Finnish Invasion Blog Tour: The Mine by Annti Tuomainen with Book Giveaway

I’m thrilled to host the next stop on The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour today where I’ll be focusing on The Mine by Antti Tuomainen, published by Orenda Books. I am really excited as I have a special treat for you – I’m giving away TWO yes that’s right TWO signed copies of this fabulous book as well sharing an extract with you. Please don’t forget to check out all the other great stops on the tour

So without further ado here is the blurb:

A hitman. A journalist. A family torn apart. Can he uncover the truth before it’s too late?

In the dead of winter, investigative reporter Janne Vuori sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company, whose illegal activities have created an environmental disaster in a small town in Northern Finland. When the company’s executives begin to die in a string of mysterious accidents, and Janne’s personal life starts to unravel, past meets present in a catastrophic series of events that could cost him his life.

A traumatic story of family, a study in corruption, and a shocking reminder that secrets from the past can return to haunt us, with deadly results …

The Mine Extract –  Part One Nickel

Finally the blood started flowing.
It rushed and flowed as the hot water caressed his body, as it pressed evenly against every inch of his skin. It was as though he’d found someone bigger than himself, someone who knew his body well, knew how to hold it, how to take it in its embrace and warm it. He stretched his short, stocky legs. The bathtub was the perfect length. He tensed his chubby thighs, his round calves, and relaxed them again. The water buoyed him up, slowed his movements. On an evening like this, after spending all day in the freezing cold, he had earned a soak in the steaming bath.
Outside the wind was whipping up a flurry of snow, the January cold and the darkness swallowing all living things. A moment earlier Pirjo had packed the boys and their ice-hockey equipment into the car and left. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, he had the house to himself. He moved his right arm, scratched his chest.
He leaned the back of his head against the edge of the bathtub and closed his eyes.
It is an unfortunate truth that with your eyes closed you often see much more than usual. The day’s people and events all flickered behind his eyelids like a confused news bulletin. A clear indication of stress.
He opened his eyes. The pressure! All the decisions that had to be made quickly and implemented regardless of whether someone disapproved. Someone always disapproved. He wiped the sweat from his brow. The bath water was almost scalding. He glanced at the windows. They were covered in a thin layer of steam. The lights on the veranda were switched on, and through the steam he watched the whirl of the snow. There was something hypnotic about it, something relaxing.

Maybe one day some people would realise they didn’t have a monopoly on being in the right; weren’t the only ones possessed of ultimate truths. Maybe…
An exceptionally dense swirl of snowflakes flurried past the window and the thick ice on the window ledge crackled as though a packet of boiled sweets had been scattered on the floor. That’s a lot of snow, he thought. He turned his head and gazed at something even more relaxing than the snow: the white tiling and dark-grey grout, the purity and cleanness of the pattern, its exactitude, its repeating logic. How beautiful, how practical. One of mankind’s greatest achievements. What was it he’d been thinking about? Ah yes, decisions. Making tough decisions. People who didn’t like his decisions. That’s what it had come to. Whenever you wanted something and tried to get something done…
The bedroom.
As though someone had pushed a plug into a socket. Was there someone in the house? Surely not.
Only the moan of the wind in the chimney flue and the waves of snow washing past the window. He lay still, and a moment later the water followed suit. This was the best thing about taking a bath: stopping, as though you had succeeded in stepping outside time itself, into its centre, a place where everything condensed. Again he closed his eyes. His breath was light and shallow. Old air out, fresh air in. Almost as though someone was approaching.
Not quite footsteps, but something, somewhere.
He saw the bathroom’s white tiled wall and through the door a strip of the bedroom. Again he heard the wind whistling through the flues. A sudden thought entered his head: something bursting into flames.
An ‘electric shock’ is a misleading term. The word ‘shock’ gives the impression that the electricity only hits you and leaves the body. That’s not what happens. Electricity flows, that’s what electricity does. As it courses through the body, electricity causes massive burns, interferes with the functioning of the heart, fills the lungs with water, suffocates you.
Electricity clotted his heart, burned his organs, snapped his arteries, pummelled his muscles.
He writhed and trembled. Water sputtered and splashed.
Then, a moment later, an immense calm. It was hard to establish where his body ended, where the water’s surface began. Both lay utterly still, as though fused together.
A column of snow blew past the window. Snowflakes whipped against the window frame.

To: Janne Vuori <<janne.vuori@helsinkitoday.fi>>
From: Pain Increases Knowledge <<pain.increases.knowledge@gmail.com>>
Subject: Suomalahti
Hello Janne,
We have been reading your articles on tax avoidance and the grey economy.
You might just be the journalist we’ve been looking for. Perhaps you’re not.
We’ll soon find out.

You will probably be familiar with the nickel mine at Suomalahti in northern
Finland. We recommend you look more closely at both the mining complex
itself and the company administering the site. According to information we
have received, the mine is engaged in hazardous activities and, what’s more,
the company is fully aware of the matter. We are convinced that we will soon
be looking at a full-blown environmental catastrophe.

A little background. The mine at Suomalahti was opened seven years ago.
Its owner, a company called Finn Mining Ltd, owns three other mines. The
Suomalahti complex differs significantly from the other three. This mine
was opened with the blessing of government authorities and the business
world. One of the mine’s primary goals is to promote an innovative new
technology, using the precious metals that can be extracted from Finland’s
ore-depleted ground in an efficient and environmentally friendly fashion.
This method has been extolled as the future of the mining industry, and it is
hoped that this will propel Finland towards a new economic boom, the like
of which has not been seen since the advent of Nokia in the 1990s.
This is all a pack of lies. The truth is we’re digging our own grave.
If we see evidence that you are serious about our case, we will be in touch.
We guarantee it will be worth your while.

Author Bio:

Finnish Antti Tuomainen (b. 1971) was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The critically acclaimed My Brother’s Keeper was published two years later. In 2011 Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for ‘Best Finnish Crime Novel of 2011’ and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. The Finnish press labeled The Healer – the story of a writer desperately searching for his missing wife in a post-apocalyptic Helsinki – ‘unputdownable’. Two years later in 2013 they crowned Tuomainen “The king of Helsinki Noir” when Dark as my Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen is one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula.

To find out more about Annti Tuomainen check out his website here. To buy this book on Amazon click here.

**This competition has now closed and winners notified**

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN ONE of TWO SIGNED COPIES of THE MINE BY ANNTI TUOMAINEN

• Tweet the link to this post with @emms_rachel in the post, retweet one of my tweets about the giveaway OR comment on the post below. (You’ll need to follow me on Twitter, so that I can send you a direct message if you win.)
• Rules: 
Only one entry per reader.
• Open to UK residents only.
• I will draw the winnerS at random. There will be no cash alternative
• The competition closes for entries at 10.00pm GMT on Tuesday 22nd November 2016
• My decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.