recently engineered a major loan through Kafka & Oxbaum, a law firm owned by Kafka's brother, Eli, and a second cousin of theirs, Max Oxbaum. Kafka already knows that Eli and Max brokered their clients' loans from an Estonian company, Baltic Invest, which is owned by Israeli businessman Benjamin Hararin, a front man for Amos Jakov, who's believed to have links to the Russian mafia. Family ties and the tight-knit dealings within Finland's small Jewish community complicate the investigation, but the sympathetic Kafka manages to perform a delicate balancing act on his way to an unexpected resolution of the crime. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Behind God's Back." Publishers Weekly, 8 Dec. 2014, p. 58. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A393350278/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7117d129. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A393350278
QUOTED: "The clever combination of classic Jewish themes with the traditions of Nordic crime makes for a refreshing tale with wide appeal."
Nights of Awe
Jessica Moyer
Booklist. 108.18 (May 15, 2012): p21.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Nights of Awe.
By Harri Nykanen. Tr. by Kristian London.
May 2012. 247p. Bitter Lemon, paper, $14.95 (9781904738923).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Nyknen's twist on Nordic crime fiction may be the most inventive of the year. Ariel Kafka, a middle-aged bachelor, is a detective in Helsinki (think early Harry Hole) and, as far as he knows, the only Jew on the entire Helsinki police force, which is why he's picked to head up the investigation of a series of murders that began with two Arabic-looking men who may have been shouting Jewish obscenities as they died. Set during the days leading up to Yom Kippur, this complex tale moves quickly, as Ari attempts to figure it all out. With pressure from his colleagues, police administration, his brother, and the local Jewish community, can he uncover everything before the holiest day in the Jewish calender? The clever combination of classic Jewish themes with the traditions of Nordic crime makes for a refreshing tale with wide appeal. And the subtle humor, combined with a hero who is not completely depressed and alcoholic, makes it even better. Not just for readers of Nordic fiction, this should also be suggested to those who relate to New York Jewish detectives, including Lenny Briscoe (from Law & Order) and John Munch (from Homicide and Law & Order: SVU), as well as readers who enjoy the black humor of Stuart MacBride.--Jessica Moyer
Moyer, Jessica
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Moyer, Jessica. "Nights of Awe." Booklist, 15 May 2012, p. 21. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A291352076/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fd27c404. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A291352076
QUOTED: "The resolution will satisfy noir fans."
Nights of Awe
Publishers Weekly. 259.11 (Mar. 12, 2012): p40+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Nights of Awe Harri Nykanen, trans, from the Finnish by Kristian London. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-904738-92-3
Professional responsibility and ethnic affiliation clash in Nykanen's intriguing first novel starring Finnish police detective Ariel Kafka. With Helsinki's Jewish community dwindling, the local synagogue often lacks the required quorum for prayers, but Kafka believes he serves his community best by dedicating himself to his duties with the city's Violent Crimes Unit rather than being a regular synagogue attendee. Ironically, Kafka is relieved to be called to a homicide scene to get out of an uncomfortable conversation with his rabbi. Near a railway bridge, someone shot a young male foreigner four times and stabbed him twice, then sliced off his nose and ears. A second dead man, possibly the killer, appears to be an Arab, who broke his neck after jumping onto a moving train. When two more bodies surface shortly afterward, Kafka becomes concerned that the bloodshed is linked to the impending visit of the Israeli foreign minister. The resolution will satisfy noir fans. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nights of Awe." Publishers Weekly, 12 Mar. 2012, p. 40+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A283261109/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0249bb97. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A283261109
QUOTED: "a series debut that is overly confusing and, ultimately, unsatisfying."
Nykanen, Harri. Nights of Awe
Jennifer Rogers
Xpress Reviews. (Mar. 30, 2012):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Nykanen, Harri. Nights of Awe. Bitter Lemon, dist. by Consortium. Apr. 2012. c.247p. tr. from Finnish by Kristian London. ISBN 9781904738534923. pap. $14.95. M
Ariel Kafka is one of two Jewish policemen in all of Finland, and nobody lets him forget it. In the days leading to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Kafka faces a growing body count from murders in Helsinki. Some of the dead are Arabs, some are Israelis, and a few are Finns who happened to be in the way. As Kafka meanders through the investigation, Israeli Secret Service Mossad and the Finnish Secret Services step in ... but are the interested parties there to help or to hinder Kafka in the investigation?
