Fall Rights Guide 2023
Fall Rights Guide 2023
Fiction
New titles this season
Arctic Wedding Nightmare
The Investigations of a Certain Cat
The Kristinestad Murders #1: Revenge
Return of the Butterfly
Ghost Island
Crime & Thrillers
KOSTO
Otava, June 2023, 298 pp.
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Series presentation
The Kristinestad Murders #1: Revenge
The Kristinestad Murders #1
The peace of the idyllic seaside town Kristinestad is broken in the first installment of an addictive new 6-book crime series.
✓ For fans of Viveca Sten’s The Sandhamn Murders, Camilla Läckberg, Mari Jungstedt and Åsa Larsson!
✓ A perfect mix of Nordic crime, love triangle drama, and the beautiful surroundings of the old coastal town of Kristinestad, Western Finland
✓ Bestseller – close to 10,000 copies sold in four months!
The body of a young man is discovered in the sea, and the criminal investigator Mats Bergholm is responsible for the case. At the same time, journalist Eevi Manner is sent to dig out a scoop of the event for the local newspaper. Both are surprised to find each other on the grim beach: the two have a past together – a past which they now need to set aside to solve the case.
Eevi is contacted by a young woman, and it becomes clear that the death is just one link in a chain of events unfitting the picturesque town. The full picture becomes clearer and clearer, although the secrets of the locals are buried deep. Social media and recordings can offer help in solving the case, but the lies and muddy memories of the people involved cast doubts in every direction.
Perfect for fans of Viveca Sten and Camilla Läckberg, this opening of the new KRISTINESTAD MURDERS crime series follows in the footsteps of strong female crime authors, offering gripping crime plots and interpersonal drama.
Tuokko’s narration is effortless. The life of youth with its crises also appears natural. The plot of REVENGE keeps one in its grip, even surprising the reader. The crime is the size of one book, but the story of Eevi and Mats is left open by the author.
– Keskisuomalainen newspaper
– Taika Dahlbom in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
Takamailla #1
Bazar, Spring 2024
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Series presentation
The Outback Series #1: The Island Torn Apart
The Outback Series #1
The story of twelve steps that plunge the idyllic archipelago in the southwest of Finland into utter chaos.
✓ New crime series by an author hailed as Finnish Jens Lapidus!
✓ An alternative to police procedurals – crimes as seen from the perspective of local people caught up in them
✓ The Island Torn Apart kicks off The Outback crime series set in remote Finnish villages. Each part is a unique story with its own set of characters, creating a series of thriller-like visits to the ends of long dirt roads, unleashing the Finnish mental landscape at its most naked and exotic!
Korppoo: a place where many have died.
It’s a beautiful place – serene, a little piece of paradise – by the name of Korppoo. A place where people offer apple pie to passers-by and lend their tractor to their neighbors. Where everyone greets each other, joys are shared and grudges are borne forever. Then, Jennifer from Helsinki buys a guest marina on the island and brings death with her.
Sigge Boman, an embittered ferryman who lost the family boat to gambling, decides to get his own back. However, his liquor-soaked revenge expedition takes an unexpected turn when a floating corpse gets caught up on the bow of Sigge’s miserable outboard motorboat. He peers to look, stumbles, and sinks into the icy depths, clinging on tightly to the stiff body. He is rescued at the last minute and his drunken bungling is misinterpreted as a heroic rescue attempt. For the first time in his life, Sigge is appreciated – and that’s easy to get hooked on.
Meanwhile, a new inn owner arrives on the island, the good-hearted Jennifer who brings death with her. Empty boats drift on the sea and a feeling of unease spreads among the islanders. Are these strange events just chance, or is everything somehow linked to Jennifer’s high-flying plans? Or is it the three Russians snapping up properties in the area at an ever-faster pace?
The Island Torn Apart promises the reader at least one thing – when the earth’s crust tears, things will be revealed that no one would have dared to dig out.
