A review by mg_in_md_
My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen

3.0

The first book in the Maria Kallio series (another Malice Domestic 25 discovery) was an enjoyable read. This series was originally published in Finland in the 1990s but the English translation of the first book was not made available in the U.S. until 2012. As a fan of other Scandinavian crime books, I was intrigued by a Finnish female author's perspective. I was pleasantly surprised by the slyly sarcastic main character and the fact that this wasn't quite as dark and broody as some other series I've read. Don't get me wrong, I like dark and broody…but I also like the option of feeding a Scandinavian fix without having to go totally grim. Kallio, a young female police detective, is assigned to work her first murder case. Despite pointing out that she knows the victim and many of the suspects and is extremely junior, she is put in charge of the investigation and must sort out who the killer is and the motive. As the investigation unfolds, unsavory facts begin to surface and Kallio has to act quickly before the killer strikes again. This is the second book that I've read in this series and am really glad it is being introduced to an English-speaking audience. The "cast of characters" at the end of the book was a handy addition -- this is something that was also included in the other book I read (I won a FirstReads copy of the third one in the series: [b:Copper Heart|18318650|Copper Heart (Maria Kallio #3)|Leena Lehtolainen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377629714s/18318650.jpg|3041548]). This is definitely a series I'll be adding to my mystery series rotation based on the two books I've read so far. I'm looking forward to reading another installment soon to find out how Kallio grows throughout the series.