Hyvällä tai sahalla Saw Hard

A Finnish summer night. A man, a woman – and a sawmill.

Heikki Nevalainen, a sawmill owner drowning in debts, finds himself in deep trouble when the local gangster, Ismo Sippo, hands him a grotesque task: dispose of Sippo’s dead wife, and in return, keep the sawmill running. Horrified but desperate, Heikki drives off with the the wife, Annaleena in his backseat.

However, the real shock waits at the sawmill: the corpse isn’t quite as dead as he thought.

As a Belgian buyer arrives to inspect the mill’s timber, Heikki scrambles to keep up appearances. But the situation is splintering fast, and even his own workers seem to be hatching plans of their own.

In Saw Hard, Antti Tuomainen blends dark humor with sharp plotting, turning heavy timber with a light touch.

Reviews

“The villain in Antti Tuomainen’s new novel could have stepped straight out of a Martin Scorsese film or The Sopranos by David Chase. (…) Saw Hard bends and stretches genre conventions in every direction. Witty, surprising aphorisms, absurd humour, and vividly portrayed Finnish summer nights give way to bursts of action. (…) Amid the gangster skirmishes, people end up in bumper-car collisions—then in hospital, and finally, the morgue. A host of eccentric side characters fuel the death dance of disastrous misunderstandings. (…) Tuomainen’s novel, written with great warmth, possesses the irresistible allure of an adult fairy tale. ”

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland
“Antti Tuomainen reigns supreme in his genre – let’s call it the comic crime novel – without rival. (…) I have long admired the way he transforms ordinary settings and everyday people into something resembling a fairytale adventure. What he narrates could happen, yet the pace and intensity of the events, amplified by his dry, dark humor, lift the story beyond the mundane. (…) Tuomainen writes in a vividly visual style, making it easy for the reader to see each scene unfold.”

Kirsi’s Book Club, Finland
“Antti Tuomainen writes crime fiction with black humour and tenderness. (…) The surprising, multifaceted, and inventive encounters between the characters provide delightful entertainment, allowing the reader to experience every scene as if they were there themselves. (…) Tuomainen is one of those authors who, within the framework of crime fiction, can write as much about love as about crime. (…) There is humour, often dark and marked by laconic remarks. Tuomainen meets all expectations, and from experience, I can say that his books are most often read in one sitting.”

Kulttuuritoimitus, Finland
“A picaresque novel with delicious black humor (…) Tuomainen’s sharp language and clever plot twists drive the story forward like a fast-flowing spring river. With just a few words he captures the souls of his characters and the full range of their moods. The joyous humor, dark though it is, is always present, sometimes obvious, sometimes slyly woven into the text. (…) There are sudden, ever more surprising plot twists where Tuomainen truly shows his skill.”

Kainuun Sanomat, Finland