– Kirsin Book Club on Keskitalo’s debut novel Tottelemattomat
Tuulia Raja #1
Tammi, February 2023, 288 pp.
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Private Property
Tuulia Raja, Private Eye #1
The entertaining opening to a new whodunnit crime series!
✓ New series by a praised and award-winning crime author combines a murder mystery with witty dialogue and relationship drama like no other!
✓ Close to 10,000 copies in the series sold in Finland!
Tuulia Raja is a resourceful flight attendant who keeps calm even in the worst of pickles. But when her employer is declared bankrupt, it is time to search for new horizons. A chance encounter leads her to meet with a private investigator, and in no time she is investigating the last moments of a now-dead business mogul. Everyone related to the case is hiding something, but what? Tuulia plans to find this out, no matter the cost.
Pauliina Susi’s Private Property opens the new Tuulia Raja, Private Eye series in which a quick-witted detective capably and cleverly handles the different cases that come her way.
The premise of a flight attendant turned private investigator is pleasantly original. The funniest aspects of the novel are the conversations between Tuulia and her senior detective mentor which remind a little bit of the 1980s hit series Moonlighting.
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
– Ruumiin kulttuuri magazine
– Me Naiset magazine
Upcoming books in the Tuulia Raja, Private Eye series:
#2 Electric Atmosphere (August 2023)
Novice private eye Tuulia Raja receives an assignment from her childhood friend whose nude photos are spreading around the Internet. The case won’t make Tuulia rich, but she is eager to make up for the mistakes she has done in the past. The situation gets even more electrified when a familiar gym entrepreneur is found dead. Soon Tuulia notices that she is in the midst of a small-town showdown.
WSOY, December 2023
Reading material:
English synopsis
English sample in October
Return of the Butterfly
Nothing is as it seems.
✓ Sequel to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Follow the Butterfly!
✓ Rights to Follow the Butterfly have been sold to 15 territories, including UK & US!
Five years have passed since the events of Follow the Butterfly. Ira and Arto have teamed up, and both work as crime journalists for the Helsinki Gazette. Everything’s going nicely, until they start suspecting there’s a serial killer on the loose in Helsinki.
The murders are investigated by Senior Crime Inspector Kerttu Leppänen, who leads the murder unit and eagerly waits for retirement. Unsolved cases haunt Kerttu, who is unable to forgive herself.
The past catches up with all of them – if they were ever free from its clutches in the first place…
– Nicole List in ORF TV programme Studio 2, Austria, on Follow the Butterfly
NEW!
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
WSOY, March 2021, 471 pp.
Reading material:
Full English manuscript
German edition
Follow the Butterfly
An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn!
✓ An international bestseller by author-journalist Martta Kaukonen, sold in 15 territories, including UK & US!
✓ A Spiegel bestseller in Germany with more than 23,500 copies sold!
✓ US & UK release in March 2024 by Pushkin Press!
✓ A critical success and bestseller in Finland with close to 10,000 copies sold!
✓ Savonia Prize nominee! A sequel coming out in December 2023!
✓ Full English text available now!
Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?
Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. Everyone knows who she is from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never ceases to haunt her. When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.
The most suspenseful and surprising book in a long time. Only a few sentences in I realised: I am the fly in the spider’s net.
– Ulla Müller, Bayern 1 radio (24. March 2023), Germany
– Silke Schröder on hallo-buch.de, Germany
Pushkin is proud to have acquired US rights in addition to UK rights for this incredible debut and is excited for English readers everywhere to experience the twisty, addictive thrill of Martta Kaukonen’s FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY. Ida has to be the most sympathetic serial killer in crime fiction, and is one of the most original protagonists we’ve come across in a very long time.
– Adam Freudenheim and Daniel Seton, Pushkin Press
– Lars Ole Sauerberg in Jyllands-Posten newspaper, Denmark
A SPIEGEL BESTSELLER IN GERMANY!
