The Bodyguard
Written by Leena Lehtolainen
Narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith
3/5
()
About this audiobook
As a professional bodyguard, Hilja Ilveskero rarely loses her cool. But one day, she and a client have an argument in a Moscow fur salon, and Hilja quits on the spot. When the client turns up dead, Hilja quickly discovers that she is a suspect. In an attempt to clear her name and find the killer, she uncovers ever-deeper layers of subterfuge. Amid all the covert treachery and intrigue, Hilja finds herself falling in love with a suspicious yet irresistibly sexy man—but is her heart clouding her judgment? In this tale of political romance populated by Russian oligarchs, Finnish politicians, and undercover cops, no one is what they seem and no one can be trusted. A fast-paced, tightly woven tale of love, murder, betrayal, and high-stakes deal-making, The Bodyguard—the first in a gripping trilogy by internationally acclaimed Nordic crime author Leena Lehtolainen—exposes the delicacy and dark underbelly of international relations on both a human and global scale.
Leena Lehtolainen
Leena Lehtolainen was born in Vesanto, Finland, to parents who taught language and literature. A keen reader, she made up stories in her head before she could even write. At the age of ten, she began her first book—a young adult novel—and published it two years later. She released her second book at the age of seventeen. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including the 1997 Vuoden Johtolanka (Clue) Award for the best Finnish crime novel and the Great Finnish Book Club prize in 2000. Her work has been published in twenty-nine languages. Besides writing, Leena enjoys classical singing, her beloved cats, and—her greatest passion—figure skating. Her nonfiction book about the sport, Taitoluistelun lumo (The Enchantment of Figure Skating), was chosen as the Sport Book of the Year 2011 in Finland. Leena lives in Finland with her husband and two sons.
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Reviews for The Bodyguard
30 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Middle of the road for me. There were many interesting points. But why do we always have to muddle every single story with a romance.
About the narrator: good one. She practiced her Finnish pronunciation to deliver a decent performance. Not so goo with Russian and the out of the blue Spanish phrases, though. All in all it was an interesting read. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I like Leena Lehtolainen's Maria Kallio series, so when I had gone through all of that series that's available in English, I decided to give another Lehtolainen series a try. For me, this did not work -- I got about a third of the way through the book, and abandoned it. I did not like the characters, notably the central character, and I didn't understand her at all. Had I had the patience to stick with it, I probably would have understood her some by the end of the book, but the game was decidedly not worth the candle. It's an interesting notion, and takes one into an unusual world, but it's not really one I want to visit.Comment
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leena Lehtolainen is best known for her award-winning series of detective novels featuring Mario Kallio. "The Bodyguard" introduces Hilja Ilveskero. The story begins when Hilja's employer, Anita Nuutinen, is murdered within hours of Hilja's angry resignation. Of course now everyone believes that Hilja was bought off by Anita's enemies or that she is the murderer.Hilja starts to backtrack Anita's life and is unexpectedly hired by Helene Lehmusvuo, one of Anita's friends, an important politician who is being threatened by her ex-husband and some Russians who want her to soften her stance on Finland's relationship with Russian. She also meets a mysterious and dangerous man… dangerous in several ways.The story moves along at a lively pace. It is refreshing that Hilja is not a superhero. She is competent at her work and we are impressed with her professionalism. She works hard to keep her clients safe but she is human and believable.The translation from Finnish has been done by Jenni Salmi. It is gracefully done, for the most part, although I have some reservations about Ms Salmi's decision to use miles and cups instead of kilometers and decalitres. There are a couple of odd slips in the text, but the only real blunder I noticed was when Hilja pays for a hotel room with money she did not have 3 pages earlier.I received a review copy of "The Bodyguard" by Leena Lehtolainen (AmazonCrossing) through NetGalley.com.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Bodyguard (The Bodyguard series Book 1) by Leena Lehtolainen I am not sure, if it is the translation from Finnish to English that is making this book so difficult for me to read and enjoy, or if it just not that well written in the first place. I normally love books that are set (well at least to me) in exotic places, but this book is not doing it for me. This book is written in first person and for a mystery, that is normally a very good thing, but getting and staying inside of Hilja Ilveskero’s head is a creepy thing for me. She has the personality of a 14-year-old sexual predator with an obsession for lynx’s. Yes, you heard me correctly – the part of the first chapter is spent on this; as are many other parts of many other chapters. As I got to the 75% mark, I had still not understood what the importance of the lynx was and I am bored enough at this point to not care. The mystery aspect is interesting enough and the up to date background is quite interesting, politically speaking. Unfortunately, most of the book is not really spent with Hilja trying to solve the murder…it is spent on so many other things, thoughts, brooding moments and secondary characters.The author seems obsessed with certain aspects of Hilja’s life and personality. For example, most an entire chapter of us has to learn that Hilja had to undergo an internal exam when she was about six or seven due to a mistake on her teachers’ part. Very detailed description I might add…and just in case you missed the description the first time, you get to experience it a second time too! In addition, it came to nothing. A lot of what is thrown into this book was repetitive (I wanted to scream if I had to hear about the New York Bodyguard school she went to, one more time and that is just one example). Perhaps the repetitiveness will make further books in this new series make more sense, but I can say that it makes THIS book to be a difficult read.The chapters that bring us to the conclusion and explanation of the crimes, is so unbelievable that I very nearly laughed at what I felt the absurdity of it all.Again, all of this might be from the translation: stilted dialogue, cardboard characters, clichés…but I think not. I think I just don’t get Scandinavian authors and that is unfortunate because I was so looking forward to something different.