Finnish Crime Series Gaining Global Traction
Kati Hiekkapelto's Anna Fekete series, which follows a young police detective who works on crimes involving immigrants and immigration, is picking up a number of international sales. Originally published by Finland's Otava Group, the series has sold in nine territories to date, including to Heyne in Germany and A.W. Bruna in the Netherlands. In the latest deal, Swedish publisher Modernista acquired the series and plans to start publishing it in spring 2017. The first book in the series, The Hummingbird, was released in Finland in March 2013, and the second, The Defenseless, came out in February 2014. The Defenseless has also just been shortlisted for the Glass Key Award, which honors crime novels by authors from a Nordic country. Book three in the series, The Exiled, came out in Finland in April. Otava Group Agency controls all rights.

French Novel About Translator Moves to Italy
Bons baisers de Mesménie (From Mesmania with Love) by Fabienne Betting has just sold at auction in Italy to Feltrinelli. Published by France's Editions Autrement earlier this month, the book is a debut novel about a translator who brings a work written in a fictional language, called Mesmanian, into French. When the French edition becomes a bestseller, it's revealed that the work is notably different than the original novel, since the translator has only a shaky grasp of Mesmanian. Rights are controlled by Gregory Messina of Linwood Messina Literary Agency. The book had a first print run of 10,000 copies.

Spanish Author's Adult Debut Sells in Poland
Stolen Hours by Maria Solar has just sold in Poland to Kobiece. The book was originally published by Grijalbo (Penguin Random House) this month and Ella Sher of Barcelona-based Ella Sher Literary controls all rights. Stolen Hours is Solar's first novel for adults, and is set in Spain in 1979, two years before a law allowing divorce went into effect. It focuses on two couples, one that decides to separate until they can divorce legally, and another in which the woman feels alienated by her husband.