Officially a suicide. Unofficially? Nothing adds up.
A darkly funny Scandi noir mystery where theatre, murder, and buried secrets collide - with queer characters you won't forget.
When Mikael, a half-Finnish New Zealander, returns to Finland after decades away, he is looking for answers, not trouble. His father - the brilliant theatre director known as Spiral - died under mysterious circumstances after a notorious Cabaret production. The case was closed. The questions were not.
Teaming up with Pekka Wall, a sharp-tongued, reclusive sci-fi editor dragged from his idyllic Cotswolds cottage, and a young misfit with a fierce mind and flaming red hair, Mikael plunges into Finland's eccentric cultural underworld. What he uncovers is a web of old secrets, ruthless ambition, and a manipulative figure whose cruelty stretches back decades.
As layers of performance, paranoia, and betrayal unfold across the Cotswolds, Helsinki, and a small Finnish university city, the three discover that solving a murder is the easy part. Facing the truth is what costs.
The Birthmark Murders is the first book in the Pekka Wall series - an atmospheric Finnish mystery steeped in cultural intrigue, pitch-black humour, and emotional depth. With richly drawn LGBTQ+ characters at its heart, it is a story about guilt, identity, found family, and the past refusing to stay buried.
For fans of Nordic noir, Stieg Larsson, and crime fiction with brains, bite, and heart.
Pekka Wall Series:
Book 1: The Birthmark Murders - Death Is a Cabaret, Old Chum
Prequel: Handful - The Boy at the End of the Rainbow
Book 3: The Triumvirate Murders - Death as a Business Expense
