Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

The Birthmark Murders by Janus Lucky is a murder mystery that follows Mikael Allardice, a half-Finnish New Zealander who returns to Ryväskylä, Finland, to uncover the truth behind his father Mikael “Spiral” Långberg's death, which occurred under mysterious circumstances during a troubled Cabaret production. Officially ruled a suicide, the circumstances surrounding his father’s death remain unclear. Mikael teams up with Pekka Wall and the hilarious Tuomas “T” Ylivire to explore Finland’s hidden world, where secrets are deeply guarded. Armed with a journal and a cassette tape, they dig deeper, and Mikael uncovers layers of betrayal and paranoia. Along the way, he realizes that exposing the truth about his father’s death is far more complicated than he anticipated, with a matching birthmark and the past holding answers that threaten to reshape everything he believed to be true. “He was murdered, and I bloody well want to find out why – and by whom.”

Janus Lucky’s The Birthmark Murders is a fantastic, intelligent read with a hard-boiled mystery baked into the protagonist Mikael's arc, and narrated from an omniscient point of view that allows us into the heads of multiple characters. Mikael's disillusionment is evident as his perception of his deceased father, as well as his mother, unravels, and he is forced to come face-to-face with the deep emotional wounds of both personal identity and loss. Lucky balances this with real humor, the highlight of which almost always comes through the witty exchanges between characters like Pekka and Tuomas, whose sarcasm offers much-needed relief, especially as the story takes a dark turn. Lucky incorporates aspects of Māori culture that are clearly formed from either lived experience, exhaustive research, or a combination of both. The plot culminates in a shocking ending, one that I absolutely did not see coming. Tightly written, smart, and entertaining. Recommended.