Lucifer's Tears: A Thriller (Inspector Vaara, 2) - Softcover

*Starred Review* One year after the traumatic events of Snow Angels (2010), Inspector Kari Vaara is now living in Helsinki with his heavily pregnant American wife. While Kate has adjusted well to their new life, Vaara still struggles; returning to Helsinki is not easy for him, and now Kates pregnancy is causing him such extreme stress that he has barely slept for months and has headaches that last for weeks. Disliked by the rest of the homicide department, Vaara is partnered with Milo, the other department pariah, an enthusiastic, lonely, and eccentric detective with unusual hobbies. When they are assigned to investigate the death of a wealthy married woman, found in another mans bed, the seemingly cut-and-dried case soon becomes a tangled web that Vaara is determined to unweave, no matter the preferences of his superiors. Meanwhile, he is also given an off-the-record job of investigating a national hero who is currently wanted for war crimes from WWII and who may very well have known Vaaras beloved grandfather. Together these plots form an impossible-to-put-down read. Thompsons second book, even better than the first, will surely be one of the best Nordic mysteries published in 2011. Essential reading for all fans of Arnaldur Indridason, Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, and Jo Nesb. --Jessica Moyer