Milo

New independent crime novel by the New York Times Bestselling and Spiegel Bestselling Author Max Seeck!

We are very excited to announce that New York Times Bestselling Author Max Seeck is working on a new independent crime novel, MILO (working title)!

MILO will be published by Tammi in Finland in September 2024.

Here is what Max Seeck said about writing MILO:

”I’m so very excited and grateful for the confidence and commitment by both Bastei Lübbe and the Ahlback Agency. This gives me a great boost to finish the novel and make it as good as I can.”

We believe MILO has all the potential to outdo Max Seeck’s already very impressive sales records – get in touch with us if you would like to receive first materials and acquire the rights!

Rights for Max Seeck’s previous Jessica Niemi crime series have been sold into 40 territories and Hollywood: an international TV-show is in development. Over 400,000 copies of his books have been sold in Finland alone. Book 3 in the series, THE LAST GRUDGE (orig. Kauna, Tammi 2021), is nominated for the Glass Key Award 2023.


The Sicilian Defense

The profiling skills of Salla Kotka come under pressure as she comes head-to-head with a serial killer.

Salla Kotka’s career as a forensic psychologist is progressing under the guidance of her mentor Ruth Segre. While interviewing serial killers, Salla meets again with a psychopath called the Groom. The man seems to know something about the serial killer Harlequin who is terrorizing Milan. But why does the Groom seem so interested in Salla?

Catching the Harlequin becomes even more important for Salla when the police claim that the perpetrator is someone close to Segre. Meanwhile, Salla is tortured by thoughts of her mother’s suspicious death and the secrets of the past.

Salla searches for a ruthless serial killer in the dark Milan night, but has evil managed to get much closer than she could have imagined?


Return of the Butterfly

✓  Sequel to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Follow the Butterfly!

✓  Rights to Follow the Butterfly have been sold to 15 territories, including UK & US!

Five years have passed since the events of Follow the Butterfly. Ira and Arto have teamed up, and both work as crime journalists for the Helsinki Gazette. Everything’s going nicely, until they start suspecting there’s a serial killer on the loose in Helsinki.

The murders are investigated by Senior Crime Inspector Kerttu Leppänen, who leads the murder unit and eagerly waits for retirement. Unsolved cases haunt Kerttu, who is unable to forgive herself.

The past catches up with all of them – if they were ever free from its clutches in the first place…


Private Property

Tuulia Raja is a resourceful flight attendant who keeps calm even in the worst of pickles. But when her employer is declared bankrupt, it is time to search for new horizons. A chance encounter leads her to meet with a private investigator, and in no time she is investigating the last moments of a now-dead business mogul. Everyone related to the case is hiding something, but what? Tuulia plans to find this out, no matter the cost.

Pauliina Susi’s Private Property opens the new Tuulia Raja, Private Eye series in which a quick-witted detective capably and cleverly handles the different cases that come her way.


The Outback Series: The Island Torn Apart

Korppoo: a place where many have died.

It’s a beautiful place – serene, a little piece of paradise – by the name of Korppoo. A place where people offer apple pie to passers-by and lend their tractor to their neighbors. Where everyone greets each other, joys are shared and grudges are borne forever. Then, Jennifer from Helsinki buys a guest marina on the island and brings death with her.

Sigge Boman, an embittered ferryman who lost the family boat to gambling, decides to get his own back. However, his liquor-soaked revenge expedition takes an unexpected turn when a floating corpse gets caught up on the bow of Sigge’s miserable outboard motorboat. He peers to look, stumbles, and sinks into the icy depths, clinging on tightly to the stiff body. He is rescued at the last minute and his drunken bungling is misinterpreted as a heroic rescue attempt. For the first time in his life, Sigge is appreciated – and that’s easy to get hooked on

Meanwhile, a new inn owner arrives on the island, the good-hearted Jennifer who brings death with her. Empty boats drift on the sea and a feeling of unease spreads among the islanders. Are these strange events just chance, or is everything somehow linked to Jennifer’s high-flying plans? Or is it the three Russians snapping up properties in the area at an ever-faster pace?

The Island Torn Apart promises the reader at least one thing – when the earth’s crust tears, things will be revealed that no one would have dared to dig out.


THE KRISTINESTAD MURDERS #1: Revenge

The peace of the idyllic seaside town Kristinestad is broken in the first installment of an addictive new crime series.

