Before the Frost (2002)

I had no idea what to expect of this book. The titel was a mystery to me. The one clue I had was that Kurt Wallanders daughter was a leading character in the novel.

It was a sinister book, but I liked it. Because I liked the way the author has described Kurt Wallander with all his faults, hopes, dreams and fears. Also because I admire the way Kurt (and now his daughter too) conduct their investigation. They are no-nonsense types, no more words or deeds than neccessary. I think, letting the fictive crime comitted out of it, that the way he and his daughter work, comes quite close to real life police work. Much hard work and thourough investigating and harldy any glamour. ( )

The second English language copy of this book was sent to me by Plum-Crazy. For my review of this book, please look at the Dutch version. ( )

This was my first novel by Henning Mankell. Although I found it entertaining, there were things about it that drove me crazy.

The story itself was about a man named Eric, a survivor of the mass suicide in Jonestone, Guyana, who makes his way to Sweden, where he plans to reunite with his daughter Anna whom he abandoned long ago. Eric leads a Christian cult which believes in animal and human sacrifice as well as church burning. This becomes a problem for police detective Kurt Wallender and his daughter Linda, who was soon to become a full fledged police officer.

This Wallender guy...I certainly would not want him for a father. He is as nasty as he can be. I felt sorry for Linda throughout the whole book as she tried to work on the same case on which her dad was working, but all the time being scolded by him for one thing or another.

Why in the world would a soon-to-be police officer enter a possible crime scene (where a woman had just disappeared) and move things around, look through her apartment without a warrant, and start reading her private diary? Oh. Okay. They were friends. That doesn't fly with me.

Taking a pulse? Don't do it with your thumb...as instructed in this book. Your thumb has its own pulse.

The end of this book? What did the suicide of an unrelated person have to do with Erich's story? Oh. It had to do with Linda's story? I was more interested in finding out to where Erich had suddenly disappeared.

Why was the 9-11 disaster in the United States brought into this novel? It didn't have any connection to the main story at all.

Will I read more Mankell books? Probably. This one was fun to listen to. I hope others will be better (read: have more cohesive story lines) and that Kurt Wallender will lighten up a bit on his daughter. Just sayin'. ( )

I didn't realize until after I was done with this that Mankell is the author of the stories behind the Wallander series starring Kenneth Branagh. Very interesting reading a mystery set in Sweden. ( )

My least favorite Henning Mankell book and I've read most of them.. Just did not capture my attention. Might have been in the translation. Maybe I should have read it in my native Swedish.. But usually I prefer the English versions. ( )