The Exiled (29 page)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mikko for all the expert advice about police work. Thank you also to all my friends living in Serbia.

My gratitude also goes to everyone at the Otava Publishing Company, particularly Leenastiina Kakko, and to Aleksi Pöyry, my patient and encouraging editor.

Thank you to the indefatigable Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books and to translator David Hackston for all their hard work in bringing my work to an English-speaking public.

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.

DAVID HACKSTON
is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. He graduated from University College London in 1999 with a degree in Scandinavian Studies and now lives in Helsinki, where he works as a freelance translator. Notable publications include
The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy,
Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel
At the Edge of Light
, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller
Birdbrain
and two crime novels by Matti Joensuu. His drama translations include three plays by Heini Junkkaala, most recently
Play it, Billy!
(2012) about the life and times of jazz pianist Billy Tipton. David is also a regular contributor to
Books from Finland
. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation.