Leena Katriina Lehtolainen (born 11 March 1964) is a Finnish

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

ist, best known for her series of novels about the policewoman Maria Kallio. Lehtolainen was born in

Vesanto Vesanto is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which , or 26%, is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnis ...

, in the

Northern Savonia North Savo (or Northern Savonia; ; ) is a Regions of Finland, region in eastern Finland. It borders the regions of South Savo, Central Finland, North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, and North Karelia. Kuopio is the largest city in the region and Kallavesi, ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

of Finland. Her first novel was released when she was only 12 years old. She studied literature in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

until 1995 and has been writing crime novels since 1993. Since about 2007 she has written other genres of books. Her works have been translated into numerous languages, including

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Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and

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. Leena Lehtolainen is married to Mikko Lensu and she has two children (Konsta Johannes, born in 1991 and Otso Olavi born in 1994). She lives in Degerby, west of Helsinki.

Awards and honours

Lehtolainen won the Finnish crime novel society yearly prize in 1997 and 1998. She received the

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

city Award of Arts in 2000, and was nominated for the

Glass Key award The Glass Key award (, , , , ) is a literature award given annually to a crime novel by an author from the Nordic countries. The award, named after the novel The Glass Key by American crime writer Dashiell Hammett, is a real glass key given every ...

in 2003. In 2020 she received the national ''Pro Finlandia'' medal for her artistic merits.

Bibliography

*'' Ja äkkiä onkin toukokuu'' (1976) *''Kitara on rakkauteni'' (1981) *''Ensimmäinen murhani'' (1993) (published in UK as ''My First Murder'', 2012) *''Harmin paikka'' (1994) *''Kuparisydän'' (1995) (published in UK as ''Copper Heart'', 2013) *''Luminainen'' (1996) *''Kuolemanspiraali'' (1997) *''Tuulen puolella'' (1998) *''Tappava säde'' (1999) *''Ennen lähtöä'' (2000) *''Sukkanauhatyttö ja muita tarinoita'' (2001) *''Kun luulit unohtaneesi'' (2002) *''Veren vimma'' (2003) *''Jonakin onnellisena päivänä'' (2004) *''Rivo Satakieli'' (2005) *''Viimeinen kesäyö ja muita tarinoita'' (2006) *''Luonas en ollutkaan'' (2007) *''Väärän jäljillä'' (2008) *''Henkivartija'' (2009) *''Minne tytöt kadonneet'' (2010) *''Oikeuden jalopeura'' (2011) *''Paholaisen pennut'' (2012) *''Rautakolmio'' (2013) *''Kuusi kohtausta Sadusta'' (2014) *''Surunpotku'' (2015) *''Tiikerinsilmä'' (2016) *''Viattomuuden loppu'' (2017) *''Tappajan tyttöystävä ja muita rikoksia'' (2018) *''Valapatto'' (2019) *''Jälkikaiku'' (2020) *''Ilvesvaara'' (2021) *''Joulupukin suudelma'' (2021) *''Antti Ruuskanen – Rätingin paikka'' (2022)

References

Webarchive of her German website (biggest book market presence)

External links

Homepage ''English''Leena Lehtolainen in 375 humanists 25.03.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
1964 births Living people People from Vesanto Writers from North Savo Finnish crime writers Finnish feminists Finnish women novelists Women crime writers {{Finland-writer-stub