Markku Ropponen
Markku Ropponen (b. 1955) is a full-time author of about 20 published works, the lion’s share being crime fiction, but there’s a short story collection in there, too, as well as a few other novels. The first volume in the Kuhala series appeared in 2002. Ropponen’s hobbies include reading, tennis, playing the guitar, chopping wood, and making annual autumn fishing trips to Finnish Lapland or the Norwegian shores of the Arctic Ocean. His motto: A comma breaks a sentence, and a period puts it out of its misery.
Praise:
“Ropponen’s long, baroque sentences will surely please many readers.” – Savon Sanomat
“Markku Ropponen is definitely a portrayer of people, as well as a master of the story and language.” – Lapin Kansa
Written by Markku Ropponen
Kuhala and the Night Train
The eleventh Otto Kuhala novel proves that both author and protagonist are in fine form.
Kuhala and his sweetheart take the night train back from the Arctic Ocean, where they’ve been vacationing. And then it’s immediately back to the grind, because Kuhala’s adversary from the police force, Sergeant Nevakivi, has been shot dead in an incident that also claimed the life of a bystander.
Things grow more complex as the autumn progresses. Accompanied by his trusty hound, Nugget, Kuhala travels around Finland trailing potential suspects. He manages to dodge a few baseball-bat blows, stiletto stabs, and a rifle bullet, but cannot seem to sniff out the perpetrator. Things aren’t made any easier by his health problems or a budding romance that overlaps with the one that is still blazing. When Nugget runs off in her bananaprint diapers to rub noses with a huge male dog owned by a security firm, Kuhala’s hands just got a whole lot fuller. And all the while, the moment of truth approaches.
But Kuhala refuses to give in; he’s prepared to nail his opponent’s necktie to the table with the tip of a compass, if that’s what it takes.
Written by Markku Ropponen
Kuhala and the Prison Warden’s Mandolin
Carefully crafted, addictive and spiced with Ropponen’s unique wit, this book stands out among Finnish crime literature.
Otto Kuhala, about to give up his career as a private detective, moves into a little country cabin to find some peace and quiet. However, an anonymous caller foils his plans, giving him half an hour to find a bomb hidden in the foundation of his cabin. Kuhala has in his day put quite a few crooks behind bars, so it looks like one of them is looking for revenge.
He is soon commissioned to investigate a double murder. The main suspect has hanged himself in his cell. Kuhala’s detective’s instinct leads him to take a dangerous trip to the country. The bad boys in the boondocks make the most of the detective’s visit, and he ends up in a tough spot, spending the night in the cell of a condemned prison. His dream of spending Christmas with the lovely Yolanda seems to be slipping out of his grasp.
Written by Markku Ropponen
Kuhala and Spring’s First Corpse
Kuhala decides to close up shop and move to the country, where he believes he’ll find peace of mind. But a killer is on the prowl, and Kuhala comes across the horrendous evidence on a springtime walk.
Who jammed an ice claw into the neck of the former county administrator? And what do the remains of the local porcini king, found in a nearby bog, have to do with all this? A late-winter cold snap brings snow: Kuhala nearly ends up frozen a permanent snow angel, and barely avoids eternal hibernation in the belly of a bear. All this turbulence is precisely what Kuhala was hoping to get away from with his new rural life.
Markku Ropponen’s ninth Kuhala book, Kuhala and Spring’s First Corpse is red-hot current; its peppery turns, powder-charged sentences, and carefully doled out humor provide lovers of detective novels with a first-class read.
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency Oy Ltd.
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