Where Have All the Young Girls Gone

Where Have All the Young Girls Gone

The Maria Kallio Series (Book 11)
by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman
Published by AmazonCrossing
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A group of hate crimes, a conspiracy, or a coincidence? Investigator Maria Kallio searches for answers close to home in award-winning author Leena Lehtolainen’s riveting thriller.

After completing a dangerous mission training police officers in war-torn Afghanistan, Detective Maria Kallio returns to Finland as the head of a new special crimes unit. But what awaits her in her home country is her most challenging and unsettling case yet. Three immigrant Muslim girls, all members of the same social club, have gone missing under mysterious circumstances. When the body of a fourth girl is found in the snow, strangled with her own headscarf, the investigation takes on a grim new urgency.

Is there a xenophobic serial killer on the loose? A random white nationalist? Or does something more insidious bind the girls? In a Finnish city struggling to assimilate a new population of Muslim immigrants, the answers are hard to come by…

One thing is certain: it will take a detective familiar with the darkest depths of humanity to sift through the wreckage of clashing cultures in search of the truth. That detective is Maria Kallio.

Derailed

Derailed book coverDerailed

The Maria Kallio Series (Book 10)
by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman
Published by AmazonCrossing
Order now
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Detective Maria Kallio investigates a doping scandal turned murder in award-winning author Leena Lehtolainen’s pulse-pounding thriller.

After surviving a terrifying assault during her last investigation, Maria Kallio traded in her badge for a comfortable desk job. But when the head of social affairs for the Finnish Athletics Federation is murdered—the victim of an apparent poisoning—Maria is drawn back into a race against more than murder. A series of crimes has unfolded, and to Maria’s trained eyes, they look like the makings of a conspiracy.

As Maria follows the track to a doping scandal, a money-laundering scheme, domestic abuse, and explosive death threats leveled against a sports reporter, she collects the pieces of a baffling puzzle. Now, to run down the killer and save the next victim, all she has to do is make them fit.

So far only one thing is for certain: Maria Kallio is rediscovering the thrill of the chase.

The Nightingale Murder

The Nightingale Murder

by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman

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From the publisher:

Award-winning author Leena Lehtolainen’s heart-stopping series continues as investigator Maria Kallio’s hunt for a killer gets dark, dangerous, and dirty…

A grievously mutilated young woman arrives at the hospital in Espoo, Finland—only to vanish without a trace. Though the victim refused to identify herself, Violent Crimes Unit Commander Maria Kallio suspects she’s connected to the city’s sex-worker underworld. The next day her suspicions grow when celebrity call girl Lulu Nightingale is murdered during a live television broadcast.

The victim’s clients included some of the top names in Finnish society, but the list of suspects is even longer: her infatuated bodyguard, a suicidal TV producer, and a talk-show host with political aspirations. But how is Lulu’s murder connected to the tortured woman’s disappearance?

As the body count keeps rising, Maria plunges into the dark demimonde of the sex trade. And this time, searching for answers may shatter all that she has.

Also in the Maria Kallio series:

Below the Surface

Below the Surface

by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman

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From the publisher:

When a woman’s body turns up in a lake—a bullet to the back of her head—Violent Crime Unit commander Maria Kallio, freshly back from maternity leave, is fast to get on the case. The victim is ID’d as Annukka Hackman, wife of a prominent publisher and author of an upcoming unauthorized tell-all book on Sasha Smeds, Finland’s celebrated racing rally driver.

Almost as soon as the inquiry starts, it goes off the rails, as those connected to Annukka—and to Smeds—seem to have more secrets than they have alibis. Was the journalist about to reveal a bombshell that someone was desperate to keep quiet? Or will it take some reading between the lines? The clues may be few, but the list of suspects is long. As she struggles to balance her home life, run a department tainted by career-threatening allegations, and catch a killer, Maria is shocked to find just what someone was willing to do in the name of love…or revenge.

Also in the Maria Kallio series:

Before I Go

Below the Surface

by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman

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From the publisher:

A fierce detective risks everything to unravel a tangle of secrets and corruption protecting a killer in this spellbinding seventh mystery in the tension-filled Maria Kallio series.

When Petri Ilveskivi is murdered in the street on his way to a city-planning meeting, Maria Kallio, commander of Espoo’s Violent Crime Unit, and her team are first on the scene. Almost immediately, her focus is on the band of skinheads who brutally attacked the Finnish commissioner and his husband three years earlier. Did they finally finish the hate crime they started? But the trail soon reveals a web of lies—secrets Petri was keeping from even those closest to him—and a long list of suspects.

As she juggles her obligations as a wife, mother, and detective, Maria suggests to her superiors that what first appears to be a random assault may actually be something more sinister. When she’s met with silence and higher-ups take her off the case, she disobeys orders and investigates on her own, putting both her family and herself at risk. In this captivating tale in the Maria Kallio series, someone is protecting a killer. Can Maria track them down before the next victim falls?

Also in the Maria Kallio series:

Fatal Headwind

Fatal Headwind

by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman

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From the publisher:

After months of maternity leave, tough-talking Espoo police detective Maria Kallio is ready to return to work. But before assuming her new post as head of the Violent Crime Unit, she vacations with her husband and daughter on the island of Rödskär. There Kallio learns that, one year earlier, her ex-boyfriend Harri had mysteriously fallen to his death from the isle’s steep and treacherous cliffs.