Verdict Nykanen attempts to include a bewildering number of leads, clues, bodies, and very long last names, all of which accumulate to a series debut that is overly confusing and, ultimately, unsatisfying. Nykanen, a longtime journalist and crime fiction writer, has written over 30 novels and is the author of four different mystery series. Followers of his other series will no doubt be interested; however, newer fans may be harder to attract.-Jennifer Rogers, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll., Richmond
Rogers, Jennifer
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rogers, Jennifer. "Nykanen, Harri. Nights of Awe." Xpress Reviews, 30 Mar. 2012. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A286972015/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5bcbaff5. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A286972015
QUOTED: "Behind God's Back is highly recommended and entertaining. An enduringly popular addition to any community library collection."
Behind God's Back
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer's Bookwatch. (Mar. 2015):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Behind God's Back
Harri Nykanen, author
Kristian London, translator
Bitter Lemon Press
37 Arundel Gardens, London, W11 2LW, United Kingdom
www.bitterlemonpress.com
Meryl Zegarek Public Relations
9781908524423, $14.95, 247pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: There are two Jewish cops in all of Helsinki. One of them, Ariel Kafka, a lieutenant in the Violent Crime Unit, identifies himself as a policeman first, then a Finn, and lastly a Jew. Kafka is a religiously non-observant forty-something bachelor who is such a stubborn, dedicated policeman that he's willing to risk his career to get an answer. Murky circumstances surround his investigation of a Jewish businessman's murder. Neo-Nazi violence, intergenerational intrigue, shady loans--predictable lines of investigation lead to unpredictable culprits. But a second killing strikes closer to home, and the Finnish Security Police come knocking. The tentacles of Israeli politics and Mossad reach surprisingly far, once again wrapping Kafka in their sticky embrace.
Critique: A compelling read from beginning to end, "Behind God's Back" by Harri Nykanen is an impressive and suspenseful mystery replete with unexpected plot twists and turns. A riveting novel, "Behind God's Back" is highly recommended and entertaining. An enduringly popular addition to any community library collection, for personal reading lists it should be noted that "Behind God's Back" is also available in a Kindle edition ($9.99).
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Carson, Michael J.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Carson, Michael J. "Behind God's Back." Reviewer's Bookwatch, Mar. 2015. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A405678642/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5694a54e. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A405678642
QUOTED: "Behind God's Back is an interesting read and Ari is a typical fictional cop. ... The pace is steady, there are no dips, and overall it's a solid police procedural."
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Review: Behind God's Back by Harri Nykanen tr. Kristian London
Behind God's Back by Harri Nykanen, tr. Kristian London (January 2015, 208 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1908524421)
BEHIND GOD'S BACK is the third in the Ariel Kafka series but is the second to be translated. The other being the first book in the series, NIGHTS OF AWE.
Ari is one of two Jewish police officers in Helsinki/Finland and he is called in to investigate the murder of leading Jewish businessman Samuel Jacobsen. Many years ago Ari dated Jacobsen's daughter and recently Ari's brother Eli's law firm arranged a loan for Jacobsen. These factors are positives rather than meaning Ari has to recuse himself.
The killer seems to be a professional, no evidence is left behind and the getaway car is found, also completely clean. Ari's small team have to discover whether this is a racist killing or had Jacobsen got involved with criminals?
Just when Ari is beginning to get somewhere, a second killing occurs. Is there a connection to the upcoming visit by an Israeli politician? An unexpected source holds all the answers.
BEHIND GOD'S BACK is an easier book to follow than NIGHTS OF AWE. It is fairly short, so plot overrides characterisation I feel and I haven't got much of a handle on Ari's colleagues. Setting the crime in the Jewish community however, means that not only do you get information about Jewish customs but you get almost a "village" setting as Ari knows everyone and they know him and he will get information that "outsiders" won't.
BEHIND GOD'S BACK is an interesting read and Ari is a typical fictional cop: forty-ish, single, smart-mouthed but for once without a drink problem. The pace is steady, there are no dips, and overall it's a solid police procedural. I hope that more of the currently five-book series get translated into English.
