Ruumiin kulttuuri 3/2008: English SummaryThe main character in this issue is a great man of Finnish literature – and also of Finnish murder mysteries: Mika Waltari (1908–79) who was born a hundred years ago on the 19th of September. His fictional output was massive and impressive, and especially his voluminous historical novels (e.g. The Egyptian) attained international fame.
Waltari also wrote three elegant and popular murder mysteries, with the cigar smoking, vulgar and affable Inspector Palmu of the Helsinki CID as their protagonist. In 2004 the Finnish Whodunnit Society ran a poll, asking this quarterly’s readers to name the all-time best Finnish crime novels. Waltari’s first Palmu book ”Who Killed Mrs Skrof?” (1939) came up as the winner, and ”Inspector Palmu’s Mistake” (1940) ranked third.
The Palmu stories grew in status in the 1960s when they were excellently adapted for the silver screen, directed by Matti Kassila, and Joel Rinne playing the lead role. The films are shown on our television every few years, and they – like the character of Palmu – are by now a national heritage.
In her article (”Palmu’s Roots”), Kirsi Luukkanen ponders upon the secret of the popularity of the Palmu novels. She finds attraction in the unconventional way Waltari applies the rules of detective fiction, in the local colour of his Helsinki settings, and in his subtle humour. ”Compared to current crime fiction, the humour in the Palmu books is far superior,” Luukkanen observes.
Waltari was only seventeen when he wrote an Edgar Allan Poe-ish collection of horror stories, ”A Dead-Eyed Gaze” (1926), under the pseudonym Kristian Korppi (’korppi’ means ’the Raven’). The stories remain fairly unknown as there have been no reprints – which is what Juri Nummelin wonders at in his article ”Kristian Korppi’s Host of Horrors”. In his opinion the stories have splendidly stood the test of time. ”If the stories had been published at that time in the United States or England, they would have been repeatedly picked up for various horror anthologies,” Nummelin thinks.
Crime writer Tapani Bagge studies Waltari’s novellas, which built a firm base for Finnish noir (”That Something”). In his memoir Waltari said that of all the forms of writing the novella was nearest to him. He wrote dark, fateful stories and triangle dramas, often with criminal themes interspersed.
His first novella – ”A Stranger Came to Stay”, reminiscent of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice – won Waltari the top prize in a novella competition staged by the WSOY publishing house in 1937. In the climate of the 30s and 40s, the same publishers thought some of Waltari’s later output in the genre ’too unpleasant’ or even ’sick’, and the author had to offer his stories to magazines or publish them himself, in small bibliophile editions. Bagge finds that the novellas are the most durable of Waltari’s works, and suggests the author’s finest achievement in this field is ”That Something in Man”, his melodramatic story of insane, obsessive love.
Also in our comprehensive Waltari section, some of today’s Finnish crime writers reveal what Waltari’s books have meant for them (”For Crime Writers, Waltari is BIG”), and Risto Raitio’s article (”The Witch Returns to Waltari”) compares Mika Waltari’s play ”The Witch Returns to Life” and its recent adaptation for theatre with John Dickson Carr’s novel The Burning Court. Raitio also finds connections between the Egypt themes in Waltari’s play ”Akhnaton, the Sun-Born” and Agatha Christie’s Akhnaton.
Apart from Waltari, we offer our readers two extensive author interviews. The star of medical thrillers, Chinese-American Tess Gerritsen, visited Helsinki in August. She gave up her work as a physician some twenty years ago and turned to writing. Having begun with romantic fiction, she struck gold with her thrillers set in the world of medicine and hospital surroundings. ”A physician gets to see great stories and high-class drama. Life and death. But you mustn’t involve your feelings, you must keep a distance and stay objective. Now that I’m a writer I can become involved,” Gerritsen says to her interviewer Leena-Kaisa Laakso (”Science, Love, and Riveting Plots”).
In the last few years, TV crime reporter Jarkko Sipilä has reached the top level of Finnish crime writing with his thrilling novels. He describes realistically the work of a Helsinki police team, and all his books deal with the grey areas of police work – how far can a guardian of law and order go without turning into a criminal.
Sipilä admits to his interviewer Heikki Ollikainen that his books have grown darker. Viewing society from a reporter’s vantage point he has seen that more and more it is self-interest that rules. ”When the only decisions made are the kind that benefit the decision-maker, the same applies on the side of the criminals,” Sipilä says (”Every Crime News Item Is Book Material”).
Other items
Orson Welles, the man behind Citizen Kane (considered the world’s best film), was also interested in thrillers and pulp. Kari Elovuori examines Welles’ work inspired by crime literature, his film Mr. Arkadin / Confidential Report in particular (”Orson Welles in the World of Pulp Fiction”). At the annual crime lit weekend in Kouvola in June, the winners of ”Railway Crime” short story competition were revealed (”Murder Goes Choo Choo in Kouvola”). A week later, another – new – criminal event was organized on the other side of Finland (”Murderous Weekend in Turku”). This issue of Ruumiin kulttuuri is an important one for our graphic designer and photographer Olli Turunen – the 50th issue with him responsible for the layout. To honour the milestone, we asked this staunch friend of crime fiction to list his favourite murder books (”My Top Ten”). In the Movie Mania section: Martin McDonagh’s gangster film In Bruges and Peter Segal’s Get Smart, an update of the 1960s spy parody. In the DVD section: Woody Allen’s dismal crime flick Cassandra’s Dream and Icelandic Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar City, based on Arnaldur Indriðason’s novel. Toiling hard and burning the midnight oil, our judges have managed to pass sentences on some 50 new crime books (Capital Sentences).
Translated by Liisa Koskinen
Ruumiin kulttuuri 3/2008