"Set in Finland in early summer 1953, this is the 3rd in the Hella Mauzer crime mystery series. The first-ever female detective Inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit, Mauzer is now a private investigator."
When Hella Mauzer is asked by her former boss in the police to make discreet enquiries into a senior member of the Finnish secret service, the reader of this excellent tale knows this is a task that isn’t going to end well.
Mauzer discovers a link between Johannes Heikkinen, the subject of her enquiry, and the death of her father in a suspicious hit-and-run road collision in 1942. Heikkenen, it seems, is not the virtuous member of society he likes to portray and it doesn’t take too long before he and Mauzer are set on a collision course.
Trouble begins with an engaging prologue that acts as an excellent hook to encourage the reader to continue. When I first did so, I confess I struggled a little with the narrative. Then, it occurred to me this is a novel set in Finland and narrated from the perspective of a lead character who is Finnish. From that moment, as I allowed my mind to hear the voice of a female, Finnish voice telling the story, it became much more enjoyable. The language, the personal voice and the narrative became clearer and the reading experience, all the more enjoyable.
Helsinki, June 1953, at the heart of the Cold War. Hella, now a reluctant private investigator, has been asked by her former boss at the Helsinki murder squad to do a background check on a member of the Finnish secret services. Not the type of job Hella was hoping for, but she accepts it on the condition that she is given access to the files concerning the roadside death of her father in 1942, at a time when Finland joined forces with Nazi Germany in its attack against the Soviet Union. German troops were sent to Finland, the Gestapo arrived in Helsinki and German influence on local government was strong, including demands for the deportation of local Jews. Colonel Mauzer, his wife and other family members were killed by a truck in a hit and run incident. An accident, file closed, they said. But not for Hella, whose unwelcome investigation leads to some who would prefer to see her stopped dead in her tracks.