The body of a healthy young man is discovered in the sea, and the criminal investigator Mats Bergholm is responsible for the case. At the same time, journalist Eevi Manner is sent to dig out a scoop of the event for the local newspaper. Both are surprised to find each other on the grim beach: he two have a past together – a past which they now need to set aside to solve the case.

Eevi is contacted by the local youth, and it becomes clear that the death is just one link in a chain of events unfitting the picturesque town. The full picture becomes clearer and clearer, although the secrets of the locals are buried deep. Social media and recordings can offer help in solving the case, but the lies and muddy memories of the people involved cast doubts in every direction. Perfect for fans of Viveca Sten and Camilla Läckberg, this opening of the new KRISTINESTAD MURDERS crime series follows in the footsteps of strong crime authors, offering gripping crime plots and interpersonal drama.


Swing

An old woman is found hanged in a forest. Paula finds out that she had terminal cancer and had almost emptied her apartment, knowing to die soon. Her death is considered a suicide, but Paula is not satisfied with it. There is something wrong in the picture.

A famous mountain climber is found hanging above a seesaw in a playground. On the other end of the seesaw Paula finds sand that is far too fine to be natural – the same kind of sand that was found at the forest. Paula realizes that the victims have been forced to balance on a seesaw before death, fighting for their lives. Paula Pihlaja has barely started the investigation when a third body turns up – a teenage boy, at another playground, hanged. A serial killer is on the loose.

Third title in the series, Logboat (Ruuhi), comes out summer 2024!

Paula is an interesting protagonist [–]. There is reserved, sharp authority in her that startles with its mysteriousness. The reader knows more about her than the characters of the novel. Still, one secret is kept hidden from the reader as well until the very last pages of the book. And when that information is revealed, at least I put many things into new context, and Paula gets my deep sympathies. The members of Paula’s team also start to ‘gain flesh on their bones’. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The events are carried forth so that elements of the solution are strewn, and motives are shuffled around.

Tuijata, Kulttuuripohdintoja blog


Ghost Island

The fourth title in the NYT-bestselling Jessica Niemi series!

A month after solving the Zetterborg case, Jessica Niemi is ordered on paid leave after an altercation, and she decides to travel to a small island in the Åland archipelago to escape the attention and find some peace. Meanwhile, a group of old people arrive on the same island, and Jessica learns that they are the remaining members of the Doves, the people who had to flee from Finland to Sweden during World War II and ended up living in an orphanage on the very same island.

One evening, Jessica hears a local legend about a girl who also inhabited the orphanage once, but who was mentally ill. Every night at two o’clock, the girl put on her blue coat and went to stand on the pier, waiting for something that never showed up. One night she disappeared and was never found. That same night, one of the remaining Doves dies.

Jessica soon finds out that two other people have previously faced the same fate on the same island, and all three people seem to have something to do with the girl in the blue coat. A chain of events starts to escalate, and we don’t know whether we’re facing a killer or – just like the legend says – a ghost, the girl in the blue coat.

Jessica Niemi is once again facing a scary mystery where the stakes are considerable. Whilst battling her own demons, uncertain what is real and what is not, she needs to find out the truth.

The fourth installment of the Jessica Niemi series of detective novels is the best to date and proves Seeck’s mastery of the genre’s traditions.

Helsingin Sanomat starred review


A Crossing in the Darkness

The City of Espoo is being menaced by the “Biris” gang that steals designer clothing, phones, and jewelry from other youth. One night, one of the members is stabbed to death, in a case which seems clear. Maria’s unit is investigating while being threatened by a cut in funding.

Maria’s home feels empty as her children have left the nest. An acquaintance contacts Maria regarding sexual harassment, and Maria tries to help – but her intervention seems to make things worse. And as a boy goes missing from a children’s home and Biris threatens with revenge, Maria has her hands full.


Still Waters Run Deep

Standalone sequel to the bestselling When the King Dies!
A young man goes missing in Isle of Sheep in Helsinki, Finland. He was last known to film a documentary about a reclusive film director on the Island. Detective Jan Leino starts investigating the case and her girlfriend Saana starts to produce a podcast about the disappearance.
At the same time, Suvi, the daughter of Finnish Ministry of the Interior, starts attending therapy. to address her relationship issues. When her boyfriend  – a wild motorcycle gang member is shot to death, Suvi is in danger. How are the cases connected?

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
ESTONIA: Varrak
GERMANY: Piper
NETHERLANDS: Cargo/De Bezige Bij

All the King’s Men

Opening of a new detective series, that became an international hit within weeks!

