Sidetracked

Wallander is investigating the suicide of a girl when a serial killer starts his gruesome series of murders in Skåne. The killer seems to target wealthy men. Wallander and his team work around the clock, but it is hard to find out anything and the case is utterly complicated.

This novel kept me turning the pages from beginning to end. There was not even one chapter that did not keep my interest. The characterization of Wallander, his team mates and the other people involved in the case, the intricate weaving of the story, the descriptions of the settings and Mankell's prose - all this is top notch.

The German translation is stellar and never clumsy or artificial. The atmosphere that is created through the language supports the Nordic show more Noir atmosphere in an outstanding way.

The only aspect I need to criticize is the way the killer is portrayed. He takes on the persona of a First Nations American when he kills, wearing face paint and using an ax, and it is never fully explained why. It seems like this feature was just included to give the story an "exotic" touch and to make the case more bizarre, but that is not satisfying and culture should not be used or depicted like that, even though it was written in the 1990s. show less

In which there is an ax-murderer -- the stuff of horror stories. I thought this Wallander particularly good, as it showed aspects of investigation and the criminal mind that often are glossed over on those ever famous TV shows. Someone's committing horrific murders, but because Mankell takes the reader into the murderer's mind, we can see he actually is doing this out of love; he thinks he is doing something to help someone. The tedium of putting together the tiniest of clues and hunches is well portrayed (without actually being tedious to the reader.) And then there's the personal interactions: Wallander's growing relationship with his daughter, and with his sweetheart, Biba (once again, entirely by phone, since she lives elsewhere). show more But the one that clenched its fist around my heart is the relationship with Wallander and his father, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's. At one point, in a discussion with a colleague, comes the comment that you never can escape your parents -- though at some point in time, the relationship switches, and you parent them. So very true. And I hope that when the time comes for me, I'm not a troublesome child to my own offspring. show less

A chilling read. The cases that Wallander and his team deal with are harrowing: a girl who sets herself on fire in a field, multiple victims of scalpings, and one particularly gruesome case where the scalping victim has hydrochloric acid poured into his eyes. I literally had my hand clapped over my mouth in horror reading that part. Very vivid story in this book.

The crime-solving itself can make you rather impatient, if only because the reader can see the criminal preparing for and actually performing these murders, and Wallander even meets the killer at one point but doesn't know what lurks beneath the surface. However, I think it's an effective technique because it adds an element of suspense and makes you read on, wondering what will show more be the key factor that points the team in the right direction.

The writing itself was excellent. Major props to the translator, who made it read very cleanly in English. Not being an expert in Swedish, I can't really comment on the source text's writing style, but the plot certainly worked well and had a good sense of pace. I also liked the characterization of Wallander, the little touches that made him human. One particularly amusing part was when Wallander had finally done his laundry and was ironing his shirts. "After doing a passable job on two of them, he got bored and made a phone call." Ironing *is* rather boring. I also sympathized with his anxiety about things and enjoyed his ability to cut through the b.s.: after he made a speech at an outgoing policeman's celebration, people kept telling him it was a good speech, but he knew it wasn't because he'd only prepared it a few hours before, and he said as much. "No, it was a bad speech", and essentially "that's what you get for asking ME to do it." So Wallander is a very developed character. Still can't picture him looking like Kenneth Branagh, though.

To sum up, I would definitely recommend this, especially as an introduction to the Wallander series. show less

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14077637

Another complex, improbable situation that is not what it first seems to be. Mankell is quite the master at this type mystery.

A teenage girl is seen in a farmer's rape field. She's out of place there and does not respond when the farmer calls to her. Her odd behavior brings the police, in this case Wallander, out. Ready to call the whole thing an illusion, Kurt Wallander is about to leave when he sees her out there and tries to reach her.

The most he can see is that she is afraid. As he is trying to get to her she douses herself in gasoline and sets herself on fire.

Tragic suicide? That's how it appears. And yet that fear gnaws at Wallander as he show more goes about investigating other cases. Horrible killings distract him from the girl's case.

This is one of those cases where we get to know the killer through his thoughts and actions, separate from Wallander's investigation. I was a little disappointed that the killer is clearly the kind of fictional nutcase so commonly found in some mysteries: he sees the world distorted by a few critical experiences and follows his own distorted logic. Thing is, it is a kind of logic, and he is aware of where it is leading. Serial killers, as a rule, are ruled by their urges, not by some path others can imagine. I don't particularly like getting into the minds of killers like this, who are actually rather simple characters compared to Wallander, for example.

So Wallander is on the track of the killer and thus sidetracked from the girl's story. Does he get back to it? Is it related to the killings?

