#faceless killers

The person who recommended this book gave it rave reviews, telling me that Mankell was one of Sweden’s greatest mystery writers (of which I could only list one other - Stieg Larsson. And the book cover agreed with him, with an LA Times quote on the front, “Sweden’s greatest living mystery writer.” Which I’m just now realizing was a purposeful addition of the word “living” since Larsson is dead. So I went into this book with really high expectations, and came out disappointed because of it.

The book opens with a really great setting of the crime scene, almost Law & Order style. I kept waiting for the “dum dum” noise to indicate a scene change. Or Jerry Orbach to make one of his bad jokes. But while the opening crime set the table for a great crime novel, I felt the rest of the novel never really carried it out. It delved into Kurt Wallander (protagonist and the detective) and his broken marriage/family, his struggle to solve the case, and briefly touched on immigration issues in Sweden (open borders, acceptance of refugees in the late 90s). But the meat of the book, the murder mystery, was never really suspenseful and then the big break was a blip in the story all too conveniently placed (in my opinion). The wrap up was a quick one, especially considering the case had taken like seven or eight months within the novel.

This is the Swedish mystery that I knew about when I started reading mysteries. This predates the influx of ‘Nordic Noir’ of recent times by a lot (1991), and, honestly, I may in fact just like this mystery just a teensy tiny little bitty bit more than some of the other Nordic mysteries I’ve read.

Kurt Wallander’s own life is falling apart, but, his detecting is not. And so when one farmer discovers that his neighbors have been beaten almost to death (one to death, the other whispers one word before she dies). Kurt and the other police are well and truly on the case, and it’s not an easy one, as horrible xenophobia flies through the small town as they try to figure out who did the heinous crime.

You may like this book If you Liked: Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason, Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg, or Vendetta by Michael Dibdin