It's two days before Christmas and Helsinki is battling ruthless climate catastrophe: subway tunnels are flooded; abandoned vehicles are left burning in the streets. People are fleeing to the far north of Finland and Norway where conditions are still tolerable. Social order is crumbling and private security firms have undermined the police force. Tapani Lehtinen, a struggling poet, is among the few still able and willing to live in the city. When Tapani's beloved wife Johanna, a newspaper journalist, goes missing, he embarks on a frantic hunt for her. Johanna's disappearance seems to be connected to a story she was researching about a politically motivated serial killer known as 'The Healer'. Desperate to find Johanna, Tapani's search leads him to uncover secrets from her past. Secrets that connect her to the very murders she was investigating.

'The ability to use all the tricks of crime fiction and all the tools of poetry makes Tuomainen's work unique, and that combination makes the reader fall in love with his style. You cannot but value things around you more after reading The Healer' Sofi Oksanen, author of PurgeShorlisted for the Glass Key Best Scandinavian Crime Novel 2012Winner of the Best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year AwardAntti Tuomainen was born in 1971 and lives in Helsinki. He was an award-winning copywriter in the advertising industry before he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The Healer is his first novel to be translated into English.