The author is a Finnish grandmother. This novel is her debut. Imagine how daunting the task must have been in producing a book not in her mother tongue, Finnish, but in a foreign language, English. Ignore the occasional word used out of context. Allow for an overflowing imagination, eager to get all her ideas down on paper, and one is left with a clever and unusual plot. Not many novelists manage to mix crime and romance successfully, but Tiina Utoslahti does it here with perfection.

It is probably a limitation of mine, but I could not really understand what this novel wanted to do when it grew up. There are a lot of interesting ideas, all of which are dropped in favour of an insipid love story. I would advise the author to take a fresh look at her work and decide what is important and what is not of the various plot elements, in order to make a more enjoyable narrative out of it.

When a young man and colleague of Sanna’s is found murdered in a storage room of a pharmacy, it brings a police officer from her past back into her life.

There’s an interesting story to be told here, but unfortunately the execution missed the mark. This was partly down to the translation from Finnish, words were used that made zero sense in the context; this lead to what was already a confusing book being even more confusing. The book jumped from place to place and character to character without proper explanation.

This was such a gripping read, I read it in one sitting. It was well written with a compelling storyline and well developed characters that were relatable. It was twisty and unpredictable with a romance element that added an extra layer to the story. I really enjoyed it.