Hella Mauzer was the first-ever woman Inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit. But she's been fired despite solving her first murder case. This is Helsinki, March 1953. An unusually long and cold winter, everywhere frozen sea, ice-covered lakes and rivers. In a port city flooded with refugees, who cares if a young woman goes missing? An up-and-coming inspector who views this as an opportunity to advance his career. A heartbroken PI with a score to settle. They have yet to discover one thing: the most dangerous lies are those we tell ourselves.
It all begins when Nellie, a prostitute working in a high-end brothel is found floating upside down in Helsinki Harbour. Not exactly a high priority case for the Helsinki police, so homicide chief Jokela passes the job to his former colleague Hella. It's beginning to look like a serial killer is at work when Elena, another lady of the night, narrowly escapes being driven into the harbour by her 19-year-old john. Problem was he had handcuffed her in the car. And to add further excitement to Hella's life, the madam is soon found dead in the garden outside the brothel.
What begins like a taut whodunit turns into something more tantalizing and psychological as Hella investigates different suspects, including Steve, the US DJ and love of her life, reluctant to leave his wife for Hella, and the fascinating Inspector Mustonen, charismatic, ambitious and trying desperately to live up to the standards of his high maintenance wife. There are dark powers at play, as well as lighter passages, particularly those involving Anita, voluptuous but savvy, freshly arrived from Lapland to join the Helsinki police force, a most unwanted roommate for Hella. Sadly she too ends up in deep trouble, in a satisfying denouement of twists and turns,
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[She didn't know what scared her the most: the man or the lake]***
(@bitterlemonpub, 2 June 2020, 170 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 24 June via @RandomTTours)
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It took a while to get into this book and I struggled to enjoy it for the first few chapters. I'm not sure why, I just wasn't feeling it. Then the author sucked me deeper and deeper into the complex story and everything started to click. The chapters alternate between Hella, a woman sacked from the Helsinki police force now a PI asked to look into the death of a prostitute and Inspector Mustonen, from the Helsinki police. This worked well and I liked reading their opposing ideas and beliefs about the prostitute's death. The book is set in 1953 but I got no sense of this as I read. It felt very current and modern. The book is set during an unusually cold and harsh winter and this is brought to vivid life and makes the woman's death and investigation all the more realistic. I really enjoyed this so plan to read other books by the author.
