Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/2010: English Summary This year we reach a milestone in this country: the first Finnish-language detective stories were published a hundred years ago. Ruumiin kulttuuri wants to take part in the centennial celebrations, and thus the theme of this issue is the history of Finnish-language crime writing. The tradition took off with two small collections of short stories by Rikhard Hornanlinna, Kellon salaisuus (The Secret of the Clock) and Lähellä kuolemaa (Close to Death), both published in 1910. Hornanlinna, real name Rudolf Richard Ruth (1899–1957) was a colourful personality, working in his youth as a ship’s boy, a clerk, a correspondent, a calligrapher at an undertaker’s, and even as a private detective. In addition to writing detective stories he made his mark in another literary genre: he was a pioneer of Finnish science fiction under the pseudonym H. R. Halli. In her article, Leena-Kaisa Laakso discusses Hornanlinna’s trailblazing collections. She points out that ”international influences loom in the background. Hornanlinna has read his Doyle and Poe. There’s gothic horror, there are British style country house milieus and locked rooms.” The hero of the stories is detective Max Rudolph, an intelligent Sherlock Holmes type and a solver of mysteries, with an eye for social situations (”Gothic Horror, Puzzles and Ingenious Deduction”) Later on, Ruth continued his crime writing: a principal work, published in 1939 under the name H. R. Halli, is the novel Yhä murhat jatkuivat (And the Murders Went On) which was also adapted to the silver screen as Viimeinen vieras (The Last Guest), in 1941. Esko Ellala has dived into the archives and discovered interesting stuff about the colourful phases of the film project. The producers, chasing a contract, had to turn to advertising in newspapers in their search for the ”vanished” author (”Murders Continued on Silver Screen”). Kaarlo Nuorvala (1910–1967), a prolific and entertaining writer, was born a century ago come end of June. He wrote detective stories and many other kinds of novels and books for the young, as well as scripts for some twenty films. New publishing houses sprouting up fast after the war badly needed printable material, and Nuorvala took up the challenge: at his hastiest he produced 250 pages in three days – in his record year of 1945, 28 books for some twenty publishers. He often used English-language pseudonyms; after the war, anything Anglo American was a plus in all areas of culture. Liisi Huhtala reminds us in her article that newspaper offices were Nuorvala’s favourite milieus, and the action often took place in America (”A Book a Month If Not Two”). After her career in the theatre, notable actor and director Glory Leppänen (1901–1979) took to writing murder mysteries and became the leading figure of female crime writing in Finland in the 1960s. ”Her narrative style is dazzlingly dramatic. The reader gets to peek behind the curtain at the lives of the rich and famous. Hate, greed, envy, revenge and passion lurk in the midst of glamour and success. The opposites of the baddies, the threatened and the victimised, build up the suspense in Leppänen’s novels,” Veikko Lindroos observes in his extensive survey (”Journey into the Heart of Darkness”). In the top echelon of contemporary Finnish female crime writers there is Eppu Nuotio with her five novels featuring black-skinned TV journalist Pii Marin. A common thread in the series, apart from the crime plots, is how Marin feels like an outsider, tries to find her identity and unravel the phases of her father’s life. In her interview with Heikki Ollikainen, Nuotio unexpectedly tells us she is going to end the series next year, with the sixth book. ”The one after that will be something completely different. The background work may take a couple of years,” Nuotio says (”Pii Marin to Quit Next Year”). Other items Lea Toivola takes a look at policewomen created by Finnish male crime writers (”Colleagues, Sights for Sore Eyes, Rambos – and One Birdbrain”). Katriina Harviainen put questions to seven of this spring’s debuting crime writers: where did they get their ideas, why did they choose the crime genre, and is there perhaps already a second book in the offing (”My First Murder”). Leena Korsumäki met with the Swedish author Anna Jansson who visited Finland in March (”Anna Jansson Protests against Tedious Old Age”). Miia Pelttari gives us an analysis of computer-wizard Lisbeth Salander, the rebellious heroine of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy (”The Common, Uncommon Story of Lisbeth Salander”). Author Pekka Salo began writing way back in the 1970s – we know him for his fast-paced, roguish crime novels – and now he lists ten of his favourites in the genre (”My Top Ten”). In the series A Dish to Die For, our cook prepares fiery pasta (Pirciati ch’abbruscianu) à la Andrea Camilleri (”Sicilian Delicacies”). Author Jouko Raivio digs into the history of horror films; his guide is 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider (”In the Halls of Horror”). Capital Sentences: new books published in early 2010 are justly judged. Translated by Liisa Koskinen

Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/2010