![]() Mankell is a Swedish author and his books are translations and have been hailed as the first series to truly live up to the standards set by authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo and their Martin Beck mysteries. When my next opportunity to order a few books came around, I put several Mankell titles on the list and _Faceless Killers_ is the first in his Kurt Wallander series. Recently, I was reading book reviews in either _Booklist_ or _Library Journal_ and came across a rave for the latest Mankell translation, _One Step Behind_. Mass Market Paperback: 400 pagesPublisher: Vintage Reprint edition (January 25, 2011)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0307742857ISBN-13: 978-0307742858 Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #110,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2047 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Police Procedurals –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Also, American readers may find odd Mankell’s bundling of his upright anti-racism message with broad notions of what constitutes acceptable social control.Ĭopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. But he provides essential information only at the last minute, which makes the solution feel more like an appendix than a conclusion. Mankell is clearly a skilled writer, and his portrait of Wallender (who periodically slides beneath respectability) is effective. However, a leak to the press complicates the investigation by arousing anti-immigrant feelings, some of which are expressed in anonymous threats. ![]() Wallender puts those clues on the back burner when he learns that Johannes, ostensibly a simple farmer, had a secret life involving wealth and connections unknown to his wife. Rydberg, a police force old-timer, says the noose’s unusual knot and the word foreigner, which Maria uttered before she died, are important. Such consolations can’t help him absorb the scene at the Lovgren farm, where elderly Johannes Lovgren has been brutally beaten and stabbed to death and where his wife, Maria, is found barely alive with a noose around her neck. Since his wife walked out on him, Kurt Wallender, a middle-aged cop in the small town of Lenarp, has drowned his sorrows in opera and far too much liquor. In his first appearance in English, Swedish bestselling author Mankell combines thriller-quality entertainment with a depiction of anti-foreigner prejudice in Sweden, painted here as a very chilly place indeed. And Mankell’s story of the brutal murder of an elderly farm couple uncovers an unusual aspect of life in modern Sweden–a streak of fear and prejudice against the many newcomers from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe who have sought asylum there. Wallender’s personal life can occasionally seem more depressing than even a provincial Swedish detective should be asked to bear, but his investigative skills are strictly first rate. ![]() If you remember with pleasure those dark and gloomy Martin Beck mysteries by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, you’ll be glad to plunge into the first of Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender mysteries to appear in English. Faceless Killers Mass Market Paperback – January 25, 2011Īuthor: Visit ‘s Henning Mankell Page ID: 0307742857.
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