A Nordic Noir of the first order set in deepest and darkest Finnish Lapland. Also a historical thriller of the Cold War.

Evil Things introduces a wonderful new heroine in crime fiction. Hella Mauzer is a whip-smart detective, fighting against crime, prejudice and her own demons.

This is a first novel and the first in the Hella Mauzer series.

Lapland, Finland, 1952. It's the height of the Cold War and Finland is a snow-smothered powder keg. Sharing a long border with the Soviet Union, it is engaged in a high-wire act of protecting its independence from its sometimes dangerous neighbour. 

Hella Mauzer was the first ever woman Inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit. But deemed too ‘emotional’ for the job, she was reassigned to Lapland. When a man disappears from a remote village on the Soviet border, Hella jumps at the chance to investigate. Her boss is sceptical; after all, people disappear all the time in the snows of Finland. A murder victim is then discovered in the forest. But what Hella doesn’t know, is that the small village of Käärmela is harbouring another crime. A crime so evil it is beyond anything any of them could have ever imagined.

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  “I read it in one sitting. It’s thrilling. The setting, the timing, being in the midst of the Cold War, and our stubborn, smart and brave heroine Hella – a woman fighting crime in a world opposed to her, are all elements I enjoyed. Katja Ivar turns a seemingly small random crime into something much bigger. A very good read!” Cecilia Ekbäck, author of Wolf Winter. 

“This is a remarkable debut — the best novel I’ve read this year. A historical thriller with a heart that keeps you enthralled to the final page. Ivar has constructed a frightening, atmospheric and addictive tale set in 1950s Lapland on the border with Soviet Russia. Spies, international conspiracies, overlaid on icily claustrophobic rural life. But above all in Hella Mauzer a believable heroine prepared to put her own life on the line for justice. I can’t wait for her next adventure.” David Young, author of A Darker State and STASI Child. 

"Welcome to the most stubborn of cops, Hella Mauzer, righting wrongs in cold Lapland, a memorable character with just the right disdain for authority and its amoral attitudes to justice and women. A feminist 1952 cop before feminism was invented." Maxim Jakubowski, author of The Louisiana Republic.