Well written. Really good story that moves along at a good pace. ( )

I’m not sure how to categorize this novel; perhaps it’s best identified as a darkly comedic Nordic noir crime caper with romance elements.

Henri Koskinen, an insurance actuary, inherits an adventure park, YouMeFun, near Helsinki after his brother’s death. Along with the park come some peculiar staff members and an enormous debt to dangerous criminals. Henri’s carefully ordered life is turned into chaos, and his emotions after meeting one of his staff, Laura Helanto, leave him totally discombobulated. (Am I the only one who thought of The Rosie Project when Laura is introduced?) Will Henri be able to save the park as his brother wished? Since the criminals are willing to go to murderous lengths to collect their money, will Henri be able to save himself?

I liked the protagonist. At times he reminded me of Spock in the Star Trek series. Henri relies on reason and logic: “I just wanted things to occur in a good, logical order and that I based all of my actions on rational thinking.” For him, the application of mathematics provides “Happiness, comfort, hope. Sense and logic. And above all: solutions.” He’s social awkward, unwilling to engage in ordinary pleasantries: “’I don’t need to know how other people are doing. I don’t want to know what they’re thinking, what they’ve done or how they experience things. I don’t want to know what they are planning, their hopes and aspirations. So I don’t ask.’” He even uses logic to choose a restaurant: “’Given the average rating review, the distance from our respective bus stops, the prevailing weather, the day of the week, the time of the year, your predilection for spicy food, and the fact that the point of a date is to try and make an impression on the other person, this seemed like the optimal choice.’”

Of course Henri, the man who sees math and logic as the solution to all problems and so wants to calculate everything, is presented with situations and emotions that do not lend themselves to easy computation. So he is very much a fish out of water, a purely logical man in an emotional world full of illogical and irrational behaviour. In the course of the novel, he learns that it’s not just “calculations that tell us what is beautiful and what is not” and that it’s possible and perhaps desirable to live “’with less of a focus on probability calculus.’”

Though it relies on the “love conquers all” trope, I can accept Henri’s emotional growth, but I had difficulty with his transformation from a meek and mild actuary to a take-charge hero who successfully bests professional criminals. Even for someone who dismisses emotional responses, his lack of a reaction to some of what he witnesses doesn’t make sense.

There are parts I found humorous. I liked Henri’s comments about management psychobabble, and his mathematical perspective on everything certainly amused. Unfortunately, some of the scenes are too far-fetched for my liking. The opening scene with Henri battering a man to death with a giant, plastic rabbit ear was my first indication that the book with this type of humour was probably not for me. Other events just require too much suspension of disbelief. And though the book is described as a “dark thriller,” I found it lacked tension and suspense. Given the book’s tone and that Henri is the narrator, it’s obvious that he will emerge victorious and all will end well.

I feel like I’m breaking up with someone when I state that it’s not the book. I am the problem. Offbeat stories with absurd plots are not to my taste. It’s an easy read, but I didn’t engage with it, finding it more contrived that funny. Others will undoubtedly love this book, but the combination of dark and silly didn’t work for me. The book is followed by The Moose Paradox and The Beaver Theory, but I think I’ll not read these. My sense of humour, or lack thereof some would claim, is not a good fit for this trilogy.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski). ( )

Actuary Henri Koskinen learns in one day that he has lost his job and his brother. His brother leaves him his adventure park in his will, with an admonition to ensure that it keeps running. Henri feels obligated to do so, despite his misgivings.

The park has a strange assortment of employees, including one worker who never shows up, a maintenance man who claims to have been promised the general managership, and Laura, a wannabe artist managing the office. The latter persuades Henri to back her idea of a bunch of murals for the park, which the mathematically-minded Henri starts to find a strangely enticing idea.

Henri also finds out pretty quickly that his brother had been involved in some shady goings-on with local criminals, and that keeping the park operating is going to be a lot riskier than he thought. He sets about using his mathematics and logic skills to both deal with these thugs, and with the various demands of his staff.

This book is miles away from "The Healer", a rather grim dystopian Scandi-noir about a serial killer, indeed it's hard to believe the same writer came up with both. This one is more of a light-hearted crime novel, with a protagonist who reminded me quite a lot of Don Tillman, from The Rosie Project, in his social stiffness and logic-oriented approach to life. ( )

Marvellous! ( )

Henri Koskinen grea up with disorganized parents, and as a child, looked to mathematics to help sooth his disordered world. As a result, he becomes an actuary, who lives by actuarial principles. This obviously makes Henri an oddball. He’s unfortunately fired from his actuarial job, and shortly afterwards, finds out that he’s inherited a children’s adventure park from his brother, who died prematurely. Unbeknownst to Henri, the park is saddled with high interest debt from local mobsters.

The Rabbit Factor takes this mix, and brews a fascinating novel. I’ve never quite met such an eccentric fictional character as Henri, and the author skillfully brings him to life. We see how Henri’s life changes as he grows into his new role as park manager, deals creatively with the mobsters, and falls in love. This was such a great book, and due to Henri’s quirks, was quite different from other books I’ve read in a good while.

