Reijo Mäki

Reijo Mäki (b. 1958) is a best-selling Finnish author, known especially for his dry humour and intriguing detective novels. Mäki published his first novel in 1985; he now has almost 40 books to his name, and 26 of them feature private eye Jussi Vares, also a well-known and well-loved movie character.

Reijo Mäki was born in western Finland and graduated in 1982 from the Turku School of Economics. For ten years he worked in marketing for one of the biggest banks in Finland while writing on the side. Currently he lives in Turku and writes full time. Mäki’s books have been consistent sales successes and appear on the bestseller lists year after year. Jussi Vares even has his own fan club.

Nine movies have been made based on the Vares novels – Vares: Private Eye, based on the novel The Yellow Widow, came out in 2004 and was the most watched Finnish movie that year. The next movie, The Frozen Angel, came out in 2007 and was just as popular. In 2011 and 2012, six more Vares movies were made based on the novels: Kiss of Evil, The Girls of April, The Garter Snake, Dark Tango, No More Bets and Wanderers on the Narrow Path. This was the most ambitious film project ever in Finland. In addition to the six movies, a twelve-part television series was produced simultaneously. Vares (Tango Reprise) has also been made into a play, which was performed in the summer of 2008 in Turku to excellent reviews. The latest movie, The Sheriff, premiered in January 2015.

 

Photo: © Tommi Tuomi

 

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