Mika Waltari's Detective Novels

This bachelor's thesis deals with the analysis of three detective novels by the Finnish author Mika Waltari: Kuka murhasi rouva Skrofin? (1939, Who Murdered Mrs. Skrof?), Komisario Palmun erehdys (1940, Inspector Palmu's Mistake) and Tähdet kertovat, komisario Palmu! (1962, It is Written in the Stars, Inspector Palmu!). The first part of the thesis is devoted to the theoretical introduction, which discusses the origin and development of the detective novel and where the existing typologies of detective stories and the rules for their writing are introduced. In the second part of the thesis we will proceed to the proper analysis of Waltari's novels. We first determine to which kind of detective novel Waltari's texts belong in terms of Todorov's typology. The aim is also to determine whether his works are closer to the classic British whodunnit detective story, or its American hard-boiled variant, and to what extent Waltari follows the rules set for writing a detective novel in his texts. In the end, on the basis of performed analysis, we will describe the main tendencies in the author's detective literary output. Keywords: detective novel, Mika Waltari, police commissioner Palmu, Tzvetan Todorov, detective, murde