Faceless Killers

I'd already come across Kurt Wallander thanks to the excellent Kenneth Branagh series, but this is the first time I've picked up one of the original novels. Happily, I liked it so much that I'm all ready to go on a rampage and buy the rest of the books AND the two television series. I love it when that happens!

The novel opens with the discovery of a horrific murder in the isolated farming community of Lunnarp. Called in by a terrified neighbour, Inspector Wallander arrives to find a mutilated and bloodied old man dead in his farmhouse bedroom. His wife is alive, but only barely, with a noose cruelly knotted around her neck. Armed with a host of confusing clues, uneasy hunches and the word 'foreign', repeated by the old woman on her show more deathbed, Wallander and his team must pull out all the stops to find the killers before the media storm around the case sparks a national wave of racial hate crime.

I found the whole novel absolutely fascinating, and it was a great brain work-out. I couldn't stop mulling over everything that had happened so far, and every time I put the book down I was itching to get back to it again! I think it helps that the reader is basically inside Kurt Wallander's mind from start to finish, even though it's written in the third person. He's a thoughtful, clever, kind and immensely human character, with a fierce sense of justice and a touch of quiet vulnerability - the kind of cop every reader will be rooting for! I also liked that this was very much a procedural novel, rather than a forensic gorefest, and the way the Swedish setting really came to life on the page. Mr Mankell - you have another new convert! Highly recommended. show less

Henning Mankell's first Wallander novel introduces us to the weary, self-doubting Swedish detective with a pacy double murder investigation. The crime is vicious, and the emphasis here is on Sweden as a changing world; Wallander constantly reflects on the horrific details that he would not have thought possible only a few years before. Wallander himself is slipping into a graceless middle age of divorce, bad eating and social anxiety, so both man and country are betraying their ideals. Mankell constantly infuses his writing (or, at least, the translated writing) with details that bring Wallander and his world alive as natural by-products of each other. The reader is invited to identify with the detective, not with sentimentality or show more pity, but with Wallander's own cold realization that all things fall apart. The mystery here is secondary, which for most of the novel isn't an issue; it does start to drag in the later chapters, only to very suddenly ramp up at the end. Taken as a crime novel, "Faceless Killers" isn't totally satisfying; there are mysteries out there that are simply constructed better, with a tighter grip. As the introductory portrait of a very believable man, however, it succeeds beautifully. show less

the language is sparse to match the landscape, which fits really nicely. the tone as well, seems to evoke the grayness of the winter in this rural area of sweden. i really like the way - without making this long or involved at all, it's quite short actually - he adds in little bits of information that could be clues or sparks of clues, but often aren't. so you don't know, as a reader, if a mention of ebba's new music box is an aside, or something that will matter. i don't like the way every one of these books i read seems to have "the worst most gruesome murder the officer had every seen." i do like that in this case, he kept coming back to that, about how things are changing in sweden (and everywhere) and how even the rural areas are show more seeing the shift in their lives. both the progress and the increase in violence. he also did a good job to tie this in to a debate about immigration, which seems even more pertinent now. (actually this doesn't feel like it was written as long ago as it was. maybe because i am unfamiliar with the area, so i can imagine that the farmland of sweden stayed rural for longer than it did.) but for a book originally published in 1991 to talk about white nationalism and anti-refugee policy, as we are dealing with now, shows either that he was ahead of his time or that we've been on this track for far, far too long. (or both, as for sure the latter is true.)

the beginning of the book grips you and sucks you right in. i loved how this started. the solving of the case seemed to just be luck, but i guess that's probably often realistic.

this is well written, a good story, and a solid start to a series. i'd definitely read more of the series and of him in general.

"To grow old is to live in fear. The dread of something menacing that you felt when you were a child returns when you get old." show less

Muy Nórdico, así describiría yo la narrativa de este autor, como es bastante conocido y sé que muchos han leído la serie completa de Wallander o bien cualquiera de los otros muy conocidos libros de Mankell , no voy a entrar en detalles sobre su forma de escribir, que para quienes no lo han leído, es bastante bueno.

Sí, el libro tiene una buena historia policíaca, ya saben, bastante clásica, el policía, los asesinatos, la investigación, los sospechosos, cosas políticas en medio y además otra investigación dentro de todo eso, todo esto es por supuesto el tema central. Historia bien manejada y bien contada.

Pero a mí lo que mas me llamó la atención en este libro fue Wallander, el protagonista, fue muy pesado para mi leerlo show more porque, creo, no estaba en el humor correcto para aguantar al protagonista, que dicho sea de paso, es un muy buen protagonista, un personaje que llena la historia, sin ninguna duda y lo suficientemente fuerte para no olvidarse de él.

