Before I Go

Leena Lehtolainen

Original title: Ennen lähtöä

Author: Leena Lehtolainen

Published: 2000

Publisher: Tammi

Genre: Crime & Suspense

Pages: 375

Part of a series: Maria Kallio series

Reading material

Finnish edition

A battered man lies beside a bicycle path. Someone has beaten furniture designer and Green Party city councilor Petri Ilveskivi into an inch of his life. Ilveskivi, a familiar face in the media, known for his sharp tongue, has managed to run afoul of all sorts of people in his private and political lives. Is the assault a result of a personal grudge, or was this a random act of violence? Did the skinheads just get tired of Petri’s open homosexuality?

The Ilveskivi case turns out to be unusually complicated. Drugs, xenophobia, and municipal power politics are all thrown into the cauldron.

In her own life, Maria Kallio is forced to grapple with the question of another addition to her family. Even though everything seems to be going well at home, Maria is still forced to weigh the significance of police work to herself and her family. She also discovers that it isn’t only her own safety that is at risk . . .

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Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
AUDIO: Word Audio
GERMANY: Rowohlt
TV RIGHTS: Jarowskij Finland
UNITED STATES: Amazon Publishing

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About author

Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen is the top female crime author in Finland: her new titles always head straight to #1 on the Finnish bestseller lists.

Lehtolainen created her successful protagonist, detective Maria Kallio, in 1993. Having already featured in 16 novels and a complete TV series, a new Maria Kallio TV reboot series was launched in Fall 2021 on C More. Lehtolainen’s novels have been translated into 30 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

And just like the events in Bodyguard, a that takes the heroine Hilja Ilveskero all around Europe, Lehtolainen’s own work takes her to book festivals, exhibitions and other events across the globe.

Leena Lehtolainen has also published outside the crime genre; her book The Charm of Figure Skating was voted sports book of the year 2010 in Finland, and A Life in Six Scenes showed her return to literary fiction.

The Crossing of the Green Dragon is her first title for YA audiences.

In her free time, Lehtolainen enjoys all kinds of music and follows lynx trails in the forests – just like Maria Kallio.

Photo credit: Ville Juurikkala