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Mauri Sariola (1924-1985) - wrote also as Esko Laukko |
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Finnish mystery writer, who gained
international fame with his inspector Susikoski stories. Among Mauri Sariola's best novels were Leivätön pöytä on katettu (1958), Susikoski ottaa omansa (1959), Minä, Olavi Suskoski (1963), and Susikosken vaikein juttu (1967). Sariola received in 1969 the French literary prize Prix du Roman d'Aventures
for The Helsinki Affair (1961,
Lavean tien laki), his most popular mystery novel, which in Finland sold some
100,000 copies. During his career, Sariola published some 80 books. Sistonen was broad-shouldered, but not very tall—a feature which must go against him, I thought. I was about his height myself, though leaner. I had never liked big men: they were usually bumptious and smug, and apt to throw their weight about. But as I looked at my secretary's legs with their powerful calves and slender ankles, and the way she walked with light, rhythmic steps and head held high, I suddenly wished that I were a good bit taller. (from The Helsinki Affair by Mauri Sariola, translated by Alan Blair, London: Cassell, 1970, p. 38) Mauri Sariola was born in Hattula, the son of Armas Sariola and Anna Lyydia Kustaantytär. Mauri was the youngest of three children. His father was educated as a teacher, like several other members of the family; he died in 1940. Sariola's older brother Lauri died of drowning in 1935. From his childhood home Sariola inherited his patriotic spirit and conservative attitudes, which he later incorporated into his books. Continuing the family tradition for a brief stint in the early 1950s, Sariola also worked as a teacher in a small village school. Sariolan graduated from the Toijala upper secondary school in 1943. During the Continuation War, he served under General Ruben Lagus in Äänislinna as a radio officer and participated in combats against the German Army in Lapland before the war ended in 1945. Sariola's experience of combat was brief, but for the rest of his life he called himself a veteran of Lagus' Tank Division. In 1945 Sariola entered the University of Helsinki, where he studied
law for some years. To the disappointment of his family, he never graduated. Before abandoning his studies, Sariola had several
jobs. He worked at a law firm (1947-48), in a bank (1949-59), taught in
elementary schools, and wrote for Apu and other magazines and the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. While in Kittlä in 1952 Sariola composed his first mystery novel, but burned the manuscript. After a brief stint in Helsinki, Sariola went to Pudasjärvi, where he worked as a teacher for nine months under forged papers, drinking occasionally on his free time. Sariola's pedagogical methods were original but he was loved by his pupils. Sariola returned in 1955 to Helsinki. Between the years 1956 and 1966 he was a crime reporter at Helsingin Sanomat, and then became a freelance writer. According to one of the several stories dealing with Sariola, the author had read M.M. Kaye's novel Kuolema kulki Kyproksella (Death Walks in Cyprus) and decided to show that he can write a better book. However, M.M. Kaye's works were translated into Finnish after Sariola's debut. His first book, Laukausten hinta (1956, The Price of Shots), Sariola finished while working on a road construction project. It was followed by Rotat pois laivasta! (1956). Critics hailed him as the successor of Vilho Helanen (1899-1952), who had made his breakthrough as a mystery writer a decade earlier. The book was filmed in 1959 under the title Kolmas laukaus.
Part of the film was shot in Morocco. Ismo Kallio played the inspector
Olavi Susikoski, perhaps the best known police character in Finnish
literature after Mika Waltari's inspector Palmu. In the story Susikoski solves the murder of an agronomist. Totuus on armoton (1960),
about two lawyers, was filmed in 1963, but did not gain much success.
It was directed by Valentin Vaala, who had made 43 feature films and
failed in his last effort. Susikoski virittää ansan (1970) was adapted into screen under the name Tuntematon ystävä
(1978. An Unknown Friend) by the director Lars G. Thelestam. Åke Lindman played Susikoski,
and the Finnish Miss Universum 1975, Anne Pohtamo, had a small role as
Susikoski's girl friend. The Estonian-Polish actor Bruno O'Ya and the British actress Kate O'Mara were
a murdering husband and wife team. Although the reviews were mixed and
the film failed at the box office, the production company Filmi-Jatta
announced plans to make a sequel entitled Vaarallinen risteily. This movie was never made. A very prolific writer, Sariola occupied a central place in the
Finnish mystery scene for decades. In 1966 he published five books. Two
of them appeared under the pseudonym Esko Laukko, starting from Tohtori Viitasen tapaus. The title of the 1971 Laukko novel, Mene toiselle tähdelle rakastamaan, was taken from Katri Vala's poem 'Ylösnousemus'
(Resurrection) in Sininen
ovi
(1926): "Mene toiselle tähdelle rakastamaan, / on hautani vierelläs!" Under the pen name Esko Laukko Sariola wrote in nine novels – many of them were better
received than his own works. Especially Sen yli käy vain tuuli viheltäin (1969) was
noted for its skillful plot. However, the story was a plagiarism from Bill S. Ballinger's
classical The Tooth and the Nail (1955).