Saana has been fired from her job as a click-bait journalist, so she decides to spend a summer with her aunt in a small-town Hartola. It sounds like a perfect opportunity to take it easy and recover. But when Saana begins to dig into a case of a teenage girl who died 30 years earlier, the peace of the small town is shaken.

Meanwhile in Helsinki a fire-marked body is be found at Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, and crime investigator Jan Leino and his team have a new case in their hands. However, the investigation isn’t going anywhere, and Jan fears that the murder at King’s Gate a is just the beginning…

Saana and Jan continue working on their own cases until their paths cross for more than one reason.

 

Coming up: Book #2 Isle of Sheep coming in June 2021


Rights sold:

FINLAND (orig.): Otava
ALBANIA: Dritan
CZECH REPUBLIC: Grada
ESTONIA: Varrak (2-book-deal)
GERMANY: Piper Verlag (2-book-deal)
LITHUANIA: BALTO
NETHERLANDS: Cargo/De Bezige Bij (2-book-deal)
NORWAY: Cappelen Damm (2-book-deal)
POLAND: Czarna Owca
SLOVAKI: Arkus
SWEDEN: Bokfabriken (2-book-deal)

TV RIGHTS: Aurora Studios


The Ripple Effect

Maria Kallio Series has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages. The 15th book will surely catch one’s ear!

Maria Kallio is getting ready for her daughter’s graduation when her cat brings her a human ear. She takes it to the forensic lab and doesn’t think any more of it.

Maria and her team are assigned to investigate a rape of a young woman when things start to heat up. The accused rapist is a young man with an immigrant background, which causes a lot of racism and heated discussions in the papers and media. Angry fathers are organizing a street patrol to keep their daughters safe, and when Rahim is released from the police station, his safety is not guaranteed. Maria and her team are working to solve a new case, but online trolls are targeting them and doing everything to distract them. But when Maria is almost killed by an earless driver, it makes her wonder if all the harassment is related to the case, or could it be something more personal?


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
GERMANY: Rowohlt

TV & FILM RIGHTS: MTV3/C More


Pulse

Don’t trust anyone. Don’t panic. A suspenseful mystery set in the darkness of Lapland. For the fans of Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins and A.J.Finn.

New layers are added to the relationship between passionate world-improver Leia and hacker Timo, when Leia is left alone as a hostage in a cottage in the middle of winter. Has the man gone mad or are they both in danger? The idyllic Northern Lights dance in the sky outside, but inside the cabin things are getting more dangerous. The Hitchcockian suspense deepens, when the AI in the cottage suddenly starts to talk to Leia. But the biggest surprise is yet to come….

A standalone sequel to the award-winning Rear Window and Siren.

 


Evil’s Net

Standalone sequel to New York Times Best Seller, Faithful Reader aka The Witch Hunter – rights sold to 40 countries and Hollywood!

Jessica Niemi has another mystery on her hands: Two famous Instagram bloggers go missing, and a strange picture is uploaded
on both of their accounts. It’s a picture of an old lighthouse on a rocky island. And underneath there’s a poem. A poem that describes their deaths…

Jessica starts to investigate the disappearances and soon she finds out that the two bloggers have been sharing a secret that got them involved in something very mystical and dark.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
BELGIUM: A.W. Bruna (2-book deal)
BULGARIA: EMAS (2-book deal)
CANADA: Berkley/Penguin Random House (2-book deal)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Grada (2-book deal)
DENMARK: Gutkind (2-book deal)
ESTONIA: Pegasus (2-book deal)
FRANCE: Michel Lafon (2-book deal)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe (2-book deal)
GREECE: Livani (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Animus (2-book deal)
LATVIA: Latvijas Mediji (2-book deal)
MACEDONIA: Matica (2-book deal)
NETHERLANDS: A.W. Bruna (2-book deal)
NORWAY: Aschehoug (2-book deal)
POLAND: Sonia Draga (2-book deal)
PORTUGAL: Bertrand Editora (2-book deal)
ROMANIA: Litera (2-book deal)
SERBIA: Vulkan (2-book deal)
SLOVENIA: Didakta (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Welbeck Publishing UK (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Berkley/Penguin Random House (2-book deal)


Oathbreaker

A man is abducted at Helsinki airport and left to drown in a remote lake. He survives and a journey for answers begins!

#crime #revenge #espace #secretsfromthepast

Aino is a ranger, located at a distant corner of the Finnish wilderness. One day she finds a man fighting for his final breath. The man, Tomas, has been abducted at the airport, drugged, and abandoned to die. Aino saves his life, and when Tomas recovers, together they hope to find out what happened and why. Tomas learns that he has gotten involved in a murderous plot by bloodthirsty motorbike gang.

