FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY nominated for Viktor Crime Award!

Exciting news! First up, FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen has been nominated for the Viktor Crime Award, a prestigious prize hosted by Germany’s most successful thriller author Sebastian Fitzek. Congratulations Martta!

Follow the Butterfly, aka “Therapiert”, was published by Heyne Verlag in February 2023 and it hit the Spiegel Bestseller list. The sequel, Meet Me in the Darkness (Traumatisiert), will be published in Spring 2025.

More information about the Viktor Crime Award in the organizer’s words:

 “The prize is awarded in the categories “international” and “national” and honors new, successful voices who have achieved the best debut in the genre of thriller literature in the last two years on the German-language market and who are also expected to achieve further success in the future. The prize is endowed with EUR 6,666 (EUR 3,333 per category).”

The book is on the shortlist with two other nominees in the international category. The winner will be announced on November 1st, at Europe’s biggest international Crime fiction festival, Mord am Hellweg.

Also…

Last Spring Martta Kaukonen was also nominated for the prestigious Glass Key Award!

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 last year Max Seeck! FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has been sold to 16 territories. In Denmark, the title has been published by Falco in 2023 as Hvad ser du, translated by René Semberlund Jensen, which was the edition read by the international jury.

“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!'”
– Harriet Tyce

Finally, we’re excited to talk about Martta Kaukonen’s international press campaign! While details aren’t finalized yet for the other countries, we can talk about the book bloggers meet happening in Hungary.

Thanks to the lovely people at Martta’s Hungarian publisher Partvonal for helping us organize and setting up the event! This online chat will be conducted in English, happening October 17th 2024 at 16.00-17.00 CET.

Click here for event details and registration on Facebook!

For any of you who aren’t familiar with FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY, here’s a little bit about the book:

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

Click here to download all reading materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY!