One of the first Scandi thrillers that I have read. The book is written from the viewpoint of Henri, an actuary. Having lost his job, he inherits an adventure park from his brother who died suddenly. When he gets to the park, it becomes apparent that there are problems, the staff are unusual and his brother seemingly had debts and was involved with the criminal underworld. Henri is a logical thinker. In the writing style he almost comes across as some one on the Autistic spectrum. He sets about dealing with the park's problems and in doing so, gets himself into trouble.
The plot is complicated, though becomes clearer as the book progresses . Henri tells the story factually and it does become bizarre, though his no nonsense approach keeps it grounded. I did not find the book laugh aloud funny, though at times events are absurd. Set in Finland, references are made to localities which were lost on me, though will look into this more. Presumably a translation, I thought it was well done.
Thank you to NEt Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will look out for more from this author

Touting an author as 'the funniest writer in Europe' is a big claim (as The Times claims) and writing crime fiction with genuine humour is a difficult trick to pull off - while many try I often find the efforts, from big name authors or indie writers a bit eggy. In this case, I enjoyed the book and can see why it would be bought as a screen option (and can see Steve Carrell in the main role, although I can also see a loss in the quirkiness of it to a broader slapstick style comedy if not done sympathetically).
The premise is interesting - Henri Koskinen, an actuator, inherits an adventure park from his brother. Reluctantly taking the role of owner on he finds there is a lot more going on than he could have bargained on.
The main character is, while never explicitly described as such, on the spectrum. Whether you can find humour in this will, to a large part, determine whether you find the novel amusing or not - much of the action and reaction, and in particular the interplay with other characters relies on his extremely literal take on things. Indeed, the crime element of the novel is relatively tab A into slot B in terms of complexity and resolution.
For me, I thought it was an enjoyable read. Some of the humour worked well, a few parts less so. I understand this might be the first in a series of books, and there's certainly mileage in learning more about the various secondary characters from the park.

Thank you to Orenda and Netgalley for the copy in return for an honest review.

Very entertaining. I liked all aspects: characters (quirky, fun and relatable), storyline (interesting, with some unexpected turns without becoming far-fetched) and writing style (great pace, vivid descriptions, good dialogue).

The only reason there's no fifth star is probably just because of the genre. Crime novels rarely touch me on that deeper emotional level.

Two things appealed to me from the book blurb: a mathematician inheriting an adventure park beset with financial problems, and the prospect of romance between two of the characters. The quirkiness of the main character Henri hooked me into the story and I kept reading as I wanted to know the fate of the adventure park and the fate of Henri's romance. The adventure park setting and variety of characters add to the story.

In the book The Rabbit Factor, author Antti Tuomainen follows insurance actuary Henri Koskinen whose life is numbers and spreadsheets. Henri wants everything all nice and neat and his life reflects this fact. But when he loses his job and his brother dies, Henri’s world begins to spiral out of control. Henri’s brother wills his adventure park to Henri, but with it comes all the debts. And these are not your traditional debts. The more Henri tries to understand his brother’s problems, the deeper the rabbit hole goes.
This was a fascinating well thought-out story. It is a bit of a struggle to get into the culture and names of people and places. And obviously the laws are different with regard to lending money. I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Henri Koskinen is an actuary for an insurance company, who relies heavily on logic and stability. He lives lives a solitary life with only his cat Schopenhauer as a companion. His life is thrown to disarray when he is let go from his job, and discovers that his brother has died and left him an adventure park to run. Furthermore, his brother had very eclectic hiring practices to say the least, and he also had some very strange business associates who claim he owed them a very large sum of money.

This is a very thrilling ride, with lots of funny moments. I especially liked the digs on corporate speak and Henri’s fish out of water reaction to the events that keep befalling him.

This is a very warm heartening read as Henri discovers a hidden talent for managing his employs and bringing out their hidden talents. And his love for math saves his lives numerous times.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review. This was a rare treat.

