Ruumiin kulttuuri 4/2007: English Summary Having grown up in Leeds, Peter Robinson moved to Canada in the 1970s, but his native soil – especially northern England and Yorkshire – lives and thrives in his crime novels. Robinson has written 17 books about the investigations of DI Alan Banks of the Yorkshire constabulary and received prizes and awards galore, e.g. in Canada, the United States, France and Sweden. Robinson, visiting the Gothenburg International Book Fair in October, underlines that a crime series should not repeat itself too much; each story should be different. Credibility is of the utmost importance, as is a smooth narrative flow. “I ask myself, could this really happen. And I always strive to keep the reader interested, without sacrificing my need to explore the depths”, Robinson pointed out to Tiina Torppa, our interviewer (“From a Working Class Family to the Noble Tribe of Raconteurs”). Former tax lawyer Åsa Larsson leapt to the A team of Swedish crime writers in 2003 with her very first book Solstorm (The Savage Altar), the first of the six-novel series she already had in mind at the time. She is now half-way through her project. The three so far have made breakthroughs in several countries, and earlier this year The Savage Altar made it to the CWA shortlist for the best of translated crime. The location of all Larsson’s books is her old homestead Kiruna in Swedish Lapland. The debut novel, recently made into a feature film in Sweden – starring Izabella Scorupco of the Golden Eye fame – depicts with chilling honesty the life within a religious sect and the murder of its pastor. In her youth Larsson herself was an active member of the Mission Church and she claims she still reads the Bible on a daily basis. In particular, she finds the Old Testament a riveting read. “There are powerful stories there, of action, menace, violence and war. Stories that lived on from generation to generation in oral tradition”, Larsson tells us in Kerttu Jokela’s interview (“Sins of the Fathers in Kiruna”). This year saw the centenary of Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989), the mistress of romantic suspense and Gothic horror. Rebecca (1938) made her world-famous, and the classic movie adaptations – Rebecca, The Birds, Don’t Look Now et al – have helped to keep her from slipping into oblivion. “Du Maurier’s most powerful texts reinvent the Gothic novel with its mysterious manor house, violence, murder, evil, sexual lust, fires, untamed scenery and, of course, the madwoman in the attic. But the point of view is distinctly 20th century: that crazy war-ridden world where reality has become fragmented, where the laws of cause and effect no longer apply, and reliance on reason and rationalism has been abandoned”, Leena-Kaisa Laakso crystallizes in her extensive article (“Daphne du Maurier – Creator of Unforgettable Tales”). Helsinki-ite DS Susanna “Susi” Teräsvuo has returned to the crime scene after a hiatus of several years. This determined protagonist of Leila Simonen’s crime novels becomes herself the target of a narcissistic stalker in the new book Suska. “Whereas before I have criticized the welfare state I now attempted to write a thriller”, Simonen tells our interviewer Leena Korsumäki (“Fighting Violence by Writing Violence”). Leila Simonen, Doctor of Social Sciences, is a respected researcher who began writing crime in the late 1990s. Another Finnish author with an academic background interviewed in this issue is crime writer Eero Pasanen, Doctor of Science (Technology) specializing in traffic safety. Pasanen’s protagonist in his shortish gallows-humoured stories is DI Martti Kononen of the National Bureau of Investigation, an overweight look-alike of our former president Martti Ahtisaari, who frequents the many waterholes of Helsinki. Author Pasanen and Inspector Kononen age abreast: Pasanen celebrated his 60th birthday in October, and the very same milestone looms large also for Kononen in the most recent novel, number eight, titled Kononen and the Kidnappers and appropriately launched on the author’s birthday (“Kononen and Pasanen, Like Two Aged Peas of Pod”). Other items This year’s Clew-of-the-Year winner Tapani Bagge selected ten of his favourites (“My Top Ten”). “A Dish to Die For” seeks refreshment for the dark winter nights with roasted lamb stuffed with mushrooms. The recipe comes from the pseudonymous Olavi Kokko, author of half a dozen crime novels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, later revealed to be the distinguished poet and translator Matti Rossi. Inspector Canardo continues his melancholy exploits in Benoît Sokal’s comic books. The series, consisting of 16 albums so far and rife with absurdist humour, has over the past years become seeped in current affairs and topical themes (“Why-a-Canard in the Heart of Darkness”). Recent non-fiction releases: an informative collection of articles European Film Noir, edited by Andrew Spicer (“Criminal Gloom on the European Silver Screen”) and Outsider’s Book by Raimo Jokisalmi, covering the life and voluminous output of Aarne Haapakoski, a Finnish golden oldie a.k.a. Outsider (“A Globetrotter’s Interesting Story”). New releases in the Movie Mania section include David Cronenberg’s latest, Eastern Promises, and Black Ice directed by Petri Kotwica, a dense and original drama of human relations presented in the spirit of a psychological thriller. Our jurors rolled up their sleeves and passed more than 50 sentences on the fall cornucopia of criminal endeavour (“Capital Sentences”). Translated by Liisa Koskinen & Risto Raitio

Ruumiin kulttuuri 4/2007