Antti Tuomainen
Orenda Books, 5 November 2026
Available as: HB, 257pp, audio, e
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB): 9781917764537
I'm grateful to Anne for sending me a copy of The Fresh Cut to consider for review, and for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.
A new Antti Tuomainen is always something to look forward to and The Fresh Cut didn't disappoint. I'm not aware of another author currently working who can produce quite the same mix of humour and horror, plunging his apparently everyday heroes into bizarre, ever more complicated situations as their quiet lives are complicated and turned upside down.
The result is a sense of general mayhem which I can only liken to an Ealing comedy with aspects of PG Wodehouse - but, as I said, also with a very particular sense of horror. (The Fresh Cut features several unpleasant deaths as well as exploring themes of domestic violence and coercion).
In The Fresh Cut, our hapless hero is Heikki, the owner and manager of a failing sawmill. Heikki's a very good and competent manager, but these are hard times and he's been obliged to take out a loan from a local gangster, Ismo Sippo. Now Sippo wants his money back - and more, he wants a favour from Heikki. Sippo has a corpose to dispose of and he sees Heikki's chipper as a solution to all his problems.
At the same time, the new customer Heikki hopes will save the mill arrives unexpectedly. And Heikki's staff are up to something which they don't want to share with him.
These elements combine into a madcap series of coincidences, close calls and hair-raising escapades, all compounded when Heikki - who's lived alone since his wife died several years before - unexpectedly falls in love. But the object of his affection also has an active part to play in the mayhem, and may herself bring Heikki into danger.
It's a fast-paced and exciting story which continually surprised me and went to places that both shocked and amused. There are some cracking characters here - Heikki is resourceful and brave, and Annaleena determined and quick thinking. I hope that Tuomainnen will bring them back for more stories, and that we might also hear more about those rather morose co-workers at the sawmill.
Another winner from a favourite author.
For more information about The Fresh Cut, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below.
You can buy The Fresh Cut from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith or Waterstones.
