Free

Is it worth it to dig up the truth?

FREE is the final installment of a critically acclaimed and internationally bestselling thriller series — a brilliant novel that deceives, hooks, and shakes you to the core.

The year is 1995. Detective Chief Inspector Kerttu Leppänen and her husband Inspector Esko Koivuvyö are investigating the murder of a middle-aged woman. However, a mystery at the murder scene confounds the investigation: a bloody knife is lying on a pillow next to the body, even though it cannot possibly be the murder weapon.

Thirty years later, Ira wants to know the truth about her parents' marriage. Why was her mother Marja afraid of her father Arto? And why does Arto refuse to answer Ira's questions?

In different decades, Kerttu and Ira discover something very similar: if you unearth the truth, you must be prepared to face the consequences.

” FREE also works as a standalone, thanks especially to its well-crafted characters. [–] But the real highlight is how the novel disorients the reader — can you always trust the narrator? All in all, the story forms a clever web that manages to surprise.”

– Sari Toivakka, Keskisuomalainen newspaper

“This first novel by Finnish film critic Martta Kaukonen is a fascinating study in guilt, shame, blame and the stories we tell ourselves to make life bearable. [---] The delivery of information, both real and false, is beautifully handled. The portrait of the vain and self-deceiving therapist is chilling, and the ultimate revelation of what has been going on in all four lives is horribly convincing.”– Natasha Cooper, Literary Review, UK, on Follow the Butterfly