About the Author:
Leena Lehtolainen is Finland’s bestselling female crime author, first reaching international acclaim for her hit detective series starring Maria Kallio. In the mere twenty years since she began the series with My First Murder (1993), Lehtolainen has become a classic of Nordic crime literature – Lehtolainen has been called “Finland’s answer to Henning Mankel” (Brigitte), while her Maria Kallio series has been ascribed “cult status” (Bunte). Lehtolainen twice won the annual prize for best Finnish crime novel, and has also been nominated for the prestigious Glass Key award for the best Nordic crime novel. Readers around the world continue to discover Lehtolainen’s detective novels – to date, over 2 million copies of her titles have been sold in numerous languages including German, French, Italian, Russian, Czech, Dutch, Hebrew, and Chinese, and the Kallio series has been adapted for television.
From Publishers Weekly:
First published in 1993, this solid first in a mystery series from Lehtolainen, billed as “Finland’s bestselling female crime author,” introduces 23-year-old Sgt. Maria Kallio, of Helsinki’s Violent Crime Unit. Kallio’s initial low-level cases and paper-pushing lead her to begin law school, but boredom with her studies prompts her to return to the force for a six-month stint as a substitute officer. Her provisional status and sexist male colleagues complicate her first homicide inquiry, into the death of singer Tommi Peltonen, the leader of a quartet, who appears to have drowned in the sea off his parents’ summer house, though a blow to the head could have been a contributing factor. Peltonen was organizing a summer musical event for a double quartet, whose surviving members become the obvious suspects. The author does a good job integrating her dogged detective’s inner life with the murder inquiry. (Dec. 2012)
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