Kleine Fehler: Ja ich kann Toni nur zustimmen, mich haben diese kleinen Fehler auch gestört - aber der Lesespass ist dadurch nicht getrübt.
Ein sehr schönes Buch!

#5 in the Kurt Wallander series, it is time for our favorite detective to take a much-needed vacation. However, summer fun has to be put on hold as Wallander is called out to a farm where a girl has been loitering in the fields. As he goes out to talk to her, she pours gasoline all over herself and lights a match. Not long afterwards, there's a murder in which the former Minister of Justice has his skull sliced in two by an axe. And if those were the only two crimes, maybe Wallander could go have some fun, but alas, it is not to be, as the body count goes higher.

We know who the killer is not far into the story, but that's okay. The real story is about Wallander and his team trying to figure out the connections between all of the victims -- and how Wallander gets a bit "sidetracked" along the way for various reasons, not all having to do with the crime, preventing him at times from seeing obvious connections that may have helped him solve the crimes earlier, possibly saving lives. The story is more about the toll that the crimes take on Wallander and on the rest of the team.

As always, Mankell writes superbly -- the characterizations are excellent, the inner turmoil of Wallander is so palpable you could reach out and touch it.

I would definitely recommend this one. If you're following the series in order, you're going to want to continue; if you've perhaps seen the PBS production and are thinking of reading this one, do so, but do not make it the first Wallander you read. You will miss way too much in terms of Wallander's character development. I'd definitely recommend it for readers of Scandanavian mysteries and for those who perhaps want something a bit beyond what's new on the shelves today. ( )

I first came across Inspector Wallander through the BBC TV series starring Kenneth Branagh as the Swedish Detective.The novel was an excellent read on a warm weekend and gives a person not familiar with Sweden an insight into the people and the country.I give this book a review of 4 stars. ( )

Kurt Wallander - He works tirelessly, eats badly and drinks the nights away in a lonely, neglected flat. Still, he tackles some pretty incredible cases -- An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, victims of violence beyond reason. . . a teenage girl douses herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day Sweden's former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped in a murder that has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer… four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman are found with their throats slit in an Algerian convent, while in Sweden, a birdwatcher is skewered to death in a pit of carefully sharpened bamboo poles… a Swedish housewife is murdered execution-style in a string of events that uncovers a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela involving the South African secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent… an old acquaintance of Wallander’s, a solicitor, who is tied to an enigmatic business tycoon hiding behind an entourage of brusque secretaries and tight security, turns up dead, shot three times after his father dies in a traffic accident (or was it an accident?). . . In woodland outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, the pages marked with handwritten corrections. A string of macabre incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, has been taking place, a group of religious extremists who are bent on punishing the world's sinners. … On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight, they don costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses… An unknown killer is on the loose, and their only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know…A life raft washes ashore in Skane, Sweden, carrying two dean men in expensive suits, shot gangland-style. It is discovered that the men were Eastern European criminals… A man stops at an ATM during his evening walk and inexplicably falls dead to the ground. Two teenage girls brutally murder a taxi driver They are quickly apprehended, shocking local policemen with their complete lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without a trace. A few days later a blackout cuts power to a large swath of the country When a serviceman arrives at the malfunctioning power substation, he makes a grisly discovery… a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden by the anonymity of cyberspace. . . and we haven't even gotten to Kurt Wallander's personal issues! ( )

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