Kale Puonti (b. 1962) worked for more than 30 years in Helsinki in the field of drugs and organised crime. He has seen the international drug trade come to Finland from the front and has been involved in many highly publicised cases. Puonti has become a favourite among readers with his convincingly realistic Pasila Poison series, the fifth volume of which, Fadi, won the Finnish Whodunnit Society’s Lead of the Year Award 2023 . Topi is the seventh part of the series. Based on the first book, the TV series Pasilan Myrkky – Manni began in early 2024 and immediately glued viewers to the screen. The eighth part of the decoder series will be published in 2026.
Puonti is known not only as a detective writer but also for his non-fiction books, such as Kokaiinikeilapallo ja muita huumekytän tapauksia and Satu – Alamaailman rautarouva, which has been translated into Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Puonti is also known as a regular on MTV3’s crime scene programme Rikospaikka. He has also published several discussion series, including the hugely popular Immun ja Kalen rötöskatsaus.