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Vilnius Alibi. Baltic Sea Crime Fiction Days. 09-12 11 2005

Leena Lehtolainen



 
Wanted:
Leena Lehtolainen (Finland)
 
Will be inquired:
 
On November 9th (Wednesday), 2005 at 5 pm in the discussion “Crime fiction as a mirror of society”
On November 10th (Thursday), 2005 at 5 pm in the literature workshop "Crime Laboratory"
On November 10th (Thursday), 2005 at 8 pm in the music and literature happening "Evening of Alibi"
 
Personal file
Literary scholar and author Leena Lehtolainen was born in 1964 in Eastern Finland. She has a Mphil from the University of Helsinki, and in her thesis she analysed the work of Eeva Tenhunen, a Finnish detective writer. Along with her writing, Lehtolainen has been active as a critic, lecturer and columnist.
 
Literary works
Lehtolainen debuted as a writer when she was twelve with a novel for young readers  „And suddenly came May“ (Ja äkkiä onkin toukokuu) in 1976. In 1993 she started her own detective series with the novel „My First Murder“ (Ensimmäinen murhani), featuring policewoman Maria Kallio. She has written eight more novels of Maria Kallio, three other novels and a collection of short stories.
 
Her novels have been translated into French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Chinese and Spanish.
 
The most famous novels:
„My First Murder“ (Ensimmäinen murhani), 1994
„The Snow Woman“ (Luminainen), 1996
„The Spiral of Death“ (Kuolemanspiraali), 1997
„The Turning Point“ (Tuulen puolella), 1998
„Frenzy of Blood“ (Veren vimma), 2003
 
Critics comment the Wanted
Leena Lehtolainen represents the new detective novel of Finland. Her characters are figures of the modern world. She deepens her books by combining values of simple normal life to the new phenomena of recent years. The writer is spreading female values through the vivid and original main character, which has brought a much-awaited feminist aspect to Finnish criminal fiction.
 
Source: http://www.kolumbus.fi/leena.lehtolainen/index.htm  
 
 

"A Souvenir from Vilnius" by Leena Lehtolainen


 
The phone rang two days after I returned from Vilnius.
            ‘Give back what doesn’t belong to you,’ a voice growled in accented Finnish before I had time to say my name. ‘You’ve got two days, or else…’
            ‘Who is this?’
            ‘You know all right.’
            ‘I afraid I don’t. You must have the wrong number. This is Julia Leivo. Who were you trying to call?’
            ‘Give it a rest. It’s you I want. We know what you took with you from Vilnius, and it’s not yours. Give it back, or…’
            The line went dead. I stood there frozen, staring in confusion at the screen on my mobile phone. I pressed a few buttons to check all incoming calls. I had been called from an undisclosed number and I didn’t have the faintest idea who the caller had been or what they wanted, but they sounded serious.
 
2005. Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania. All rights reserved e-solution: gaumina