Do they stand a chance against their new enemies? Can they find a way out of the nightmare that someone else has started? Or is it time to break the oaths, made so long ago…

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig)

ESTONIA: Pegasus
LITHUANIA: BALTO


The Witch Hunter

The coolest Nordic Noir comes from Finland! In this psychological thriller from New York Times bestselling author, Max Seeck, a strong female detective chases a serial killer.

Detective Jessica Niemi is called to investigate a murder case that is out of ordinary. The wife of a famous writer, Roger Koponen, seems to have been killed in a bizarre ritual. As more ritual murders occur, it becomes obvious that Jessica is after a serial killer.
But the murders are not random – they follow a pattern taken from Roger’s bestselling trilogy. Has a fan gone mad, or is this case more personal? How can Jessica stop a criminal who knows every detail of the book even better than the author?


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

ALBANIA: Muza
ARABIC: Arab Scientific Publishers (World Arabic)
ARMENIA: Guitank
AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran
BELGIUM, A.W. Bruna (2-book deal)
BULGARIA: EMAS (2-book-deal)
CANADA: Berkley/Penguin Random House (2-book-deal)
CROATIA: Fokus
CZECH REPUBLIC: Grada (2-book-deal)
DENMARK: Gutkind (2-book-deal)
ESTONIA: Pegasus (2-book-deal)
ICELAND: Forlagid
ISRAEL: Tchelet Books
ITALY: Piemme/Mondadori
FRANCE: Michel Lafon (2-book-deal)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Livani (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Animus (2-book-deal)
KOREA: Cheongmirae
LATIN AMERICA: Editorial Maeva/Maeva Noir
LATVIA: Latvijas Mediji (2-book-deal)
LITHUANIA: Baltos lankos
MACEDONIA: Matica (2-book-deal)
NETHERLANDS: A.W. Bruna (2-book-deal)
NORWAY: Aschehoug (2-book-deal)
POLAND: Sonia Draga (2-book-deal)
PORTUGAL: Bertrand Editora (2-book-deal)
ROMANIA: Litera (2-book-deal)
RUSSIA: AST
SERBIA: Vulkan (2-book-deal)
SLOVENIA: Didakta (2-book-deal)
SLOVAKIA: Motýľ
SPAIN: Editorial Maeva/Maeva Noir
SWEDEN: Albert Bonniers Förlag
TURKEY: Doğan Kitap
UNITED KINGDOM & COMMONWEALTH: Welbeck Publishing UK (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Berkley/Penguin Random House (2-book-deal)

TV RIGHTS: Stampede Ventures


Dark Light

The son calls. The father answers. The next night begins the destruction. A new fast-paced psychological thriller about a parent’s love for their son – and the crimes committed to protect him.

Henrik Valli despises his drug addict son, Niko. They’ve been an unhappy family as long as they can remember. Henrik has done his best to purge Niko from their life. But one night the telephone rings. Niko has made a bigger mess of his life than Henrik ever feared. A father’s love wins out: he has to help his son. It requires a crime.

Henrik’s wife, and Niko’s mother Anna, is a police detective, and they have to hide the crime from her. But that’s easier said than done, and soon the family enters a nightmare, in which everyone’s notions of right and wrong must be re-evaluated. What are you willing to do to protect your child?


Silphium

Continuation to the culinary crime series about the top chef Riku Mäki, known from the novel Fugu!

The top chef Riku Mäki faces danger again, when a Japanese billionaire – who’s also known for his culinary ambitions – sends him off to Greece to track down an ancient delicacy called the silphium. The billionaire is, however, not the only one who wants to find this legendary spice, which according to the story was last tasted by the emperor Nero himself.


The Killer’s Girlfriend

In The Killer’s Girlfriend, Lehtolainen delights the readers with short stories featuring the loved protagonists of her Maria Kallio and The Bodyguard books, but expands also into mystery and ghost stories. How does a librarian become a killer’s girlfriend? Is love stronger than death, and can a child have three fathers?

The capturing stories take their characters in unexpected situations and don’t let the reader off the hook.


Goblins — Journey into the Darkness

The world’s first goblin thriller!

When author Antti Leikas suddenly receives several generous research grants for as weird a project as goblin studies, alarms should go off. When he sits in dusty libraries around Europe and feels under surveillance, alarms should go off. And when a pretty representative from the Finnish Cultural Foundation appears at his door asking about goblins, alarms should be ringing all out.