I like this series but I have a little difficulty with the women Wallander likes. He works with women whom he admires, and we get some idea of their characters. I find it less the case for the women he is attracted to. They are close to blank slates, other than being attractive. It would be nice if they had fully rounded characters as well. show less

Umano molto umano

Un libro di quasi 500 pagine. E' un giallo, un noir. Dove mi porterà in questo cammino così lungo? Un libro così consistente è come un'amico che non vuoi lasciare più, che ti tiene per mano a lungo e che, quando volge al termine, ti dispiace lasciare. A parte le indagini, i colpi di scena (molto soft), l'assassino da acciuffare, è l'atmosfera che Mankell riesce a creare a far sì che ci lasciamo condurre per così tante pagine senza avvertirne minimamente il peso. La Svezia, questa socialdemocrazia con uno stato sociale che è un modello di riferimento per alcuni di noi, viene raccontata attraverso uomini e donne con una sensibilità difficilmente immaginabile per un paese così nordico e dal clima rigido. Il show more libro fa parte della serie che ruota attorno alla figura del commissario Wallander, poliziotto non comune che si fa portare appunto su una "falsa pista" perchè nega a lungo a sè stesso una realtà cruda che non vuole accettare. Anche acciuffare un "serial killer" diventa un viaggio attraverso le mostruosità create dall'uomo, in un dolore che non si esaurisce con la risoluzione delle indagini, in un sistema che produce guasti cui è difficile porre rimedio. La catena dei delitti irrompe in una quotidianità investigativa fatta di una routine di una delinquenza piuttosto "banale", se pensiamo alle problematiche delle nostre latitudini. Ma fa emergere falle di ogni tipo ed insicurezze improvvise ed inaspettate in un sistema che, apparentemente, non abbandona mai i suoi cittadini. Una critica molto raffinata, rispetto al mio vissuto quotidiano, per una società con la quale farei molto volentieri a cambio, nonostante tutto. Molto bello e ben scritto. show less

2001 in the UK, but 1995 in Sweden; the first translated winner, and I think the first from outwith the US or UK. Plenty more of those to come. The fifth in Mankell’s much-loved Wallander series, a chunky 500 pages in paperback but a pretty zippy read for all that.

There’s a serial killer on the loose in Wallander’s home region of Skåne, knocking off men in particularly gruesome style, with no obvious link to be drawn between the victims. He’s clearly bad, he’s clearly mad: how many more skulls will he split and scalp before the police find the connection and the killer? Oh, and there’s this girl who’s burned herself to death in a field. Seems to be no association between her and the rest, but what do you know.

Now, I have show more my reservations about crazy serial killer plots. There’s just not much you can say about motive, and that encourages too much dwelling on method instead. I also have my reservations about how-catch-em plot structures, and this is one of those: we learn fairly early on who the killer is, and much of the tension in the remainder of the book is generated by the way in which Wallander and his crew slowly, patiently crawl up blind allies as the killer makes ready to do his thing again. In fact, I thought for a while that Mankell had pretty much killed any tension. It seems that we know not only who the killer is, but also how the story will climax, about 200 pages from the end; a denouement seems fairly clearly telegraphed. This turns out to be a red herring. I can’t decide if this is a neat trick or a Pyrrhic one: is it a still a good idea to surprise the reader if the setup requires you to bore them slightly for 150 pages?

These reservations aside, it’s a good read. The plot around the killer and the victims elaborates, twists and turns. Turns out those dead men were pretty horrible. Turns out their horribleness has something to do with the dead field girl. All predictable enough, but done very well, written (and translated) in decent prose, well paced and structured.

Having spent six years in Sweden, I did appreciate a few of things more than I might have done. There’s a theme throughout of police complaining about how this serial killer investigation is going to ruin their summer holiday plans, which is a hilariously Swedish preoccupation. There’s also something quintessentially Swedish about how the police do their work: diligent, dogged, low-fuss, methodical. It’s only against this background that Wallander can seem at all unconventional or erratic. I don’t quite get the affection for Wallander, who seems something of a cipher of a character rather than a well-rounded person one could grow accustomed to. There’s barely even the usual collection of delineating tics or habits, aside from occasionally playing opera tapes (1995!) and often musing gloomily on aging. So, yes, not sure quite why Wallander himself is much-loved, but easy to see why the books are. show less

I have been reading nordic crime fiction lately and of course one can't read this genre and leave out Henning Mankell's famous Inspector Wallander!

What struck me straight away was how different Wallander works in comparison to some other typical crime fiction detectives. Wallander is an experienced lead police detective, who works within a team. He knows how to delegate and uses his team effectively in investigations. Everyone within the team has a role to play and the entire team works together towards a common goal. Wallander is not a "lone wolf" detective, who does not work well with others. He is a dedicated policeman focusing on catching a killer and he knows he cannot do this alone. If needs be Wallander works with lead show more investigators across the country, files are readily shared and there is no squabbling between departments and guarding of jurisdictions as one often sees in other crime stories.

This is not an edge of your seat thriller or a whodunnit. We know all along who the killer is and have more information than Wallander does. The fascination lies in Wallanders methods of investigation and deduction. I wanted to keep on reading just to see how Wallander figures it all out. And that goes for his muddled private life as well!

Mankell has created a very endearing character in the weary inspector Wallander. Although some might not think this thrilling enough, Mankell just writes so well it was a thoroughly fascinating and engaging read. Definitely stands head and shoulders above some other popular crime novels I have been reading. show less