This was a good book, I have read a few other books by this author and I expected this one to be good as well. Henri works for an insurance company as an actuary, someone who places a number on the probability of something happening and he's very good at it. The company though is going through a change, the offices are removed in favor of open spaces, they hold meetings to encourage employees to empathize with one another, something that Henri has no interest in and is quietly let go without severance. Fate is a fickle thing, Henri soon finds himself the own of an amusement park (or adventure park as he calls it), it had been owned by his brother who suddenly passed away. Henri has no experience with running a park and is leaning towards selling it. when weird things start to happen. He's approached by a couple of men who tell that his brother owed them a significant sum of money, and they expect Henri to now pay it since the brother no longer can, the two make it very clear that if he doesn't come up with the money he won't be enjoying the park for long. There are some humorous moments in the story, Henri comes up with some very out of the box ideas on how to pay the money. There is also a bit of romance between him and a park employee which was quite nice. Does Henri get to enjoy his new romance and park? You'll have to read it to find out, I enjoyed it and I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read and review an advanced copy of this book.

Henri is an insurance actuary that does his job very well but does not fit in with the team he works with. When he is basically forced out, and can’t easily find a new job, he doesn’t know how to cope. Then, he finds out he has inherited an adventure park after his brother died. He quickly finds out he now has a quirky bunch of employees, a balance sheet in the red, and some unfortunate debts his brother has left behind. This leads him on a runaway roller coaster, trying to walk a tightrope between the police and a dangerous criminal element. The only thing that seems to keep him going is a co-worker who has stolen his heart, a very new experience for him.

This book was a joy to read as Henri is forced to survive, by going way beyond his comfort zone. This puts him in many humorous situations, where he somehow escapes.

An actuary finds himself the new owner of an adventure park. Fun take on the scandi-noir, with maths, giant rabbits and plenty of bad guys.

This book started well but I was unable to sustain much interest for the protagonist. I could see some of the humour of the inheriting an amusement park after quitting a job which seemed to be degenerating into amusement park territory, but by one third in, I had lost interest. Sorry

Henri Koskinen is an actuary and treasures rational, mathematical thinking. So he's thrown into a new world when he inherits an adventure park (not an amusement park) from his much-less straight-laced brother. He certainly doesn't expect to have to defend his life from a violent mobster by wielding a part of a giant mechanical rabbit.

As he takes over the business and gets to know the rag-tag staff he discovers discrepancies in the books. Somehow, his brother owes a great deal of money to people who charge an unusually high interest rate and enforce loan collection energetically. He balances keeping the mobsters at bay with developing a new money-making scheme while also falling for a staff member who paints beautiful murals on the walls of the park, awakening something in Henri that he has never experienced before.

It's a humorous (and sometimes dark) caper in an unusual setting with a narrator who shouldn't be especially winning but somehow is. Tuomainen continues to tell stories that are off the beaten path - but worth the trip.

The translation is excellent.

Another “comic” novel that makes fun of its main character on the autism spectrum as much as it celebrates him. With a lot of jarring violence thrown in. I didn’t get much of the humor; maybe it was lost in translation. (Oh, he’s an actuary haha! Actuaries are so funny!) I predict this will be one of those movies (“Soon to be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios”) that will be better than the book it is based on. Or else it will be really bad.

I'm always wary of a book that has to start with an adventure-filled flash forward because the actual opening of the book is so dull. (Technically the opening scene is "now" but chapter 1 goes back three weeks and five days.)

The cover is the best thing about this book. Don't judge the book by it.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This was a strange book to say the least, but I did truly enjoy it. The Rabbit Factor is the story of an unemployed actuary (who thinks of everything in mathematical terms) who inherits a failing adventure park from his free-spirited brother. Almost from the beginning this is full of intrigue, as he also inherits his brother's debts and relationship with a criminal element.

Well written and easy to read, I nonetheless felt that in a few places the translation did not do the actual text justice, but that's to be expected in any translated book. The humor and the book are dark, but it's still quite a good read and I recommend for fans of books such as ~Anxious People~.

This was a touch whimsical for my taste though others will find it entertaining. Like many other nordic novels, it is long on description and exposition which can make for an interesting read but I find it interferes with the plot's pacing and slows down the read.

I've highly enjoyed Antti Tuomainen's mix of black humor and Nordic noir in the past, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to read his newest story The Rabbit Factor sooner than later. Especially when I heard the news that there was an adaptation in the making... I fully expected to have a brilliant time with this story, and I'm still not sure what exactly went wrong, but the fact is that somehow the Nordic black humor magic failed to hit the right spot for me. I ended up having mixed thoughts instead, and I'll try to explain what did and didn't work for me below.