But Leikas is a man with no fear, and so he finds himself amid events that threaten the existence of the whole universe. In the heat of crashing airplanes, threatening commando troops, and suspicious book publishers, Leikas finds out about the real powers linked to the goblins’ existence. He will have to face the forces unleashed by his exploration.

Goblins takes the reader on the verge of ultimate questions—and plunges into the depths of an assuredly unprecedented thriller. What are souls? What is our universe built of? How efficiently does goblin Koponen’s liver burn alcohol? Jump in, and you will know. This is a journey into the darkness.


Rights sold (Goblins):
FINLAND, Siltala
CZECH REPUBLIC, Paseka


The Russia Account

Imagine a Rei Shimura mystery dropped into the business world and you have Anniina Tarasova’s debut novel, The Russia Account. The main character, Reija Wren, is a hardnosed yet blithe, imperfect heroine, whose job as an internal auditor-cum-corporate detective in the Russian subsidiary of a Finnish company takes a deadly turn.

Reija Wren receives the chance of a lifetime when she’s assigned to travel to St. Petersburg to conduct an internal audit for her company. After years of having her career languish in the shadow of her father, the chairman of the corporation, Reija now leaves her pleasant yet bland fiancé in Finland to plan their wedding, while she dives headfirst into the champagne-soaked expatriate community of St. Petersburg. But as Reija’s investigation proceeds, the assignment turns dangerous and friends transform into enemies.

The Russia Account is a blithe and original depiction of a hard-nosed woman making her way in the business world. Part career woman, part detective, and part Rei Shimura or Bridget Jones, Reija is ambitious, fearless, and imperfect. At work she tracks every decimal point and crosschecks every sum, but in her free time you’ll find Reija at the poker table with a beer in her hand and a cigar in her mouth.


Undertaker 2: Death Angel

BOOK 2: DEATH ANGEL
For a long time, the police have been chasing a nameless ghost-like criminal boss, and now they have a clue: the undertaker/murderer Kivi’s right-hand man has ratted on him. Kivi manages to hold his cover, but is now in need of a new aide, and Kivi’s new assistant at the funeral home, Tuomas, seems like a perfect replacement. Tuomas starts sinking into the world of crime: by the time his brother’s killer is revealed, there may not be any other option left than to accept his fate.

The Undertaker series about the thin line between right and wrong continues with an anticipated new novel. The series will be adapted as a TV series, an international coproduction, with the shooting set to start in fall 2018.


The Call of Hades

Hades Calling is the ‘Daniel Kuisma’ trilogy’s final installment that begins with four executed men found in a Zagreb apartment. The place is owned by the U.K. government, but no one seems to know anything about the case. When Daniel Kuisma receives an unexpected guest from Southern Europe he hears something that makes him board the next plane to Zagreb: the lives of thousands of people might be at risk. Meanwhile Annika Lehto is recovering from an assault, but offers him all the help she can from her sickbed.

 

Rights sold:
FINLAND, Tammi (Orig. publisher)

ALBANIA: Muza
ESTONIA, Pegasus


Below the Surface

When a woman’s body turns up in a lake—a bullet to the back of her head—Violent Crime Unit commander Maria Kallio, freshly back from maternity leave, is fast to get on the case. The victim is ID’d as Annukka Hackman, wife of a prominent publisher and author of an upcoming unauthorized tell-all book on Sasha Smeds, Finland’s celebrated racing rally driver.

Almost as soon as the inquiry starts, it goes off the rails, as those connected to Annukka—and to Smeds—seem to have more secrets than they have alibis. Was the journalist about to reveal a bombshell that someone was desperate to keep quiet? Or will it take some reading between the lines? The clues may be few, but the list of suspects is long. As she struggles to balance her home life, run a department tainted by career-threatening allegations, and catch a killer, Maria is shocked to find just what someone was willing to do in the name of love…or revenge.


The Guardian Angel

True crime meets psychological suspense in a gripping thriller about hypnosis murders in post-war Copenhagen.

The Guardian Angel, which is based on true events, is about a bizarre double murder that shook Copenhagen in the 1950s. Palle Hardrup, a former Nazi collaborator recently released from prison, walks into a bank, demands money and shoots two employees point blank. The police catch the man in no time, but according to the witnesses, he acted in a trance-like state. Inspector Anders Olsen’s suspicions are aroused: what if the man was operating under hypnosis – and what if the real killer is still at large?

