New international releases for Leena Lehtolainen!

Posted on 15.04.201506.07.2016

We are happy to present Gaia’s brand-new French edition of Death Spiral (Tammi 1997), the 5th entry in Leena Lehtolainen’s iconic Maria Kallio crime series. In the book police officer Maria Kallio, seven months pregnant, investigates the murder of a teenage skating sensation.

In addition, AmazonCrossing has unveiled the cover of The Lion of Justice (Tammi 2011), the second entry in Lehtolainen’s Bodyguard Trilogy starring tough-minded New York-trained Finnish bodyguard Hilja Ilveskero. AmazonCrossing will publish the World English edition in June. Part 1 in the series, The Bodyguard (Tammi 2009), is available now!

See here for a new interview with Lehtolainen in The Big Thrill, the magazine of the International Thriller Writers. In the article she comments on the Nordic crime boom, her writing process, and her work on the Bodyguard Trilogy.

“If you enjoy international crime novels, and you have not yet heard of Leena Lehtolainen, then you’re in for a treat…Lehtolainen is a gracious, widely traveled, and fascinating author.”
– The Big Thrill magazine, USA

This year will also see the publication of the 13th Maria Kallio book, A Stroke of Sadness (Surunpotku, Tammi 2015), in Finland.

RIGHTS SOLD
The Maria Kallio series:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
WORLD ENGLISH, AmazonCrossing
BRAZIL, Autentica
DENMARK, Bazar
ESTONIA, Pegasus
FRANCE, Gaia
GERMANY, Rowohlt
GREECE, Livani
HUNGARY, Animus
ISRAEL, Penn
JAPAN, Tokyo Sogensha
LATVIA, Zvaigzne
NORWAY, Bazar
POLAND, Rebis
RUSSIA, Ast
SPAIN, Destino
SWEDEN, Bazar
TAIWAN, Linking
TURKEY, Bizim Kitaplar
TV RIGHTS, Studio Hamburg

RIGHTS SOLD
The Bodyguard Trilogy:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
WORLD ENGLISH, Amazon
ARMENIA, Guitank
CZECH, Argo
FRANCE, Hachette Livre
GERMANY, Rowohlt
NETHERLANDS, Unieboek | Het Spectrum
RUSSIA, Azbooka-Atticus
SPAIN, Destino
TAIWAN, Linking
TURKEY, Nemesis

Contact: info@ahlbackagency.com

About author

Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen is the top female crime author in Finland: her new titles always head straight to #1 on the Finnish bestseller lists.

Lehtolainen created her successful protagonist, detective Maria Kallio, in 1993. Having already featured in 16 novels and a complete TV series, a new Maria Kallio TV reboot series was launched in Fall 2021 on C More. Lehtolainen’s novels have been translated into 30 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

And just like the events in Bodyguard, a that takes the heroine Hilja Ilveskero all around Europe, Lehtolainen’s own work takes her to book festivals, exhibitions and other events across the globe.

Leena Lehtolainen has also published outside the crime genre; her book The Charm of Figure Skating was voted sports book of the year 2010 in Finland, and A Life in Six Scenes showed her return to literary fiction.

The Crossing of the Green Dragon is her first title for YA audiences.

In her free time, Lehtolainen enjoys all kinds of music and follows lynx trails in the forests – just like Maria Kallio.

2023, Crime & Suspense

About author

Leena Lehtolainen

Bibliography