First of all, I can still truly appreciate this quirky mix of genres and combination of dark comedy and Nordic noir crime. It is not a combination you come across every day, and black humor is tricky to get right, but Antti Tuomainen sure knows how to mix that particularly literary cocktail. And as someone who has a particular taste for sarcastic and darker humor, his writing is usually right up my alley. This is why I'm so surprised that The Rabbit Factor wasn't as big as a success as I thought it would be...

Things started out promising enough and the contrast of the serious and kind of clueless Henri, the dangerous situation and the ridiculous events had me hoping this would be a new favorite. Somehow though, the pace seemed to slow down considerably and combined with something I can't exactly put my finger on, I started to struggle to keep focused on the story. I wasn't sure what to make of the main character Henri either... I liked him initially, but he became a tad annoying and repetitive as the plot evolved. The 'bad guys' were a bit too cliche for me, and some of the side characters were quite frustrating. I do still like the contrast of Henri being an actuary and him suddenly inheriting an adventure park with all the side issues. The way he gets himself out of tricky situations is without doubt the perfect example of dark comedy, and those moments stood out for me. There were sadly also parts that almost dragged for me, and I think that I could have done without the romance element altogether.

Before I go, I have to say that I can truly appreciate translators like David Hackson for making it possible for us to enjoy our dose of Nordic noir to the fullest... I would have never been able to discover this Finnish author otherwise. And while The Rabbit Factor wasn't my favorite story written by him, that doesn't mean that it was a bad read. If you like your humor pitch black and enjoy quirky characters as well as crime fiction, you should definitely try this author!

Nordic noir at its best. Nothing of the flavour is lost in this excellent translation of a darkly comedic thriller. What does one quirky actuarian do when he inherits an adventure park from his estranged brother? While Henri sets to work figuring out where all the money went and how to make his brother’s business a success, he’s attacked. Before you know it, it’s cops and criminals everywhere and the bodies start piling up! Quirky and funny, it’s no surprise this is soon to be a film. Recommend

Henri is an actuary who lives his life with mathematical precision. In quick succession he loses his job, his brother does and he inherits his brother's adventure park 'YouMeFun'.

Henri runs the figures and his perplexed....the park should be making money, but bills are unpaid and there is an outstanding loan. To add to his discomfort and confusion he finds himself drawn to the artistic employee, Laura.

It turns out his brother made enemies and Henri has to use all his calculation skills to get himself out of the mess.

The story is told from Henri's POV and he is a very engaging narrator, reminiscent of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Following him as he tried to solve the problems that pop up around him is entertaining and engrossing. Additionally the translation from Finnish is excellent!

What It's About: Soon after insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen loses his job, he inherits YouMeFun, an adventure park from his brother who passed away suddenly. Besides the peculiar employees, Henri also inherits the park's huge debt and now dangerous men want their money back.

My thoughts: This is the third book I've read by this author and it did not disappoint! I loved it! This was another fun, quirky, darkly comedic story that will warm your heart and keep you at the edge of your seat too!

Henri is one endearing character and he calculates everything in his life. So it was pretty funny and interesting when he tries to calculate his way out of trouble from these dangerous criminals! Will it work?

As always, the writing is engaging and the good translation makes it easy to follow the story too. I loved the hilarious dialogues and banter between the characters.

I personally think this book was a bit lighter compared to the previous two I've read (The Man Who Died and Little Siberia) but if you like movies like Snatch or Burn After Reading, you will love this one too!

Pub. Date: May 1st, 2022

***Thank you Independent Publishers Group, Orenda Books, author Antti Tuomainen, and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

This is my first Nordic noir book. It is very different from anything I've ever read. As far as the plot, it's great. However, it does take some adjustment to get submerged into the book, but not in a bad way. I had to get used to the different characters' names that take a little bit to pronounce. The culture and dynamic of each character are also an adjustment.

Thank you to Independent Publishers Group, Orenda Books and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very fun and fast paced read. Henri was a great main character, his inner dialogue was surprisingly enjoyable to read. with him being an actuary I had doubts about that at first. A good story all tied up in a neat package. Easy to read, easy to enjoy.