The novel combines the genres of true crime and psychological thriller, against the atmospheric backdrop of post-war society in Copenhagen. The story of the singular crime committed under hypnosis mirrors also modern-day issues of manipulation and psychological effects of the new technology.

The book has been written alongside the feature film, a Finnish-Danish-Croatian co-production, which premiers internationally on 9 March 2018, starring Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones), Josh Lucas (A Beautiful Mind) and Rade Serbedzija (Downton Abbey).


Rights sold: 

FINLAND, WSOY
DENMARK, Hr. Ferdinand
ITALY, Piemme
PORTUGAL, Grupo Planeta
SERBIA, Vulkan

 

100 wide

RADE ŠERBEDŽIJA

Josh Lucas

Mikko Nousiainen

 

 


The End of Innocence

Book 14 in the bestselling Maria Kallio series. A female detective police procedural, The End of Innocence is also a study of young men’s fragile sexuality. Perfect for fans of Lynda La Plante’s DCI Jane Tennison series.

When a newly-released child molester is found dead in an abandoned playground, the case lands on Maria Kallio’s desk. As newly-appointed chief of the child & youth crime unit, Kallio finds herself with a highly sensitive homicide case on her hands, with suspects including the deceased’s victims and their relatives. A harrowing case for Maria, the mother of a teenage son herself, the novel examines whether we can survive abuse, and privacy in the age of the internet.


Rights sold:
FINLAND, Tammi
GERMANY, Rowohlt


Undertaker: Death Sentence

A moral study embodied in a hard-boiled crime novel in the vein of Dexter and The Shield.

Young student Tuomas Lintu and his girlfriend Maria have always tried to do the right thing, but with Maria’s depression, their underprivileged backgrounds and bills piling up, it’s not easy. When Tuomas’ brother dies, he agrees to organize the funeral, although he can’t even afford to buy food. Undertaker Jarmo Kivi offers him a helping hand in the form of a job at Kivi’s funeral parlor. Little does he know Kivi is a high-level hitman – and responsible for Tuomas’ brother’s death. Enter the heart of darkness…

The Undertaker is the opening of a gripping new series about the thin line between right and wrong, published to glowing reviews. The story was originally planned for a TV series, but the novel was finished first.


Fugu

Rei Shimura meets Masterchef in this debut thriller set in Tokyo.

When Riku Mäki, a Finnish celebrity chef, is invited to a cooking contest in Japan, he is concerned that he will be heavily outperformed by the other contestants. What he should be worried about is fugu, the lethally poisonous puffer fish that someone is buying from the market with bad intentions. Mix in the yakuza and the dish is ready to be served.

Fugu is a culinary thriller set in Tokyo told from alternating perspectives. The story is decorated with a delightful array of detail reminiscent of Hideo Yokoyama’s SixFour, transporting the reader to the Japanese capital.


Siren

Imagine the most luxurious cruise. Then, imagine the most destructive explosive.

A substance, a detonator, a spark. Imagine the damage they can do. Then, imagine a hand that ignites the spark with the press of a button, trigger, or click of a mouse. Boom.

Look at the hand. It’s yours.

Security at the port of Barcelona is already tight when Leia Laine and her sister embark on a luxury cruise of the Mediterranean aboard the Siren a new, luxury cruise ship. Their holiday becomes increasingly overshadowed by strange coincidences and a growing sense of unease in Leia as she begins to suspect that all is not well aboard the luxury liner with its thousands of passengers. Soon, the relaxing holiday onboard the vessel turns into a living nightmare as Leia witnesses firsthand the injustices of global inequality, a terror threat, and the face of a ghost from her past.

Meanwhile, aboard a much smaller boat making a perilous journey across the same seas as Leia and her fellow passengers, eleven-year-old Amira and her parents find that every last ounce of their courage and endurance will be put to the test as their fate on their rickety boat becomes intertwined with those of the passengers on the Siren.


Rights sold:
FINLAND, Tammi (Orig. publisher)
GERMANY, DTV


The Mephisto Touch

The hotly-anticipated second novel by Finland’s bestselling, ‘Debut Thriller of the Year Award’ 2017 winning author, Max Seeck.

Missing-presumed-dead Finnish diplomat, Jare Westerlund has fled from Croatia on a forged passport, leaving behind a decapitated body and his trail goes cold at Stockholm airport.

