Loukko by 
We are beyond thrilled to announce that THE LAST GRUDGE (orig. Kauna, Tammi 2021) by New York Times Bestselling Author Max Seeck won the Glass Key Award 2023! The Glass Key Award (Glasnyckeln/Glasnøglen) is an award by the Scandinavian Crime Novel Society and is given out to a book written by a Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish author each year. Previous winners include Henning Mankell, Peter Høeg, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum, and many more. The members of the jury read the Danish edition of the book, Zetterborg-sagen (Gutkind, 2022), translated by Siri Nordborg Møller.
Please join us in congratulating Max Seeck and his 40+ publishers to this amazing — and well deserved — achievement!
The jury’s motivations were as follows:
“The Last Grudge combines a classic locked room mystery and an action plot with murders and all, thus reminding one of both the world of Peter Wimsey, by Dorothy L. Sayers, and of the media-sexy descriptions of a battle of power within a powerful family, as evidenced by HBO’s Succession-series. The title is written in a gripping and exciting way, merging homeliness and horror in a way that’s very popular in crime literature at the moment.”
“I’m very honored by the win, for I know all the titles nominated are deserving of the win. I want to thank my family, my Finnish publisher Tammi, my Danish publisher Gutkind, my agency the Ahlback Agency, and the board of the Whodunnit society who chose The Last Grudge as the Finnish nominee for the Glass Key Award! I rate this award at the very top and it’ll have an honorary spot on my bookshelf in my office”, said Max Seeck right as he heard of the win.
Our CEO Elina Ahlbäck commented:
“We are overjoyed for Max Seeck’s world-class win of the Glass Key Award. Finnish crime literature is now permanently on the world map.The Last Grudge (orig. Kauna) is a gem of world-class crime literature and Max Seeck the brightest-shining star in crime literature.”
This is only the second time a Finnish crime or thriller novel has been awarded the Glass Key Award. The previous Finnish winner was Ystävät kaukana (“Friends far away”) by Matti Rönkä in 2007.
The Last Grudge is the third novel in the Jessica Niemi series. Rights sold in 40 territories and Hollywood: an international TV-show is in development. Over 400,000 copies of his books have been sold in Finland alone. Max Seeck is currently writing a new, independent crime novel, MILO, which has already been sold to Germany and will be published in Finland in September 2024.
