A desperate sawmill owner’s attempt to save his business spirals into crime, chaos and unintended consequences in a hilarious dark thriller by the international bestselling author of The Man Who Died.

Shortlisted for Best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year

'The king of the humorous crime caper' - Abir Mukherjee

'It may seem hard to find good comic crime-writers, but clearly we haven't been looking in Finland' - Telegraph

Heikki Nevalainen is the proud owner of a once successful sawmill, a mountain of debt and very few options to deal with either of them. An unexpected solution arrives in the form of local gangster Ismo Sippo. Dispose of Sippo’s dead wife, and the sawmill can keep running. Refuse, and Heikki loses everything. Horrified but desperate, Heikki agrees, loads Annaleena into his car and heads for the mill. But Annaleena proves to be not quite as dead as expected.

As a Belgian buyer arrives to inspect the mill’s timber, Heikki scrambles to keep up appearances. But the situation is splintering fast, and even his own workers seem to be hatching plans of their own…

Deadlines loom, tempers fray and misunderstandings multiply, and as the interminable situation grows ever worse, Heikki discovers that keeping a sawmill running is hard enough without a half-dead body and potentially fatal complications…

Blending deadpan humour, escalating danger and absolute chaos, The Fresh Cut is Antti Tuomainen at his most audacious, as good intentions, bad decisions and a small Finnish town collide with explosive results.

Antti Tuomainen is also the author of The Rabbit Factor, Little Siberia and more.