Once Ida nearly died at the hands of a killer. Now she's trying to live again, to forget the monsters in her head. But the nightmares are coming back, more terrible than ever.Because Ida, now working as a journalist, has uncovered evidence of a serial killer stalking Helsinki's streets. And no one - not Ida, not homicide officer Kerttu Leppänen, tortured by her own demons - can stop them.Sometimes the monsters are real. And hunting them can destroy you.



Martta Kaukonen lives in Helsinki. Before she became a full-time author, she was a film critic for Finland's biggest newspaper. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. Follow the Butterfly was her debut thriller - it was a critical and commercial hit in Finland, is being translated into twelve languages, has already made the Spiegel bestseller list in Germany and is being adapted for a TV series. Meet Me in the Darkness is its sequel.David Hackston is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. He lives in Helsinki, where he works as a freelance translator. Notable publications include Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen, My Cat Yugoslavia and Crossing by Pajtim Statovci, all available from Pushkin Press.



Dark, clever and hugely suspenseful, Follow the Butterfly is a breathtakingly fast-paced, original debut with vivid, intriguing characters and a masterfully constructed, compelling plotline that sinks its teeth into you from the first and doesn't let go. Kaukonen's writing is flawless, poignant and addictive, while the ending blew me away



For a while now, even though I read decent thrillers, I always noticed the same old plot threads, a repetition of predictable dynamics, characters who acted according to clichés, and I regularly ended up getting a little bored. In short, I felt the need to find a good thriller that would surprise me, that finally represented something different from the usual. When I read Meet Me in the Darkness, I knew I'd found the thriller I was looking for



The tension builds page after page, but what truly stands out isn't just the plot-it's the constant sense of instability. You don't know whom to trust. You don't know what's real. You don't know whether the mind can become the most dangerous place of all. Kaukonen creates a refined, unsettling, almost claustrophobic psychological thriller. She writes about trauma, memory, and guilt. About what we repress in order to survive. And how devastating it can be when everything resurfaces



Kaukonen's prose is sober, controlled, almost surgical. She never indulges in gratuitous violence, even when depicting scenes of intense emotional impact. [--] Martta Kaukonen confirms herself as an author capable of using the genre as a critical instrument, exploring trauma, power, and memory with a distinctive and recognizable voice. A novel that engages with the best of international psychological noir and cements her as a writer to watch carefully on the European literary scene



--PRAISE FOR FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY



Highly original and flawlessly executed... An utterly compelling, gripping read with an explosive conclusion



Original, intelligent and intriguing - I gulped it down in two sittings



A fascinating study in guilt, shame, blame and the stories we tell ourselves to make life bearable... The portrait of the vain and self-deceiving therapist is chilling, and the ultimate revelation is horribly convincing



A brilliant game of cat and mouse between author and reader... The pieces of this psychological thriller fit together as ingeniously as those in a Chinese puzzle box



A tense, unsettling, gripping serial killer narrative that takes some very unexpected turns... Such a clever book that juxataposes serial killing with some very profound points - my favourite kind of crime fiction. Highly recommended!



Surprising, fresh and almost indecently fun, with two brilliantly original female leads and a sinuous plot that keeps you guessing until the very last page



A slow burn to start, this dark tale packs a punch when the deadly cat-and-mouse game culminates in a host of shattering revelations



Breathlessly plotted, deviously constructed, and brought to vivid, twisted life by an antiheroine for the ages... An utterly beguiling debut. This isn't just a thriller you sink your teeth into-it's a thriller that sinks its teeth right back into you



A gripping debut psychological thriller. We reckon you're going to find this one seriously hard to put down