Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that's become personal?
Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe. How long will it take before everything explodes?
Chilling, taut and relevant, The Exiled is an electrifying, unputdownable thriller from one of Finland s most celebrated crime writers.
Welcome to the #FinnishInvasion Blog Tour. The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto was published by Orenda Books in paperback this month and is the author's third book in the Anna Fekete series. It was translated from the Finnish by David Hackston.
Anna Fekete is on holiday, she's a Detective in Finland and has been looking forward to her break in
her hometown in Serbia. She's only home for a short while before she is robbed, her handbag is stolen whilst at a festival. When the thief is murdered shortly after, Anna finds herself bang in the middle of the investigation. An investigation that will disturb memories and long buried secrets and that will involve corruption and darkness.Kati Hiekkapelto deals with the very current topic of refugees in Europe, she incorporates their issues into the story very well, and very sensitively. It is clear that this author has a great insight into the problems that immigrants face, and the social issues that are created in the countries that they flee to.
Regular readers of the Anna Fekete series may miss the wonderful Finnish setting that has become familiar as The Exiled is set in the Balkans; a very different location, yet still described incredibly well. The sense of place is expertly done and adds tension to the plot; there's an unease throughout the story that is exacerbated by the images conjured up as she describes the migrant camps and the associated issues experienced there.
The Exiled is an intense story, it is not a fast-paced action tale, it has a complex plot with intriguing twists and astutely created characters. Kati Hiekkapelto is an accomplished author, and Anna Fekete is a great character.
Gritty, topical and elegantly written, The Exiled is a very powerful crime fiction novel.
Kati Hiekkapelto was born in 1970 in Oulu, Finland. She wrote her first stories at the age of two and recorded them on cassette tapes. Kati has studied Fine Arts in Liminka Art School and Special Education at the University of Jyvaskyla. The subject of her final thesis/dissertation was racist bullying in Finnish schools. She went on to work as a special-needs teacher for immigrant children. Today Kati is an international crime writer, punk singer and performance artist. Her books, The Hummingbird and The Defenceless have been translated into 16 languages and both were shortlisted for the Petrona Award in the UK.
The Defenceless won Best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year, and has been shortlisted for the prestigious Glass Key.
She lives and writes in her 200-year-old farmhouse in Hailuoto, an island in the Gulf of Bothnia, North Finland. In her free time she rehearses with her band, runs, hunts, picks berries and mushrooms, and gardens. During long, dark winter months she chops wood to heat her house, shovels snow and skis.
Find out more at www.katihiekkapelto.com
Follow her on Twitter @HiekkapeltoKati
No comments:
Post a Comment