The storyline of this book is chilling. A stranger visits women in their Helsinki flats at night. Nothing happens to them, or has yet, but will it? Tweety, a skillful picker of locks roams the streets and falls in love with one of his night-time women. As we follow him, we realise he's a love-starved youngster, under the spell of his criminally infamous family.
Detective Sergeant Timo Harjunpää has his own worries, but begins to take note of the women reporting strange goings on at night. While he struggles with his own complicated love and family life, he's increasingly worried about the night-time goings on in Helsinki.
I could not put this book down. It weaves a delightful pattern between the policeman's personal dilemmas and those of the small-time criminal. It also paints a beautiful picture of the city of my student life: the night-time streets of Helsinki, it seems, have not changed that much in twenty years.
I'm off to buy 'Priest of Evil', Joensuu's previous novel, also available from that well-known Internet retailer.
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