My thanks to Independent Publishers Group, and to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion. ( )

Unquestionably hilarious and at the same time absolutely bizarre
“The Rabbit Factor” is Henri Koskinen’s story. He is an actuary; fair and nice and reliable. His life is matter-of-fact, a bit edgy, but strictly businesslike, at least thus far. And at the age of forty-two, he just wants everything to be sensible. Then, the man and a giant rabbit made of metal and plastic collide at great speed. Now, mister “Mathematics is incorruptible,” mister “probability calculus,” mister “always tells the truth” has been fooled. He treads on the edge between absurdity and trauma. He has inherited an adventure park, (not an AMUSEMENT park) YouMeFun, and its entire staff.

The drama and trauma unfolds in Henri’s first person factual narrative. He describes events in great detail, not a fact left out, as if he is relating experiences to an official or biographer or reporter rather than to a friend, but then he is a person who only relates to facts and does not interact much with people. The adventure park smells of children’s horseplay and fast food. It has a dead man in the freezer, and is losing money. Now money Henri understands. He is a money man; mathematics is the key. People might betray him, but numbers do not. In the midst of the chaos of the Pinball Parlour, Trombone Cannons, the Komodo Locomotive, and the Curly Cake Café, numbers represent order.

The narrative is filled with figurative language and imaginative descriptions. The silence is like water in a glass, transparent but still concrete, tangible. The moon looks like creamy Finnish cheese, yellow and hanging heavily in the sky, almost within reach. The story progresses at an even pace but increases in intensity and incongruity. The truth has sharp, cold, deeply personal nails ready to scratch and tear Henri to pieces.

“The Rabbit Factor” is unquestionably hilarious and at the same time absolutely bizarre. I must look for Cinnamon Gigglebuns. I received a review copy of “The Rabbit Factor” from author Antti Tuomainen, translator David Hackston, Orenda Books and Independent Publishers Group “The Rabbit Factor” is now available in print, as an e-book, and on audio from independent bookstores, online booksellers, retail stores, public libraries and anywhere you get your books. ( )

The Rabbit Factor is a hilarious thriller that features an actuary as the main character. I love that math is a superpower in this book. Henri Koskinen has a well-ordered life. His apartment is optimally located for his job where he excels at calculating the odds but has to deal with an irritating manager who is full of meaningless phrases from the greeting card aisle. Sadly for him, his competence is not valued as much as his curmudgeonly attitude is disliked, so he is fired.

Then his brother dies and leaves him an adventure part that is deeply in debt, though it should be profitable. He soon learns that a lot of the debt is owed to some hard-case criminals. Can an actuary take on organized crime and win?

I loved The Rabbit Factor. It was everything promised by the quirky cover and more. It was gently comic with a few madcap moments. I loved when Henri used the corporate jargon he hated so much as a weapon with an encroaching employee, but then when the employee took it to heart and attended classes and learned some jargon of his own, that was genius. A lesser writer would have stopped with the satisfaction of deflecting the employee, but Tuominen didn’t stop and that is why he is such a great author.

Tuominen takes real menace, adds a touch of the ridiculous, a lot of the satiric, and a cup of madcap comedy, and cooks it up into a delicious comic noir. I can’t wait for the rest of this series.

I received an e-galley of The Rabbit Factor from the publisher through Edelweiss

The Rabbit Factor at Orenda Books & Independent Publishers Group
Antti Tuomainen on Twitter

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/9781913193867/ ( )

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. I admit, I'm a bit gobsmacked that this is apparently the first in a trilogy. Not sure where it will go from here...

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~. ( )

"I am an actuary.
As a rule, I don't own adventure parks, and I certainly don't batter people to death with giant, plastic rabbit ears.
But...my life hasn't been following the probability calculus for some time now.'

Henri Koskinen is forced to quit his job as an actuary when he refuses to become part of the team of 'functionally innumerate psychobabblers' ie. sensitivity training. But just as it seems that all companies have the same addiction to psychobabble, thereby lowering his probability to find another job, karma steps in. His brother dies of a heart attack and leaves Henri his adventure park - don't call it an amusement park.

"I resigned because I couldn't stand watching my workplace turn into a playground. Then I inherited one'"

Suddenly, he is having to deal with a bunch of quirky employees, a huge mechanical rabbit, and an idea of 'fun' for which there seems no mathematical calculus Henri can conceive of. And, if all that isn't bad enough. it seems like his brother had got himself into debt with some very dangerous people who want their money back. Sometimes karma can be a bitch.

If you're looking for the usual Scandi noir, The Rabbit Factor by Finnish author Antti Tuomainen definitely ain't it. What it is is a rollicking good crime? thriller? story - well, whatever you call it , it's a whole lot of fun from beginning to end and I recommend it highly to anyone who likes their crime mixed with a lot of humour, some very quirky characters, plenty of action, and even a little romance.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Orenda Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )