"The Rabbit Factor," by Antti Tuomainen - A Review

 Today is the first of March. My wife has long believed that on the first of a month one should say (or write) Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. It is supposed to bring good luck. So I say to all of you: Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit – a perfect introduction to this delightful, fun-filled, thriller.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

The Rabbit Factor, Antti Tuomainen

March 1, 2025

 

“Actuarial mathematics is a discipline that combines mathematics and 

statistical analysis to assess the likelihood – or risk – of any eventuality…”

                                                                                                                                Antti Tuomainen (1971-)

                                                                                                                                The Rabbit Factor, 2021

 

Serendipity lives. A grandson gave me this book for my birthday, not because he had read it or knew anything about its Finnish author. He gave it to me because the title caught his attention. His father always called him Rabbit. Whatever his reason, I’m glad he did. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

 

Despite the epigraph, the story, thank God, has nothing to with insurance. It is a thriller. The hero Henri Koskinen is a 42-year-old actuary, at least when we meet him. In his nerdiness, he will remind you of Hermione Granger. He lives alone with his cat “Schopenhauer,” a fitting name given Henri’s insurance job of calculating risk and odds. Henri has one wish: “I wanted everything to be sensible.” But the insurance company that employs him goes “woke,” or at least Henri’s boss does; so Henri is told he is too skeptical, too pessimistic, that he is missing, you know, “…the whole community vibe” thing. Thus Henri is fired.

 

Almost immediately, and conveniently for the story, his brother Juhani, who is the antithesis of Henri in terms of common sense, dies. Henri, then, inherits his brother’s adventure park, YouMeFun, located outside Helsinki. Juhani, who never had Henri’s gift for numbers, had become involved with loan sharks. Circling the adventure park, they are hungry when Henri arrives.

 

The park staff form the supporting cast: Laura, the manager and former (and future) artist, with a mysterious background; Kristian, the caretaker who is angling to become general manager; Joanna, who efficiently runs the Curly Cake Café; Minttu, who is in charge of marketing and who has a love affair with gin; Samppa, a former nursery school teacher, runs themed events for children; and Venla, who is supposed to work at the gate, but is usually too sick to show up.

 

What we have is a mystery but one enveloped in humor. Of one of his earlier novels, The Man Who Died, The New York Times said: “You don’t expect to laugh when you’re reading about terrible crimes, but that’s what you’ll do when you pick up one of Tuomainen’s decidedly quirky thrillers.” In this, despite a few despicable acts, Henri’s career as an actuary serves him well. He is expert at determining probabilities, whether someone is coming after him with a knife or a car. The horror we feel is countered by humor. We understand why Tuomainen has been called the Finnish “King of Noir Comedy.”

 

In the course of the story, Henri discovers there is more to life than mathematics, that passion, both for the adventure park and for Laura, is a delightful sensation. Indicative of my enthusiasm, I have bought the second book in this series, The Moose Paradox, published in 2022.