Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen is the bestselling female crime author in Finland. Her new titles head straight to #1 on the Finnish bestseller lists.

In addition to her career as an author, she has also worked as a literary researcher, columnist, and critic. 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 bestselling crime novel series. And just as events in theBodyguard (Henkivartija) trilogy take the heroine Hilja Ilveskero all around Europe, Lehtolainen’s own work takes her to book festivals, exhibitions and other events across the globe.

Lehtolainen published her first novel at the age of 12; this work of juvenile fiction Ja äkkiä onkin toukokuu (And Suddenly It’s May) appeared in 1976. Five years later came her novel Kitara on rakkauteni (My Guitar Is My One True Love, 1981), about a teenage band.

The 1993 book Ensimmäinen murhani (My First Murder) kicked off Lehtolainen’s first crime novel series, which has brought an enthusiastically-received female perspective to the male-dominated detective genre through its distinctively downto-earth heroine Maria Kallio. Minne tytöt kadonneet (Where Have All the Young Girls Gone, 2010) is the 11th installment of the bestselling Maria Kallio series.