Karen Meek
May 2016
QUOTED: "After a great first half, Nights of Awe suffers from being overcomplicated by too many conspiracy elements, and in having quite so many murdered corpses turning up—all crammed in to a short book."
Nykanen, Harri - 'Nights of Awe' (translated by Kristian London)
Paperback: 278 pages (Feb. 2012) Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press ISBN: 1904738923
The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are termed the Days of Awe, or the Days of Repentance. This is a time for individuals to consider the sins of the previous year and repent. Hence the English-language title of this book, the events of which take place during this period - but not always at night. (The book was called ARIEL when it was first published in Finnish in 2004.)
Ariel Kafka is an inspector in the violent crimes unit of the Helsinki police, so is called in when two men are attacked and killed at a busy train junction. With little to go on, Ari (as everyone calls him) is stymied until another two bodies are discovered at a repair garage. "Four bodies in one day was a lot", thinks Ari with typical laconic understatement. Because the victims are all Arabic, the unpopular SUPO (security police) muscle in with theories of terrorism to explain the crimes. In a nod to the author's other series, Helsinki Homicide, Ari consults Lt Tamanaki for some advice on how to proceed: Tamanaki refers him to the Islamic society, which provides useful background and context.
The pace of the narrative never lets up. Even more bodies are found. Ari rushes about pursuing a constellation of leads while SUPO continue to muddy the waters by not providing useful information to Ari but being suspiciously well-informed about the police investigation, always turning up one step behind Ari at each crime scene. Ari uncovers a possible Israeli connection: he is warned off by several of his well-connected extended family who are on the committee of the synagogue. Ari's brother, who owns a law firm, puzzlingly wants to know more about the case than is released to the public, and Ari's ex-girlfriend's father, a failed furrier, is somehow involved with one of the later victims. SUPO piles on the pressure by suggesting that Mossad agents are trying to prevent an act of terrorism planned for the upcoming visit of Israel's foreign minister. Ari, surely the best-connected detective in fiction (partly due to the smallness of Helsinki's Jewish community), happens to have been the boyhood friend of someone who may be able to help him work out what is happening in this convoluted series of crimes and plethora of interested parties.
After a great first half, NIGHTS OF AWE suffers from being overcomplicated by too many conspiracy elements, and in having quite so many murdered corpses turning up - all crammed in to a short book. Ari is an intelligent, dynamic and determined investigator, whose relationship with his Jewish roots and extended family (secondary to his loyalty to the police and his country) provide interesting tensions. I hope to read more about him, but I also hope that his future cases are more local than this one.
Maxine Clarke, England
May 2012
QUOTED: "Nykanen’s writing style is clean, direct, and unadorned. As with Michael Connelly, his skill with words seems to have been well-honed through years of experience as a journalist. He describes with economy whatever is necessary to paint the scene and leaves the rest to the active imaginations of his readers. Dialogue is realistic."
Holy Ceremony (An Ariel Kafka Mystery)
Author(s):
Harri Nykanen
Release Date:
March 13, 2018
Publisher/Imprint:
Bitter Lemon Press
Pages:
248
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Michael J. McCann
A woman’s nude body is found in a Helsinki apartment with religious references scrawled on her back. Police Lieutenant Ariel Kafka of the Violent Crime Unit soon discovers that the body was stolen from the morgue and left in the apartment to attract the attention of the police. A personal message to Kafka is discovered when they turn the body over.
When the same body is stolen a second time and burned in a bonfire in the woods, Kafka finds himself in the middle of a deepening mystery involving past sexual assault at Daybreak Academy, a boy’s boarding school with religious sponsorship. A secret society formed by past students called the Christian Brotherhood of the Sacred Vault seems to hold the key to the mystery of the stolen body and to several unsolved murders linked to the school.
Harri Nykänen is a veteran Finnish crime fiction author who worked for 20 years as a crime reporter for Helsingin Sanomat, the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia. He has published more than 30 novels, and Holy Ceremony is the third novel in his Ariel Kafka series.
The series is noteworthy in part because Kafka is a Jew, a relative rarity in Finland and even more rare in Finnish law enforcement (there are two). Nykänen focuses on Kafka’s cultural heritage more extensively in earlier novels; in Holy Ceremony references to it are minimal, highlighted primarily by an ethnic slur directed toward Kafka by one of his detectives. As he reflects, “There was as much prejudice and anti-Semitism on the force as there was among the public at large . . . Still, it felt like I had just been slapped across the face.”
