Ruumiin kulttuuri 1/2009: English Summary Prize giving ceremonies got the year 2009 off to a good start. The Clew of the Year award, given annually for previous year’s ”best deed in the field”, went to Jarkko Sipilä, crime author whom we also know as crime reporter on one of our national television channels. Sipilä nabbed the prize with his novel ”Against the Wall”, a thrilling tale about a Helsinki police team’s work, some of it in the grey area between law and lawlessness. Quoting the jury: ”Sipilä’s motto could be ’less is more’. It’s manifest in his use of language and in the way he builds up his story. He does not digress, he only tells us what needs to be told.” The Finnish Whodunnit Society was founded 25 years ago, and in celebration of the milestone it was decided to award the second Hornanlinna Certificate of Honour of all times, an extraordinary prize ”to a person whose activities have significantly influenced the development of the genre”. The awardee is the grand old man of Finnish crime and suspense films, director Matti Kassila (85), whose work in the genre spans five decades and contains unsurpassed box-office and critical successes. Particular favourites and great classics of Finnish cinema are the Inspector Palmu films Kassila directed in the 1960s, based on Mika Waltari’s crime novels. ”Waltari’s text is brilliant: there are touches of vaudeville, there’s nothing superfluous, there’s a surprise ending. The characters are magnificent, and I found the right actors for the parts,” Kassila explains to his interviewer Leena-Kaisa Laakso (”Matti Kassila – Grand Old Man of Finnish Cinema”. The special commendation reserved for a foreign crime writer was given to Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, for his dark-hued, Reykjavik-based Erlendur Sveinsson series of novels. ”What does an author do who has written crime novels for 50 years and won every possible prize in the genre? He writes better and better books, of course.” So says Antti Tuomainen – himself a crime writer – about the American master Lawrence Block. In his extensive article Tuomainen studies Block’s massive oeuvre, from early short stories and the Evan Tanner secret agent books to the impressive Matthew Scudder series, to the projects of burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr and the gigs of hired gun John Keller. ”Block does not rest on his laurels, and he also refuses to play it safe,” Tuomainen praises (”Better and Better Block”). One of our most popular crime writers, Seppo Jokinen, turning 60 in April, is finishing his 14th book, this time a collection of short stories. In the 1990s and this century, Jokinen has gained fame with his novels which are located in Tampere, Finland’s Manchester, and deal with the investigations of a police team led by Inspector Sakari Koskinen. Jokinen says that police novels are always social novels – the social aspect is inevitable, if you describe police work realistically. ”But a crime novel is no place for preaching or pointing your finger at grievances; they have to be worked into the story,” Jokinen says in Heikki Ollikainen’s interview (”Seppo Jokinen Got Hooked by His Inspector”). In the crime lit library in Kallio, Helsinki, we have launched a series of theme evenings with Finnish crime authors telling ”how their books were born”. Ruumiin kulttuuri has the pleasure of publishing the January opening of the series, two-time Clew of the Year winner Harri Nykänen’s account of the birth of his popular and praised crime novels. Over some twenty years Nykänen was crime reporter on this country’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, and he admits it was this profession that turned him into an author. ”Interesting information came to me almost daily, and I heard incredible true stories I couldn’t report in the paper,” Nykänen says. In his novels he has mainly described the criminal world and chosen criminals as his protagonists – ”I thought there were enough inspector-driven books in the genre already” (”The Most Unbelievable Twist in the Plot Can Be Based on a True Story”). Other items ”How did an Etonian rascal grow to be 007?” Jarkko Karppinen asks – and looks for clues in Charlie Higson’s Young Bond series (”My Name Is Higson, Charlie Higson”). Johanna Tunturi finds new dimensions in Mika Waltari’s classic crime story ”Inspector Palmu’s Mistake” when she examines the book in relation to the Gothic tradition (”House of Horrors in the Posh Park”) The busy lady behind Kouvola’s annual crime lit weekend, Ritva Sorvali, reveals her favourite crime novels (”My Top Ten”). A Dish to Die For: delicious Turkish fish kebab, with a recipe from The Janissary Tree, award-winning historical novel by Jason Goodwin (”A Taste of Istanbul”). The Movie Maniacs have cast their eyes on the Italian mafia film Gomorra, the Finnish Rööperi dealing with the criminal world of Hel(l)sinki, and the brand-new Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel. Capital Sentences are given to 30 plus crime books released late last year or early in 2009. Translated by Liisa Koskinen

Ruumiin kulttuuri 1/2009