Pero me lo imagine con una nube negra sobre su cabeza todo el tiempo, una desgracia tras otra, una depresión total y completa, es que ganas me daban de tomarme antidepresivos para levantarme el ánimo con tanta mala vibra, pero no es él, resulta que Wallander es un buen hombre, pero todo lo malo que le pueda pasar, le sucede a él, lo único que le sale bien es su trabajo y a veces ni eso, como quien dice, no es la alegría del huerto el hombre, así que, sí, sufrí mucho al leer este libro, demasiada negatividad para mí.

Ya veremos que tal con los demás, ya les contaré, pero no lo esperen pronto, necesito una muy buena dosis de positividad antes de leerme otro libro de Wallander. show less

The first in the series, this is a good introduction to Kurt Wallender, a middle-aged Swedish detective whose life is beginning to fall apart: his wife has left him, he is turning to alcohol for comfort, he appears to have a dysfunctional relationship with his daughter, and his father is beginning to suffer from senility. Although there is much going wrong in his life, he's not broken but quite capable of handling the job, even a tough one such as this. In this story Swedish policy on immigrants and refugees plays a part when a brutal double murder is thought to have been committed by "foreigners", indicating a group in transition that makes them practically untraceable. Although the book was published in 1991, similar immigration show more issues still exist in many European countries to the present day. A well-written mystery that portrayed a complicated, engaging character as well as the country.

I enjoyed this better than any other Scandi crime novel I've tried so far. Apart from one or two minor anomalies that indicated this was not the original language, the translation was good. Recommended. show less

This one seemed to move at quite a sedate pace, but strangely I didn't actually mind, as the writing is so very fine and the characters and situation very real.

I could easily identify with Wallander and his problematic personal life and I enjoyed joining him in his investigations. There are red herrings and clues dotted about the place in a seemingly random order, with loose threads all over the place, but that is exactly what gives this its realism. It all comes together very quickly near the end, but in a way that feels very satisfying.

"Justice doesn't only mean that people who commit crime are punished. It also means that we can never give up seeking the truth."

'Faceless Killers' is the first in the Kurt Wallander series of books. Wallander's life is a mess: his wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him and even his own father barely tolerates him. Wallander eats badly, buries himself in work and drinks his nights away in loneliness.

Early one freezing January morning a farmer discovers that his neighbours Johannes and Maria Lövgren have been brutally attacked. Johannes Lövgren is dead, and Maria is barely alive. Ystad Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called to investigate.

Initially there seems no reason why the Lövgrens have been so show more brutally attacked, they didn't appear wealthy and nothing valuable seems to have been taken. When Maria Lövgren dies, uttering the word "foreign" with her dying breath, Wallander and his team are left with an additional problem. There are several migrant camps in the vicinity and anti-immigration sentiment in the local populace is already running high, so when word leaks out that the Lövgrens may have been killed by foreigners, emotions can only escalate. So when a Somali immigrant is shot Wallander find himself with another murder on his hands and a race against time to prevent others.

As the police look more deeply into the Lövgren case they find that there was more to Johannes Lövgren than it appeared and there are facts about him that even his wife didn't know. Whilst the murder of the refugee has political ramifications of its own. Meanwhile Wallander is having problems of his own.

Police procedure, as the members of the team collect evidence, conduct interviews and follow leads, is central to this novel and gets a realistic impression of how very long it can take to solve a case. There are long hours; the public, press and superiors to satisfy, dogged footwork to be done but there is also a real sense of camaraderie. All of the cops work long hours but still take time to look out for each other.

Kurt Wallander himself is an interesting character. He has had some hard blows in his life but is reflective rather than bitter and doesn't waste his time complaining about it. He’s a very human character who makes mistakes during investigation but through sheer tenacity and devotion to duty still manages to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Given that this was first published some thirty years ago it still feels fresh and relevant. Despite the fact that it takes a while to solve the actual crime the action still flows at a reasonable pace and doesn't get too bogged at any point. But that's not to say that I didn't have a few minor gripes. Wallander is too often conveniently in the right spot at the right time and gets too personally involved in chasing up leads than I believe an officer of his rank should be, whilst his relationship with the prosecutor seems a little strange. This isn't a genre that I would normally reach for but overall I found 'Faceless Killers' a realistic crime novel with an interesting protagonist and I will certainly look out for others in the series. show less