More noteworthy in Holy Ceremony is that Kafka is a well-drawn, interesting, and likeable protagonist. “I didn’t ask for much from life,” he tells us. “A one-bedroom apartment, comfortable furniture, a good stereo . . . and a four-figure sum in my bank account were enough for me.”
Nykänen’s first-person narrative brings Kafka close to the reader without larding down the story with excessive analysis of his state of mind. It also presents the action as a police procedural with a nice balance of investigative detail, interactive team members, and legal explanations.
We’re able to follow the action and appreciate Kafka’s dealings with senior officials, members of the National Bureau of Investigation, and the deputy national police commissioner without feeling overwhelmed with information and background.
Nykänen’s writing style is clean, direct, and unadorned. As with Michael Connelly, his skill with words seems to have been well-honed through years of experience as a journalist. He describes with economy whatever is necessary to paint the scene and leaves the rest to the active imaginations of his readers. Dialogue is realistic, and point of view is controlled with the discipline of a veteran.
The translation by Kristian London should also be commended as transparent and effortless to read.
Scandinavian noir is an enduring subgenre in contemporary crime fiction, and we’re constantly made aware by North American publishers of the latest English translation of novels from Nesbø, Läckberg, or Sigurđardóttir. Harri Nykänen, on the other hand, has more or less flown under the radar to this point. Perhaps his Ariel Kafka series, and Holy Ceremony in particular, should begin to attract the attention Nykänen deserves in this hemisphere of the crime fiction world.
Michael J. McCann’s crime novel Sorrow Lake was shortlisted for the 2015 North American Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime fiction. His latest novel is Burn Country, the second March and Walker Crime Novel.
QUOTED: "The hitman who is a deadly and competent killer as well as a man of conscience is something of a cliche, but Nykanen does a good job of bringing this stock figure to life."
"There’s a fascinating balance of sympathy and hard-headed realism in this story."
Review: Raid and the Blackest Sheep by Harri Nykanen
Posted on November 8, 2010 by Barbara
Raid is a criminal who slips back and forth across the Swedish/Finnish border, toying with the police, carrying out work for hire but adhering to his own moral code. In this entry in a long-running series that’s popular in Finland, the first to appear in English, Raid is assisting a fellow con, Nygren, who is old and sick and has scores to settle. He starts by accosting a preacher who manipulates the innocent for cash, informing his congregation that their pastor is a fraud, “a ravening wolf in sheep’s clothing” and giving a sermon like none they’ve ever heard before. “Try not to be so gullible. The world is full of false prophets from the same stock as myself and this black-souled brother Koistinen. Be skeptical, but don’t stop searching. Maybe you’ll find a good shepherd yet. Remember that the tree is known by its fruit, and a bad tree bears no good fruit.”As he tells Raid afterward, “I didn’t read the Bible in prison for nothing.”
The pair moves on to put a violent drug dealer out of business, and tracks down a man who Nygren wronged many years ago to set things right. As they trek northward, toward the arctic circle, they are pursued by a couple of thugs and an ambitious and hard-nosed narcotics detective. Along the way we learn something about who Raid is through his dealings with both Nygren and with a police officer he trusts (whose story is interwoven with Raid’s). The hitman who is a deadly and competent killer as well as a man of conscience is something of a cliche, but Nykanen does a good job of bringing this stock figure to life. At one point, when a drunken Nygren tells his companion that he, too, will one day face a day of reckoning, Raid takes a shotgun outside to prowl the perimeters of their hideout, then lies on his back in an orchard and listens to the night, remembering how much he loved thunderstorms as a child. We never entirely get inside his head – he is an aloof and cautious man, not likely to let anyone inside – but the author manages to suggest there’s much more there than the competent tough guy with a code. And he does it modestly, in spare but effective prose.
This new publication from a tiny publisher, Ice Cold Crime, brings another Finnish crime writer into orbit of the English-speaking world with a fine translation by Peter Ylitalo Leppa. I haven’t read enough Finnish crime fiction to draw sweeping conclusions, but what I have read suggests that Finns are interested in the dance between cops and criminals – not in the ghoulish “step into the mind of a serial killer” mode, or in the larger-than-life struggle between good an evil, but in the people whose job it is to pursue criminals, the human beings who commit crimes, and the damage they do to society and to themselves. There’s a fascinating balance of sympathy and hard-headed realism in this story that I find refreshing.
