The Bodyguard

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

ARABIC: Al Arabi

ARMENIA: Guitank Publishing

CZECH REPUBLIC: ARGO spol. s r. o.

RUSSIA: Azbooka-Atticus

TURKEY: Nemesis Yayıncılık A.Ş.

Original title: Henkivartija

Author: Leena Lehtolainen

Published: 2009

Publisher: Tammi

Genre: Crime & Suspense

Pages: 355

Part of a series: Bodyguard series

Reading material

Finnish edition
English edition
German edition

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A thrilling series 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?

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.

Leena Lehtolainen is Finland’s bestselling female crime writer and created her successful protagonist, detective Maria Kallio, in 1993. Having already featured in 16 novels and a complete TV series, Maria Kallio is ready for a fresh launch in a TV series coming in fall 2021. Lehtolainen’s novels have been translated into 29 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

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.

In her free time, Lehtolainen enjoys all kinds of music from 70’s punk to Schubert and Bach – just like Maria Kallio, the heroine of Lehtolainen’s crime novel series.

And just like the events in Bodyguard, a trilogy 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 is Finland’s bestselling female crime writer and created her successful protagonist, detective Maria Kallio, in 1993. Having already featured in 16 novels and a complete TV series, Maria Kallio is ready for a fresh launch in a TV series coming in fall 2021. Lehtolainen’s novels have been translated into 29 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

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