Snow Angels: 1 (An Inspector Vaara Novel)

A Booklist Best Crime Novel Debut

“Don’t miss this one.”—USA Today
"A masterful job." -Michael Connelly

It is called kaamos--two weeks of unrelenting darkness and soul-numbing cold that falls upon Finnish Lapland, a hundred miles into the Arctic Circle, just before Christmas. Some get through it with the help of cheap Russian alcohol; some sink into depression.

This year, it may have driven someone mad enough to commit murder. The brutalized body of a beautiful Somali woman has been found in the snow, and Inspector Kari Vaara must find her killer. It will be a challenge in a place where ugly things lurk under frozen surfaces, and silence is a way of life.

James Thompson, eastern Kentucky born and raised, has lived in Finland for the past decade. Before becoming a full-time writer, Thompson studied Swedish and Finnish, in which he is fluent, and worked as a bartender, bouncer, construction worker, photographer, rare coin dealer, and soldier. He is also the author of the Inspector Vaara novels Helsinki White and Lucifer's Tears.