The Kingdom of Dead Souls

Tuire Malmstedt

Tuire Malmstedt (b. 1974) is an author and language teacher from Pieksämäki.

The first book in Malmstedt’s new Arctic Danger series is called The Kingdom of Dead Souls.

Before becoming a writer, Malmstedt worked as a translator and technical writer. She began writing stories at a young age, but it wasn’t until later that it developed into a career.

In her own words, Malmstedt is a sensitive crime writer. She has chosen settings that are familiar and important to her, which bring her stories to life. For Jehki, she chose Berlevåg as the setting, a place that holds significance for her father, who suffers from memory loss, though her father no longer remembers it. The author hopes that her father’s lost memories will thus be brought back to life.

She strives to make her characters as multifaceted as possible, and she has been praised in particular for her character portrayals.

Malmstedt believes that books and writing allow her to connect with and touch readers, and that through books one can also find kindred spirits, even if one cannot always meet them in real life.

Malmstedt has published the Isa Karos trilogy, which includes the novels Pimeä jää,  Mykkä taivas, and Enkelimetsä (Myllylahti). The Finnish Crime Writers’ Association awarded her debut novel Pimeä jää (2018) the prize for Best Debut Crime Novel of the Year. Her next series, Metso & Vauramo, is a five-part crime series: Lasitarha, Lumihauta, Lyijysydän, Luusaari, and Lintusielu (Aula & Co). The central themes of the series are memory and trauma. Malmstedt has also written a non-fiction book about Finnish cults titled All Power on Earth: Religious Cults in Finland (2024).