![]() It’s a perfect parallel to today’s global situation, despite having been published almost 25 years earlier. Incredibly, one of the novel’s main topics is suspicion about potentially violent refugees, and how a great influx of refugees should be handled. I was fortunate enough to start this book just as winter hit the crisp, cold, sub-zero days matched perfectly with the atmosphere of icy Sweden in the novel. It’s beautifully put together in that only-the-essentials way, and it drives the pace regardless of the dead ends that are hit, the digressions for Wallander to deal with his personal and family issues, and any exposition that has to be done. While it is mentioned several times, the graphic detail is unnecessary, and is therefore left out. There is just the right amount of detail to be chilling, just enough brutality to capture the attention – but does not, as many thrillers tend to do, dwell on the violence of the act. It’s a series of almost brutally clean lines precisely engineered for maximum effect. The sentences capture the essence of your mental picture of the Scandanavian landscape in winter: bleak, crisp, minimal, and without anything unnecessary. You don’t often see crime novels discussed for their prose, but a special mention has to be made for Henning Mankell (and his translator) in Faceless Killers. Regardless, it was perhaps an even more riveting experience to read. ![]() The BBC and Kenneth Branaugh did a wonderful job of adapting this story for television, and I had seen that previously. I found myself nodding along in sympathy with Wallander, pulled along by the lean narrative, and guessing what the next twist to the story would be. Nothing, however, compares to reading these novels.įrom the opening pages to the final resolution, this book was completely captivating. Kurt Wallander is already a known entity to many there are several adaptations for TV and radio, the most recently notable being Kenneth Branaugh’s take on the role as part of the BBC’s Wallander. Wallander is forced to attempt to solve a mystery with almost no leads, while also trying to prevent suspicion about the refugees from escalating into mass violence. At the same time, he is dealing with an incredibly vicious double murder of an elderly couple, and freshly-sparked tensions between local refugee camps and Swedish citizens. Kurt Wallander is a detective whose personal life is crumbling around him. Quick Review: Absolutely read this it’s dark and chilling and atmospheric, with many appreciable touches of messy reality and has a fairly satisfying finish. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, he and his colleagues must contend with a wave of violent xenophobia as they search for the killers.įaceless Killers is a razor-sharp, stylishly dark combination of police procedural and searing social commentary that reaches beyond its genre to produce “a superior novel-and a harbinger of great things to come” ( Booklist).Read this book for: realistic police procedure, beautiful prose, strong atmosphere, straightforward plot, minimalist writing, Scandanavian/Nordic Noir His family is falling apart, he’s gaining weight, he drinks too much and sleeps too little. ![]() In charge of the investigation is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a local detective whose personal life is in a shambles. The only clue is the single word she utters before she dies: “foreign.” Taut and atmospheric, this winner of Sweden’s Best Mystery Award is a gripping mystery in the classic detective tradition, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “an exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth and suspense.”Įarly one morning, a small-town farmer discovers that his neighbors have been victims of a brutal attack during the night: An old man has been bludgeoned to death, and his tortured wife lies dying before the farmer’s eyes. Faceless Killers marks the “brilliant US debut” ( Library Journal) of Henning Mankell’s highly successful Kurt Wallander detective series.
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