QUOTED: "slightly less satisfying than the previous Nights of Awe and Behind God's Back. Perhaps it is the final grand explanatory reveal."
"A great twist of emphasis emerges and the story remains an engaging, conspiratorial mystery."
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Review: Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykanen tr. Kristian London
Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykanen translated by Kristian London, March 2018, 268 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1908524898
Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
April 2010, Helsinki.
In a spacious apartment in the city’s Töölö district, the body of a naked woman is sprawled on a leather sofa. Her back is covered in writing, quasi religious with bible references and the symbol of a cross inside an arch. Detective Ariel Kafka of the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit throws his arms in front of his face in an involuntary response to both the writing and a sense of being trapped, then he attempts to distract his surprised colleague Oksanen with a question about the owner of the flat. Scanning the bookshelves for a bible, Kafka finds one. The written reference, Matthew 10:28 has been underlined.
Kafka waits for the medical examiner and as he does so he gets a sense of the apartment as being an elderly person’s home. It reminds him of visiting his aunt’s deathbed all those years ago, a scene which fed his childhood nightmares alongside a scene from “Fiddler on the Roof”. Oksanen returns from talking to the neighbours. The current resident, Reijo Laurén, had inherited the flat three years ago.
The medical examiner’s reaction to the corpse is surprising. It is one he has already examined, the previous day in fact – a suicide and not yet written on. It must have been stolen from the morgue. But the examiner is more interested in the why than the how. He suggests to Kafka that the anonymous tip off about the body is a prelude to something more. Kafka is inclined to agree. A member of Ariel’s team calls in the results of her research into Laurén: one-time musician convicted of narcotics possession, divorced with one child, a restraining order, a year in a psychiatric hospital and employed at a funeral home; Laurén is also a likely candidate for being the dead woman’s unstable boyfriend according to her sister.
The examiner moves the body, revealing an envelope addressed to Kafka. It contains a yellowed newspaper clipping dated 2008, an article about the body of a man found in a Kouvola septic tank. There is also a note written in apocalyptic language which states, amongst other things, that this is not the end of the writer’s work. It is signed “The Adorner of the Sacred Vault”.
Kafka returns to HQ for an update on the dead man in the septic tank. A detective who was on the team investigating the Kouvola case tells him that they ran into dead ends everywhere. They suspected a case of “thieves falling out” and the body had been badly beaten and burned. Kafka asks if there had been anything odd about it. Yes, the symbol of an arch and cross had been inscribed on the dead man’s back.
With this, Kafka gets the go ahead on the stolen body investigation but with absolutely no press involvement. So next day when the case is headline news, he calls the reporter responsible for the story who says he also had an anonymous tip off. Someone is keen to publicise their cause. Kafka and the medical examiner go down to the morgue where the dead woman’s body has been returned. “Here’s our little runaway,” announces the examiner as he pulls out one of the steel drawers. It’s empty again.
HOLY CEREMONY is the third of Harri Nykänen’s books featuring Detective Ariel Kafka to be translated into English (so far five books in all have been published in his native Finland). A well-known crime journalist before turning to fiction, Nykänen’s series of Kafka police procedurals always move at a brisk and steady pace and in HOLY CEREMONY the police team uncover more details of Laurén’s past which includes membership of a religious group, the Brotherhood of the Sacred Vault, at his childhood boarding school and a darker involvement with the school staff. Kafka’s life gets complicated when security records at the morgue implicate the medical examiner himself in the theft of the corpse. The detective and his team race to find Laurén before more people die. But they do.
I like Nykänen’s engaging, mildly eccentric protagonist Ariel Kafka: one of Finland’s two Jewish policemen albeit “a religiously non-observant 40-something bachelor”. I found this book slightly less satisfying than the previous NIGHTS OF AWE and BEHIND GOD’S BACK. Perhaps it is the final grand explanatory reveal (I admit to a preference for a crime novel that “shows” rather than “tells” – which his other books do). But Agatha Christie is no mean example to follow, so I bicker. A great twist of emphasis emerges and the story remains an engaging, conspiratorial mystery, reading well in Kristian London’s translation.
Lynn Harvey, March 2018