After the pseudonym was revealed, Sariola claimed that Laukko was his
wife Tuula Sariola. Mauri Sariola died from complications after a
gallstone operation in Helsinki on August 9, 1985. He was buried in the
family grave in Hattula. Several of his books Sariola wrote in Sammatti, where he had a
summer house. He was a natural story-teller and a bohemian, who had a a
taste
for gambling, drinking and sending telegrams in the middle of the
night. His style was fluid, plots fast-paced, but characters too often
cursory sketched. As for his ability to churn out one book after
another that would be a best seller, he had only a few rivals. Sariola's oeuvre consists of over 30 crime novels, several historical
novels, war novels, non-fiction, short stories, television scripts,
radio plays, memoirs, articles, etc. Most of his works
were published by Gummerus. Some of them were put together from his
serialized short stories. Moreover, Sariola made translations of works from such authors as Quentin Patrick, Morris L. West, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Ian
Fleming.
His books were translated into Swedish, French, Russia, German,
English, Norwegian, Estonian, and Polish. As a mystery writer Sariola carried further the Finnish detective story
tradition of Outsider and Marton Taiga, but added to it
international flavour and topicality. Chief inspector Leo Olavi Susikoski was the protagonist of more
than 30 novels, and Matti Viima, a lawyer, the central character in five novels, of which Punaisen kukon laulu (1963) was translated into English as The Torvik Affair. In Pyykki on pantu ja pysyy (1965) Viima and Susikoski were set as opponents in a murder case. Viima is young lawyer. He has an attractive secretary but he's not too busy in his office. In Lavean tien laki he starts to investigate a case, in which his client has received threatening letters. The search of the blackmailer turns into a murder hunt. Finally Viima unmasks the offenders – his secretary and his client's friend Sistonen – in his capacity as Counsel for the Defence at the Helsinki Criminal Court. Susikoski was Sariola's most commercialized fictional character, and perhaps also the author's psychological alter ego. He drove Saab, drank Ballantine's, and smoke from the 1970s only Colt cigarrettes, following a deal Sariola made with the Rettig tobacco factory. When Sariola went to France to receive the Prix du roman d'Aventures for Laven tien laki, he was dressed in a dark suit, had his hair parted in the middle, and was overveight – in the eyes of the audience, he looked nothing like the hero his books. In France the novel was published by Librairie des Champs-Elysées under the title Un printemps finlandais. That year, the prestigious le Prix du Roman, given by the Académie française, went to Pierre Mousties for La Paroi. The ceremony was held at the Château de Cheverny. Although Sariola had served in the army during the war, he never was, with a few exceptions, especially interested in writing about war like Niilo Lauttamus. Aamu Heinjoen tiellä (1966) was based on true events. The protagonist is a young soldier, who destroys with his antitank gun ten tanks before dying. The soldier, Kauko Tuomala, was awarded posthumously the Mannerheim Cross for bravery. Sariola used a real life model for the character, as in Kolmannen valtakunnan kuningatar (1972), which told of Hitler's chauffeur, Erich Kempka. Sariola had read Kempka's book, Ich habe Adolf Hitler verbrantt, and also met him in Freiburg. In addition, Sariola wrote three books about soldiers, who were rewarded the Mannerheim Cross for excellent heroism. The trilogy Talvisodan vänrikki (1979), Jatkosodan kapteeni (1980), and Jälleenrakennettu maa (1981) covered the Winter War (1939-40), the Continuation War (1941-44) and post-war period of reconstruction. Armeija piikkilankojen takana dealt with Finnish prisoners of war. When critics have considered Aamu Heinjoen tiellä one of Sariola's