Tänne minäkin kuolen (“I’ll Die Here Too”) is the sequel to paramedic Hautamäki’s previous works Et sinä (vielä) kuole ("(Not) A Time to Die") (2021) and Nyt sinä kuolet (“Now You’re Going to Die”) (2023), this time published by WSOY. 📚 In the foreword, the author mentions receiving feedback that his last book was too dark, but that he intends to write through humor again in this work. Compared to that expectation, I didn’t find the book particularly “funny”, but it was certainly entertaining. The humor is usually drawn from culture clashes and the reactions of paramedics, and it’s often pitch-black.

In addition to stories from the field, Hautamäki once again analyzes the work culture, salaries, and training in different countries. No amount of training actually prepares students for encountering patients in a forensic psychiatric hospital, for example. Hautamäki was actually warned that it wasn’t a good summer job for a young person, but he had to go and see for himself back in the day — for about half a day.

In this book, the patient cases focus on northern Sweden, where distances are so long that a single round-trip call can take up a huge chunk of an entire shift. Once again, the most memorable — meaning usually the darkest — cases have been selected. For more sensitive readers, the book could come with several trigger warnings, starting with headless corpses.

Like his previous work, this one often feels like Hautamäki decided it was better to write a book than go to therapy, and hey, who am I to judge. The text flows sharply, and the book would surely be a good read for those considering the field. It just paints a pretty grim picture when, for instance, working in a trauma ward is described as eating a person hollow if they make the mistake of staying there too long. In Norway, however, even that seems to work a bit better.

PS. Notice that these books are being turned into an international TV series!