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECH REPUBLIC: Kniha Zlin/Albatros
DENMARK: Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible
WSOY, July 2022, 276 pp.
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
In Your Shadow
The great post-#MeToo thriller
✓ A gripping page-turner about past trauma and the hunger for justice!
✓ A new thriller by the internationally bestselling author Martta Kaukonen, whose debut Follow the Butterfly has been sold to 15 territories, including UK & US!
✓ You can trust no one in this psychological thriller full of unexpected twist by “Finland’s Gillian Flynn” !
The harassment of women should be kept silent no longer, a small group of activists declares and demands justice. But at what price?
When #metoo spread through the media like wildfire, many victims of harassment felt hopeful – now we can talk about it, now the change begins. But the fire died, and things did not change. Traumas did not disappear, and justice is yet to come.
Sixty-year-old Anne hosts meetings for a group of people who will not be silenced. They start rehearsing a performance as an apology to the victims of harassment. Among them are acclaimed actress Minna who has spoken about her experiences publicly, former straight-A student Suvi who doesn’t want to leave her home anymore out of fear, and performance artist Roni who’s looking to upgrade his feminism from words to actions. Can they trust each other? Are they driven by a desire for justice or a wish for revenge?
– Kaarina Palletvuori, ET magazine
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
WSOY, August 2023, 391 pp.
Reading material:
English sample in September
Finnish manuscript
Series presentation
The Sicilian Defense
Salla Kotka #2
The profiling skills of Salla Kotka come under pressure as she comes head-to-head with a serial killer.
✓ Elena Ferrante meets Jo Nesbø!
✓ By a Finnish author who has lived in Italy for 25 years and written bestselling novels!
✓ The first installment in the series, The Italian Game, has sold over 10,000 copies in Finland!
Salla Kotka’s career as a forensic psychologist is progressing under the guidance of her mentor Ruth Segre. While interviewing serial killers, Salla meets again with a psychopath called the Groom. The man seems to know something about the serial killer Harlequin who is terrorizing Milan. But why does the Groom seem so interested in Salla?
Catching the Harlequin becomes even more important for Salla when the police claim that the perpetrator is someone close to Segre. Meanwhile, Salla is tortured by thoughts of her mother’s suspicious death and the secrets of the past.
Salla searches for a ruthless serial killer in the dark Milan night, but has evil managed to get much closer than she could have imagined?
– Sari Toivakka in Savon Sanomat newspaper
WSOY, August 2022, 414 pp.
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
The Italian Game
Salla Kotka #1
“The heart of darkness is in the human mind.”
✓ The opening of a new, Salla Kotka crime series, set in Milan, following a serial killer called the Harlequin!
✓ Elena Ferrante meets Jo Nesbø!
✓ By an author who has lived in Italy for 25 years and written bestseller novels!
✓ Over 10,000 copies sold in Finland!
The Greater Milan area lives in fear. A mysterious stalker is terrorizing people, and a serial killer called the Harlequin is picking their victims, branding them with jewelry. Are the two cases connected?
Salla Kotka, starting her career as a forensic psychologist, gets pulled into the threatening chain of events as she begins working for a defense attorney. Their client is the suspected serial killer, and Salla needs to help the defense uncover the truth. But, in the end, does truth carry any value in the courtroom?
To make matters worse, her new job as a profiler seems like a battlefield, mined by suspicious colleagues and hostile clients. While Salla has to examine the darkest sides in others, she is also trying to come to terms with her own past. Can she trust anyone, even herself?
THE ITALIAN GAME begins a new crime series, and this opening title is impressive, the language and style are polished, and the narration keeps one in its grip until the end. [—] THE ITALIAN GAME is also a novel about the depths of mind and memory and about facing a strongly rooted fear. The ending of this exciting title turned out to surprise me!
– Jari Olavi Hiltunen in Satakunnan kansa newspaper