The Snow Leopard's Heart

Original title: Lumileopardin sydän

Author: Leena Lehtolainen

Published: 2025

Publisher: Tammi

Genre: Crime & Suspense

Pages: 368

Part of a series: Bodyguard series

Reading material:

Finnish edition

The hunted becomes the hunter

Hilja Ilveskero is hired as a bodyguard to social media influencer Elise Selin. Selin has been receiving death threats since taking up commercial collaboration with a questionable company.

Hilja’s new employment takes her to Leysin in Switzerland, the majestic mountains of which are familiar to her from many years ago. Then, an accident occurs - or was it an attempted murder?

Having returned to Finland, Hilja is caught up in a mystery that forces her to confront her past and question everything she’s ever known. Who is ultimately the prey and who is the hunter? Has Hilja inadvertently gotten involved in events so complex that they are impossible to survive?

Download reading materials

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen is the top female crime author in Finland: her new titles always head straight to #1 on the Finnish bestseller lists.

Lehtolainen created her successful protagonist, detective Maria Kallio, in 1993. Having already featured in 16 novels and a complete TV series, a new Maria Kallio TV reboot series was launched in Fall 2021 on C More. Lehtolainen’s novels have been translated into 30 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

And just like the events in Bodyguard, a that takes the heroine Hilja Ilveskero all around Europe, Lehtolainen’s own work takes her to book festivals, exhibitions and other events across the globe.

Leena Lehtolainen has also published outside the crime genre; her book The Charm of Figure Skating was voted sports book of the year 2010 in Finland, and A Life in Six Scenes showed her return to literary fiction.

The Crossing of the Green Dragon is her first title for YA audiences.

In her free time, Lehtolainen enjoys all kinds of music and follows lynx trails in the forests – just like Maria Kallio.

Photo credit: Ville Juurikkala

About author

Leena Lehtolainen

Bibliography

The Snow Leopard's Heart

The Crossing of the Green Dragon

The Charm of Ice

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