On the anniversary of that event, Harri’s boss, the CEO of an allegedly nontoxic paint company, loses his life on those very same rocks. In light of such a coincidence, Kallio searches for the link between these two tragedies and is soon convinced that they weren’t accidents—they were murders. As the Finnish nights grow longer, so too does the list of suspects. Was the CEO’s disillusioned wife involved? His environmental-activist son? Or perhaps his rebellious daughter? Or might the culprit be his half brother, an adventurous sailor whom Kallio finds altogether a little too intriguing?

From internationally bestselling Finnish author Leena Lehtolainen comes the sixth book of the gripping Maria Kallio Mystery series.

From internationally bestselling Finnish author Leena Lehtolainen comes the sixth book of the gripping Maria Kallio Mystery series.

Also in the Maria Kallio series:

Copper Heart

PPCover_CopperHeart_lowresCopper Heart

The Maria Kallio Series (Book 3)
by Leena Lehtolainen
Translated by Owen F. Witesman
Published by AmazonCrossing
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Former police sergeant Maria Kallio gladly left her tiny Finnish hometown of Arpikylä without looking back. But even though Maria despises the small town and the acrid smell from its now-closed copper mine, when Arpikylä’s sheriff asks her to serve as deputy sheriff for the summer, she agrees.

What should have been a quiet summer soon turns dramatic—and deadly. Meritta, an outspoken local artist, plunges to her death from the copper mine’s tower, and Maria immediately suspects someone helped her fall. Now Maria must face the harsh truth that one of the town’s residents killed Meritta, and friends Maria has known for decades all harbor their own murderous motives—even Johnny, her gorgeous former crush who almost makes her forget about her long-distance boyfriend, Antti, who is studying in Chicago.

In this thrilling addition to the internationally successful Maria Kallio mystery series, the past and present of the beloved Finnish detective violently collide, leaving her future in grave danger.

Also in the Maria Kallio Series:

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Her Enemy

HerEnemy_CvrImgHer Enemy

The Maria Kallio Series (Book 2)
by Leena Lehtolainen
Published by AmazonCrossing

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After solving her first murder and leaving the Helsinki Police Department behind, Maria Kallio thought that a move to the neighboring city of Espoo would signal a fresh start—a chance to not only put her new law degree to use, but to nurture her budding romance with Antti Sarkela. But when she discovers the strangled body of a new acquaintance, old habits die hard for the redheaded sleuth—especially since the accused is not only the victim’s fiancé, but a member of Antti’s family.

Though she works as a legal counselor, Kallio soon finds herself unofficially investigating the murder, now labeled a sex crime. While Antti’s relative may have some peculiar sexual tendencies, Kallio doubts that the man she’s agreed to defend is capable of the crime. To crack the case, Kallio will have to pull back the curtain on Espoo high society…and uncover a secret someone is willing to kill to keep hidden.

Her Enemy, the latest addition to Lehtolainen’s bestselling crime series, sends intrepid Detective Kallio into the dark side of human passion.

Also in the Maria Kallio Series:

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My First Murder

My First Murder
by Leena Lehtolainen
Published by AmazonCrossing

The best-selling Detective Maria Kallio series begins in English!

Order now, including as an audiobook.

Maria Kallio has just been assigned her first murder investigation. To prove to herself and her squad that she has what it takes to be a detective, she’ll have to solve the death of Tommi Peltonen. Found floating face down at the water’s edge of his Helsinki villa, Tommi had invited his choir group to spend a weekend at his retreat. But beneath the choir’s seemingly tight-knit bonds seethed bitter passion and jealousy. As Maria sets out to determine the difference between friends and foes, she uncovers the victim’s unsavory past—and motives for all seven suspects. Now it’s up to her to untangle a complex set of clues before the killer strikes again.

The first book in Leena Lehtolainen’s bestselling Finnish crime series starring Detective Maria Kallio, My First Murder offers hard-boiled realism from a female perspective.

 

Also in the Maria Kallio series:

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Where Have All the Young Girls Gone / Minne tytöt kadonneet

Leena Lehtolainen

Tammi, 2010.

By Leena Lehtolainen.

A complete translation is of this novel is now available. Please contact me or the Elina Ahlbäck Agency for more information if you are an interested publisher.

From the Elina Ahlbäck Agency:

The new installment of the Maria Kallio series is a chronicle of xenophobia and hate. Maria Kallio is investigating the disappearance of three Muslim girls – and the killing of another. Maria Kallio, working on an EU project training Afghani police, travels to the opening ceremonies for the country’s new police academy, with disastrous consequences. Upon returning home to Finland, Maria begins work in the Espoo Special Crimes Unit and is assigned to investigate the disappearances of three immigrant girls. The girls frequented the same girls’ club as Maria’s daughter Iida. Then the body of a fourth Muslim girl is found in the snow, strangled with her own headscarf. Are the cases related? Is a serial killer on the move? Or did the girls’ families have something to do with the disappearances?

Leena Lehtolainen’s Where Have All the Young Girls Gone is an engrossing exploration of the collision between tradition and the new multicultural Europe. It is a journey into a world where daily life is defined by ancient belief and deeply ingrained, habitual perception. Who is in the right when there are two truths?

Leena Lehtolainen — Where Have All the Young Girls Gone — Sample Translation (PDF)

Also by this author:

The Killing One