The Exiled

When Finnish police investigator Anna Fekete's bag is stolen on holiday in the Balkan village of her birth, she is pulled into a murder investigation that becomes increasingly dangerous ... and personal. The electrifying third book in the international, bestselling Anna Fekete series. ***Shortlisted for the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year*** 'Tough and powerful crime fiction' Publishers Weekly 'A gut-punch of a book' Metro 'Dark-souled but clear-eyed, Kati Hiekkapelto's edgy, powerful novels grip your throat and squeeze your heart. Addictive' A J Finn, author of The Woman in the Window ------------------------ Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her bag 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 and 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 across Europe. How long before everything explodes? Chilling, tense and relevant, The Exiled is an electrifying, unputdownable thriller from one of Finland's most celebrated crime writers. ------------------------ 'Finnish Kati Hiekkapelto deserves her growing reputation as her individual writing identity is subtly unlike that of her colleagues' Barry Forshaw, Financial Times 'The Exiled represents the next level in creative development of both the author and her heroine. There is the subtle confident maturity: the writer who is not afraid to challenge the current political and social situation, and to rage about it in the most elegant literary manner, and the character who learns more about her roots and her personality, and ways to deal with the feeling of displacement' Crime Review 'Compelling, assured and gutsy ... a gripping and stimulating read' LoveReading 'There is something fresh and slightly subversive about Hiekkapelto's writing ... that makes the novel stand out from the pack' Doug Johnstone, Big Issue 'An edgy and insightful chiller with a raw and brooding narrative. Skilfully plotted and beautifully written, Hiekkapelto has given us an excellent and suspenseful crime novel' Craig Robertson 'A beautifully written and many-layered mystery novel that illuminates the dangers of prejudice, while still providing a major thrill ride' Mystery Scene Magazine 'A taut and provocative thriller with a raging social conscience' Eva Dolan 'A writer willing to take risks with her work' Sarah Ward 'The taut and elegance of the writing brilliantly contrasts with the grit of the subject matter' Anya Lipska

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 Jyväskylä. 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 ten languages. The Hummingbird was shortlisted for the Petrona Award in the UK in 2015 and The Defenceless won the prize for the best Finnish Crime Novel of the Year 2014, 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. Writing seems fairly easy, after all that.Follow her on Twitter @HiekkapeltoKati or visit www.katihiekkapelto.com