The Oath

Henning Mankell meets Stephen King! Arttu Tuominen’s unique human touch and excellence in depicting characters combined with shocking horror elements brings originality to Nordic Noir.

✓  Arttu Tuominen is a Palle Rosenkrantz Prize-winning and a Spiegel bestselling author! He was shortlisted for the Glass Key Awards 2021, a nominee Book Beat Finland’s Best Finnish Crime Author 2021-2023 and won the ‘Johtolanka’ Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020

✓  International success - River Delta series has sold to 7 territories!

Late autumn. In Ahlainen, Pori, a brutal murder takes place. A group of men have gathered to drink and spend time together, and one of them is killed. The police soon find a blood-tattered man hiding in the forest. The crime appears to be the traditional Finnish alcohol-influenced killing. The suspect, Antti Mielonen, has a long history of crime. The stabbing has many eyewitnesses, and the victim Rami Nieminen has a history of crime as well.

When the leading inspector Jari Paloviita learns the names of the victim and the suspect, he realizes he knows both. The arrested suspect is his childhood best friend, whom he hasn’t met in 27 years. The victim was his worst tormentor in childhood. Paloviita realizes that as the leading inspector, he can help to free Mielonen from the charges and thus pay back his old debts.

The timeline in year 1991 follows the friendship between Antti Mielonen and Jari Paloviita, the growing pains of early teens and the end of innocent childhood with family violence in the summer house. The Oath is a story about the end of childhood, the bullies and the bullied, promises that travel through times – and above all, it is a story about love and eternal friendship.