Matti Rönkä was born in the Finnish province of Karelia in 1959. He now lives with his wife and three children in Helsinki, where he works as a newscaster for Finnish television. The Border Crosser is his first novel with the affable Viktor Kärppä and was awarded the Finnish crime novel prize (Vuoden johtalanka) in 2006 as well as the German prize for crime fiction (Deutscher Krimi Preis) in 2008. Furthermore, Rönkä was awarded the Glass Key Award in 2007.
The series continues: Brother Country will be released in April 2008.