I’ve written about inspiring non-fiction books, mainly dealing with the development of agile, software or people skills. This time, the inspiring book Välitön uhka is a thriller, but I thought I still could squeeze this in because the author Kari Haakana has a lengthy background in agile software development! Also, I think this book is a very good tip for Christmas presents, which are always quite hard to come up with. Lastly, it’s a tip for publishers to translate the book into English.
With Välitön uhka it’s pleasant to walk around in different locations in Helsinki, crossing from the murder site of Kruununhaka to the suburbs of eastern Helsinki and the forests of Sipoo. The descriptions of the houses and surroundings vividly bring to mind the places from my own experience, even though the descriptions cannot be described as abundant or rambling.
I feel that the book does not try to please everyone. It sticks to a limited expression that could be thought of pleasing more male readers. Or maybe that feeling comes from the fact that there are plenty of male perspectives in the book. Using last names when referring to the characters brings me a connotation of the army, intended or not. But the army in Finland is of course for all males/females/they.
With the audiobook though, I find myself struggling a bit with having to remember the characters by only using last names. Maybe for people who have been in the army, it’s easier to remember names that way. For me, it was somehow easier to differentiate Kinnunen/Viinanen/Nihtinen/Karhu/Lahti etc. when I was holding the printed book itself in hand.
One of the leading characters Kinnunen is left for the reader to define whether it’s a female or male character or if that matters at all. The gentle play with gender roles behind the scenes is intriguing, and maybe that’s the reason why male characters caught my attention too. It’s good that in the book the former prime minister of Finland isn’t part of a hetero-normative family.
What makes the book interesting is the lack of words and sparse expression, it is really up to the reader to fill in the gaps. That’s why you can’t listen to the book when you’re tired, the abundance of characters and the rarity of references require concentration.
In the Audiobook, there could have been different readers for some of the different characters. I liked the solution in Jenni Toivoniemi’s Valtakausi, and I found Emmi-Liia Sjöholm’s Virtahevot to be brilliant because of the audiobook implementation. How quickly do habits change, in this case, expectations to audiobook readers, when something better is presented to the users? In Haakana’s book known news anchor and an author himself Matti Rönkä reading the STT news was a clever idea. It inevitably comes to mind what sort of new levels can Haakana’s audiobooks in the future reach, as the writer is savvy in technological development as well.
I read and listen to books a lot. I used to be a fan of detective stories also. For one reason or another, my tolerance for suspense dropped about five years ago, and I’ve only read very few select thrillers in these years. This book restored my faith in thrillers. The book was exciting, had many different layers and was sharp. Now I’m very much looking forward to Haakana’s next book “Tapa hänet ensin” which will be published already in January, and to see how the story and the characters will evolve.
Normally, you can’t judge a book by its cover, but with this one, you can. I just love the cover, and it fits the content. Thanks for reading and happy holiday season!
Kari Haakana: Välitön uhka. 2022.
Can be bought in Finnish from Aula
Small experiments and inspiration 