When Interpol officer Annika Lehto hears of his escape, she abandons her sick leave to go off in pursuit of Westerlund, with the aid of special forces specialist Daniel Kuisma. What follows is a dramatic chain of events, from northern Norway, to San Francisco, to The Hague, as the pair continue the chase.  The further their investigations go, the clearer it becomes that the man they are after has not merely gone astray; his true nature is far worse than anyone had imagined . . .

A gripping, international game of cat and mouse that began in The Angels of Hammurabi, which reads both as a standalone or sequel to the first installment.


Rights sold:
FINLAND, Tammi (Orig. publisher)

ALBANIA: Muza
ESTONIA, Pegasus
ICELAND, Forlagid
ITALY, Newton Compton


Venla

Venla‘s case is the undercurrent in all the parts of the series. The sudden disappearance of Miia and Nikke’s sister Venla in the 1980s left its mark on the whole family, and was never solved. As Miia finds herself being pulled back into Venla’s mystery, she begins to see connections between the stories of Laura, Noora and Venla.

RIGHTS SOLD:

The Palokaski Trilogy

ESTONIA, Pegasus
GERMANY, Suhrkamp
GREECE, Kedros
NETHERLANDS, The House of Books
POLAND, Literackie
FILM AND TV RIGHTS, Eyeworks/Warner Bros.


Ariel 1: Night of Awe

The first entry in the Inspector Kafka series.

During the period known as the Days of Awe that lead up to Yom Kippur, Ariel Kafka, inspector in the Violent Crime Unit of the Helsinki police and one of two Jewish policemen in Finland, is confronted with the most difficult case of his career. Two Arabs are killed near the capital city and, shortly after, Kafka discovers two more bodies at an Iraqi-owned garage. Are these deaths evidence of gang warfare or international terrorism?

When it transpires that an Israeli Minister will make an unofficial visit to Helsinki, matters become truly complicated. The Finnish Security Police and Mossad all have a role to play and Kafka is on a trail that leads him back to his youth.

Rights sold:
ISRAEL, Steimatsky
ITALY, Atmosphere di Libri
RUSSIA, Text Publishers
UK, Bitter Lemon Press


Ariel 2: The Spider Woman

The second entry in the Inspector Kafka series.

The police receives an anonymous telephone call about the discovery of two bodies who have been stabbed to death. Much to his surprise, Kafka recognises one of the victims as Maija Erkkilä, known in criminal circles as “Spider Woman.” The identity of the other victim surprises him even more: It is Aimo Ikonen, Helsinki Violent Crime Unit’s deputy commissioner.

The deeper Ariel and his subordinates dig, the more tangled the affair becomes, complicated by evidence of Ikonen’s troubled past. In the course of his investigation Ariel meets Ikonen’s artist daughter Saara, a woman more ill-fated than Maija Erkkilä, and one who leaves an everlasting mark on him.


Ariel 4: Holy Ceremony

The fourth entry in the Ariel Kafka series.

In the neighbourhood of Töölö in Helsinki, a dead female is discovered with religious texts written onto her body. This is not a murder victim, however, but a body stolen from the morgue. Soon after its discovery, the body is stolen once more and ceremoniously burned in Helsinki’s Central Park.

Ariel Kafka’s investigation leads him to the enigmatic Brotherhood of the Holy Vault and one of its members Reijo Laurén, who is also suspected of stealing the body. Before Kafka begins to put together the mystery piece by piece, many people have to pay for their past sins with their lives


Ariel 3: Behind God’s Back

The third Inspector Kafka novel.

Ariel Kafka is assigned to investigate the death of a wealthy entrepreneur, a respected member of the Helsinki Jewish community and the father of his ex-girlfriend. Clues point towards the local Jewish circles, Israel, and a Finnish suspect who returns from Tel Aviv to set up an importing company.

Ariel finds himself embroiled in international intrigue that claims victims both innocent and guilty, and pits his own morals against the future of his nearest and dearest.

 


Ariel 5: The Lion King

The fifth Ariel Kafka mystery.

Two-time winner of Finland’s Strongest Man contest, Jukka Aro, aka “Jimmy Boy” or “The Lion King,” is found dead in his home. Did he shoot himself or was he murdered?

While investigating the cause of Aro’s death, Lieutenant Ariel Kafka digs deep into the outlandish jet-set life of Jimmy Boy and his wife Dodo, a former erotic model. While attempting to solve the case, Ariel is thrown off his game by the return of a former girlfriend. The detective finds himself caught between two women during the most intense moments of this criminal investigation.


