American Author James Thompson: Thompson

Russian Army Night Vision Goggles Dept: HELSINKI - In the doorway of a Helsinki bar on a snowy December afternoon, American author James Thompson is being offered a pair of Russian army night vision goggles that may or may not have fallen off the back of a truck, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Thompson buys the goggles and the vendor shuffles off into the snow. It's the sort of deal in the sort of neighbourhood that Vaara would approve of, and it's somewhat apropos that the Hilarious Pike bar is a regular haunt of both the writer and the fictional cop and in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, American author James Thompson drinks coffee in Helsinki's 'Hilarious Pike' bar, a location central to the action in his Inspector Kari Vaari series of novels. Thompson's style is on the dark end of the Nordic Noir spectrum. The genre with its stark and often violent police procedurals has proved wildly successful for publishers and filmmakers alike. AP Photo/David Mac Dougall The author, a Kentucky native who's lived in Finland for the past 15 years, has recently signed a new deal with publisher Putnam that puts his Inspector Kari Vaara series in U.S. bookstores through 2015. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.