James Thompson
Jim has suddenly passed away on August 1, 2014.
With his first internationally published novel, Snow Angels, James Thompson proved himself Finland’s best and most popular representative in the rise of Nordic noir. It was selected as one of Booklist’ s Best Crime Novel Debuts of the Year and nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, and a Strand Critics Award. His novel, Lucifer’s Tears, has received critical acclaim from all quarters, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus, and was selected as one of the best novels of the year by Kirkus. Helsinki White was released to critical acclaim in 2012. The fourth book in the series, Helsinki Blood, was published in March, 2013 to rave reviews. He was also a reviewer for The New York Journal of Books and held a Master’s degree from The University of Helsinki. The first three books in his Inspector Vaara series have been optioned for film.
“A city of Dreadful Nights:"The world rolls round forever like a mill, it grinds out life and death and good and ill. It has no purpose, heart, nor mind, nor will.”
“Güzelliğinin doğaüstü bir yanı vardı. Onun gibi bir yaratığın var olması mümkün değildi sanki. Bir hediye gibi görünen şey yanlış birinin ilgisini çekmiş ve öldürülmesine neden olmuş olabilir. Ne yazık ki dünyadaki birçok insanın güzellikle yüz yüze geldiğindeki ilk isteği, onu yok etmektir.”
“We had fed the heart on fantasies. / The heart’s grown brutal from the fare.” From “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 1923.W.B.Yeats”
“Years ago, when I was working on my master's thesis, I went to New York for a semester as an exchange student. What struck me most was the sky. On that side of the world, so far away from the North Pole, the sky is flat and gray, a one-dimensional universe. Here, the sky is arched, and there's almost no pollution. In spring and fall the sky is dark blue or violet, and sunsets last for hours. The sun turns into a dim orange ball that transforms clouds into silver-rimmed red and violet towers. In winter, twenty-four hours a day, uncountable stars outline the vaulted ceiling of the great cathedral we live in. Finnish skies are the reason I believe in God.”