Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen

A man drives his car, in high speed, through remote snowy roads in northern Finland. There’s a flash in the sky, and something falls through the roof of his car. That something turns out to be a meteorite, which turns out to be very valuable. Many in the village see an opportunity to use it for their own benefit. The village pastor, Joel, is going through a crisis of a lifetime but agrees to help others anyway.

My review: Antti Tuomainen has done it again. This is a total mad cap story set in a small, very cold, wintry village in Finland with quirky and yet ordinary people. Some more likeable than others. It’s a story with black humor, utterly bizarre events, faith lost or otherwise, and how small things can turn into murder and crime. And I loved it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Food Detective by Josie Welford

The Food Detective is set in a small town in the idyllic West Country, UK. A newcomer, Josie Walker, runs a pub and has become an appreciated member of the community, until it all changes. Josie, who is a fantastic cook, has great plans to change her pub to a restaurant. But getting the kind of meat she wants turns out to be a problem. She has a past, and when a now former policeman who put her husband in jail shows up in the village things start to go sideways. The former copper is now an inspector for the Food Standards Agency.

My review: This is a good story, a bit slow moving in the beginning, it picked up speed after Nick, the former copper showed up. The story is set around the time of the Mad Cow Disease gripping the UK, so it is a bit old. The villagers were not all fully fleshed out, and Josie’s back story was a bit in the dark too. It felt like this was book #2 in a series instead of book #1. But all and all, plot was good, and the resolution was somewhat unexpected.

⭐⭐⭐