The Eye of the Tiger

When the 92-year-old textile industry magnate Lovisa Johnson offers Hilja a job as her bodyguard, she does not hesitate. The businesswoman lives in a mansion that’s rumored to be haunted, after all. Johnson is childless, but her grandnephews and -nieces – a doctor, an oil industry lobbyist, a security guard and a clairvoyant – are eager for their cut of the inheritance. A combination of a mansion mystery and a fast-paced thriller, the novel is an anticipated new entry in the series.

Rights sold:

Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
GERMANY, Rowohlt


The Devil’s Cubs

The final installment of the trilogy can also be read as a standalone thriller. When uninvited guests show up at the wedding of a Finnish businessman and his Russian girlfriend for whom Hilja Ilveskero is working, an international mystery begins to unravel. Hidden truths are revealed, and soon Hilja comes face-to-face with an unthinkable tragedy from her childhood: the murder of her mother.

Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
ARMENIA, Guitank
CZECH, Argo
FRANCE, Hachette (Book 1-2)
GERMANY, Rowohlt
HOLLAND, Unieboek (Book 1)
RUSSIA, Azbooka-Atticus
SPAIN, Destino
TAIWAN, Linking
TURKEY, Nemesis
WORLD ENGLISH, Amazon Crossing


The Lion of Justice

Hilja Ilveskero is visiting her lover David Stahl in Italy, where he is hiding from a Belorussian mobster. After David suddenly disappears, Hilja is forced to return to Finland to work for her former client who owns a restaurant. When someone begins threatening the business, Hilja is drawn into a web of international crime.

The Lion of Justice was published in August 2011, and it immediately hit the top of Finland’s official bestseller list and the bestseller list of Adlibris, the biggest online bookshop in the Nordic countries!

Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
ARMENIA, Guitank
CZECH, Argo
FRANCE, Hachette (Book 1-2)
GERMANY, Rowohlt
HOLLAND, Unieboek (Book 1)
RUSSIA, Azbooka-Atticus
SPAIN, Destino
TAIWAN, Linking
TURKEY, Nemesis
WORLD ENGLISH, Amazon Crossing


The Bodyguard

A thrilling trilogy with a complex female protagonist, New York-trained bodyguard Hilja Ilveskero.

In the first book, Hilja’s client conducting real estate business in Russia is killed, and she is suspected of murder. She sets out to prove her innocence – both to the authorities and to herself. Going underground, she soon realizes that someone is after her. Can she trust anyone, even the people closest to her – and what is the price of betraying, or saving, another person?

Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
ARMENIA, Guitank
CZECH, Argo
FRANCE, Hachette (Book 1-2)
GERMANY, Rowohlt
HOLLAND, Unieboek (Book 1)
RUSSIA, Azbooka-Atticus
SPAIN, Destino
TAIWAN, Linking
TURKEY, Nemesis
WORLD ENGLISH, Amazon Crossing


A Stroke of Sadness

The body of Jaakko Pulma, an antiques and diamond dealer, is found at the church of Tapiola near Helsinki. Whoever murdered him appears to also have stolen a set of priceless family diamonds. A former employee becomes the primary suspect, but the situation becomes more complicated when Pulma’s lost phone begins to send out messages. Maria Kallio and her colleagues soon receive tips of a money laundering operation.

A hunt for the missing diamonds leads the police into an international web of crime. Buried deep into Pulma’s history is evidence of blackmail and an accident that turns out to not have been one at all. Not even the police is safe in the final showdown. A hit song, A Stroke of Sadness, by a band called Starflower adds an unusual twist to the story.


Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
GERMANY, Rowohlt


The Iron Triangle

An intense drama set in the Finnish archipelago. Two bodies, a dead socialite, ghosts from the past, and a woman beaten to within an inch of her life. And Maria Kallio playing summer vacation widow with a handsome local cop.

Mari Kallio’s Special Crimes Unit is assigned to solve the mystery of two corpses wrapped in plastic found on the shore of tiny Brändö Island. The female victim is an impoverished former model and fiery defender of Swedish language minority rights, Saila Lind, who has enemies to spare. Nearby is a villa owned by a famous hockey star where Lind visited frequently.

Also sticking his nose into the case is local cop Jon Berg, whose appeal for Maria is increased by the rest of her family being on a sailing vacation abroad. As she investigates the identity of the other victim, alarming things float to the surface from Maria’s past. A serious assault in the family of the hockey player further complicates the situation.

Who will make it home to port alive?


Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
GERMANY, Rowohlt