We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we’ve sold TV rights to Finland’s bestselling Maria Kallio crime series, written by Leena Lehtolainen: MTV3/C More. will release the TV show at the end of 2021. Filming of the beloved Maria Kallio detective series starts in Finland in the fall 2020. The title role of the series is played by Elena Leeve (Sunnuntailounas, Onnela) and other roles include Leo Honkonen, Petteri Summanen, Kristian Rundman and Matti Leino.

The upcoming production will start from Lehtolainen’s first Maria Kallio book, My First Murder, in which young Maria Kallio is still considering career-related issues. Directed by Jojo Erholtz and written by Eriikka Etholén-Paju. The series will be filmed towards the end of the year.

The new Maria Kallio novel RIPPLE EFFECT was published in Finland some weeks ago, and already more than 25,000 copies have been sold. Leena Lehtolainen is one of Finland’s most popular writers, and is known for her Maria Kallio and Bodyguard series. Worldwide her books have sold over 2.5 million copies, and her books have been translated into 30 languages. In addition to Finland, United States and Germany are other important markets for Lehtolainen’s books. There are 11 Maria Kallio titles in English, and in the US only Jo Nesbo has more translated titles than Lehtolainen.

We have excellent news for crime fiction enthusiasts around the world!

Leena Lehtolainen’s RIPPLE EFFECT, Maria Kallio novel #15 (Jälkikaiku, Tammi) has now been published in Finland and is already hitting the bestseller lists – with Maria Kallio TV series in development!

The title is already #1 most requested title in Finnish libraries and just received an amazing five-star review from Finland’s biggest daily Helsingin Sanomat.

“RIPPLE EFFECT is a familiar and persuasive crime novel in which the author appropriately describes the private lives of her main characters and examines the refugee issue and the difficulties of transgender people in the world on an equal footing;

“At the end of the novel, humanity and its diversity are defended in a beautiful way.”

– Helsingin Sanomat five-star review 09.08.2020

Ask for English materials of RIPPLE EFFECT by clicking here.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Detective Maria Kallio is getting ready for her daughter’s graduation when her cat brings her a human ear. She takes it to the forensic lab and doesn’t think any more of it. Maria and her team are assigned to investigate a rape of a young woman when things start to heat up.

The accused rapist is a young man with an immigrant background, which causes a lot of racism and heated discussions in the papers and media. Angry fathers are organizing a street patrol to keep their daughters safe, and when Rahim is released from the police station, his safety is not guaranteed.

Maria and her team are working to solve a new case, but online trolls are targeting them and doing everything to distract them. But when Maria is almost killed by an earless driver, it makes her wonder if all the harassment is related to the case, or could it be something more personal?

ABOUT THE SERIES:

Finland’s bestselling female crime writer for over 30 years, Leena Lehtolainen has published 14 Maria Kallio novels, and the 15^th book RIPPLE EFFECT has now been published in August 2020.

Maria Kallio series has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, and there is a TV Series in development.

Ask for English materials of Maria Kallio series by clicking here.

The bestselling Maria Kallio Series, which has brought an enthusiastically received female perspective to the male-dominated detective genre through its distinctively down-to-earth heroine Maria Kallio.

In the US, 11 Maria Kallio novels have been published so far by AmazonCrossing, and in Germany  Rowohlt has published all 14 Maria Kallio novels.

The rights for the Maria Kallio series are now available in Azerbaijan, Brazil,  Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Vietnam, World Spanish, and more!