best war novels, Kolmannen valtakunnan kuningatar arose much controversy, because it gave somewhat positive picture of Hitler and Eva Braun, the dictator's longtime mistress. The critic Pekka Tarkka said that the work openly admires a person, who is seen as the embodiment of destructive lust for power, irrational racial theories, and mad violence. In 1971 Veikko Huovinen had published a satirical novel about mass hysteria, dictators, and Hitler, entitled Veitikka. He was afraid that his novel would be considered a similar kind of questionable entertainment as Sariola's work. A popular writer, Sariola was not taken seriously by cultural elite, who
considered his works unfashionably conservative and carelessly
composed. However, the poet Pentti Saarikoski visited him in the late 1960s at his summer house in Sammatti. They
drank heavily together. Sariola mentions in his diary, that Saarikoski
saw an UFO, a bright circular light with a dark hole in the center; it
disappeared behind the wood. (Mauri Sariola: Rahasta, rakkaudesta, epätoivosta by Ritva Sarkola, 2017, pp. 119-128) Having a good memory, Sariola exhibited a good eye for detail. His observations about clothes, furnishings, restaurants, drinks, food, and on the other had sexual morals give a vivid picture of the Finnish way of life from the 1950s to mid-1980s. According to some sources, Sariola's Isänmaan parturit (1958), a story about political horse trades, angered President Urho Kekkonen, and the author had to wait in the reserve for his promotion to lieutenant for a long time. Eventually Sariola got his long awaited promotion after Mauno Koivosto was elected president of Finland in 1982 – during the Continuation War Koivisto had served under Lauri Törni (later Larry Thorne) in the Törni Detachment. From 1970 Sariola was married to Tuula Sariola (original surname
Korpela). From his first marriage to Anja Karjalainen Sariola had three
children. Under Tuula Sariola's name, the Susikoski series was
continued in Susikosken paluu (1992), Susikoski Orilammella (1994) etc. The love novel Ampiaispesä
(1997) depicted her relationship with the author, who was noted for his
patriotism, bohemian lifestyle, and generosity. In Juni 2006 it was
revealed that all of Tuula Sariola's 16 books were ghost written by her
friend, the journalist Ritva Sarkola. The cooperative CrimeTime
announced in 2014 that it plans to release electronic editions of 44 of
Sariola's books. For further reading: Hornanlinnan perilliset by Timo Kukkola (1980); Kirjailijatar ja hänen miehensä by Eila Pennanen (1982); Suomen kansallisfilmografia 6, ed. by Kari Uusitalo (1991); Suomalaisia rikoskrjailijoita by Timo Kukkola (1998; 2. enl. ed.); Mauri Sariola -bibliografia 1956-1998 by Simo Sjöblom (1999); Suomen kansallisfilmografia 8, ed. by Kari Uusitalo (1999); Mauri Sariola: Aika velikulta by Ritva Sarkola & Raimo Jokisalmi (2005); Ensimmäiset kymmenen vuotta: katsaus Mauri Sariola -seura ry:n taipaleeseen 1995-2005, ed. by Seppo Simola (2007); Mauri Sariola ja maksetut viulut: elämäkertaromaani by Ritva Sarkola (2007); Ystäväni Mauri Sariola: epäromaani by Seppo Porvali (2007); Mauri Sariola -seura ry:n vuosikokousten Sariola-aiheisten tietokilpailujen kysymykset ja vastaukset vuosilta 1997-2008 by Kari Piitulainen (2008); Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction by Mitzi M. Brunsdale (2016); Mauri Sariola: Rahasta, rakkaudesta, epätoivosta by Ritva Sarkola (2017); Kirjalliset väärennökset: huijauksia, plagiaatteja ja luovia lainauksia by Sanna Nyqvist and Outi Oja (2018); 'Mauri Sariola - oman aikansa influensseri' by Heikki Ollikainen, in Ruumiinkulttuuri 4 (2022); Kirjalliset väärennökset 4: Mauri Sariolan plagiaatit ja perintö by Sanna Nyqvist and Outi Oja (E-book; 2023) - Mauri Sariola Association: founded in 1995, Ampiaiskesä (magazine published by Mauri Sariola Association, ed. by Raimo Jokisalmi) Selected works:
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