The Troubled Man is the first new Wallander novel in a decade, and quite possibly the final novel in Henning Mankell’s outstanding crime fiction series about the introverted and intriguing detective from Ystad, Sweden. The eleventh book in this bestselling series is every bit as good as the previous ten books. The return of Kurt Wallander, for his final case, has caused a sensation around the globe.

The action in The Troubled Man takes place many years after the end of the series (Before the Frost). We meet an older and worried Kurt Wallander. He now lives in a house by the sea with a dog as his company, and he spends a lot of his time pondering his life and the state of affairs in Ystad and Sweden. He feels tired and spent, and he is very worried about how his memory seems to be failing him more and more often.

Wallander’s daughter Linda is now married. The ageing detective has become a grandfather. And now he meets – for the first time – the family of Linda’s husband Hans von Enke. The meeting is strange and somewhat disconcerting. The older von Enke, Hans’ father Håkon, brings Kurt into his home office, he wants to talk to him, get to know him. He tells him a little about his past – as a submarine commander in the Swedish Navy. But he is a worried man, a troubled man:

“I’m a worried man,” Håkan said. “I was a submarine commander during the Cold War and I believe there were spies in the Swedish navy who have never been unmasked.” “Whom do you suspect?” Wallander asked. “I cannot say right now because that would spoil the story.” Wallander remained silent. He had the feeling Håkan had been trying to tell him something. But what?

Then, later, Håkan von Enke disappears mysteriously, without a trace. And even though Kurt Wallander is now out of active duty, he gets engaged in the case – he wants to help the widow and his son-in-law. However, soon the widow, Louise von Enke, disappears as well. Did Håkan von Enke know that something was going to happen to him; that the secrets from the past he knew and kept quiet about could somehow still be dangerous and cost him his life? What was he trying to tell Wallander that evening when they met and talked in von Enke’s office? What about the secret of the troubled man did Wallander not grasp?

As Wallander digs into the commander’s life and the mystery he alluded to, he learns about a Cold War scandal that was covered-up, but that could even so severely harm the current government. And Kurt Wallander still excels in deductive reasoning, is still as persistent as ever, and still has his intuition intact. His investigation takes him into dark and unexpected avenues involving espionage and betrayal , and as he gets closer to the solution of this intricate mystery, he finds deeply hidden secrets about prominent people in Sweden and uncovers facts about his son-in-law’s family that he would have preferred not to know.

The Troubled Man is a very fitting finale to a marvelous crime fiction series that has entertained the whole world and which continues to do so – both the books and the excellent Kurt Wallander TV series (both the original Swedish series and the new one by BBC) have a huge international following. Fans of Henning Mankell will probably, like me, feel sad that it is over, that this is the end of the series (I strongly believe it is), yet most likely also feel that the ending is just right and very befitting of the likeable and fascinating detective from Ystad.

I enjoyed The Troubled Man tremendously. It is a melancholy novel, at times sad, but also graceful, entertaining and excellently told. The book held me, captivated me, and on reflection feels like a deep, well thought-out study that perhaps more than any other book in the series lets us into the character of Wallander. If there ever was a crime fiction “must read”, this must be it. It is a crowning achievement by Henning Mankell, and a wonderful “adieu” to Kurt Wallander.

Links to books by Henning Mankell at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander, the world famous detective created by Henning Mankell, played by Kenneth Branagh, will soon be back on American televisions screens. While the Swedish original Wallander-series has been running for a while, Branagh has had a lot of success with his interpretation of Wallander,  and has been Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated for his role as the soul-searching, introvert Swedish cop. Wallander I, the first installment of the series, included Sidetracked, Firewall, and One Step Behind.

Wallander II has three gripping new Kurt Wallander cases based on Mankell’s books. In Faceless Killers (October 3), The Man Who Smiled (October 10) and The Fifth Woman (October 17), the down-at-the-heels sleuth is having a very hard time. He is nearing the end of his emotional rope. He is now at odds with the people important to him – his daughter, his father – at the same time as his blood sugar is gyrating and he has to come to terms with having killed a man. That’s a lot to handle, even for a stoic Swede!

I am very much looking forward to seeing this series!

This book introduces Kurt Wallander’s daughter Linda as a main character. Many authors have tried similar solutions to the problem of continuation and failed miserably. Henning Mankell, on the other hand, makes it seem very easy and succeeds. In this crime fiction book, often labeled as a “Linda Wallander mystery”, but really a Kurt and Linda Wallander book (just as his most recent Wallander-mystery Den uroliga mannen, published in Swedish in 2009), Linda starts working at the Ystad police and is – partly by courtesy of Kurt – let into the picture. And to make it very natural, Mankell lets Before the Frost deal with growing up, relations between fathers and daughters, and such. Those are very smart moves by Mankell. Impressive, actually.

As is common in Mankell’s books, this novel too opens with violence – two acts of violence in this case. And, of course, seemingly unrelated. The first is a massacre in Guyana. The second is a very sadistic killing of swans on a lake in Sweden.
Meanwhile, Linda has graduated from police college, and shares flat with the moody, sometimes over-drinking Kurt, and hangs out while waiting to start her new job with the Ystad police with Martinsson as her mentor. So Kurt allows her to tag along on one of his investigations. She is pretty frustrated, however, as one of her friends seems to have disappeared. So, on the side, and using somewhat unorthodox methods, Linda starts investigating the disappearance.

The plot is very exciting, to a large extent due to Mankell’s excellent writing, and it soon becomes clear that we are dealing with a dangerous mix of religious fanaticism, ritual murder, sacrifice, and such. Mankell shows how religion can be a most powerful tool for manipulating people, and can (also) be used for evil purposes.

Before the Frost is good – in my opinion not among the best in the series, but even so more than good enough. It is exciting and very entertaining. The plot is a little too far-fetched for my taste, but I still enjoyed the book a lot, and had a very hard time putting it down, especially towards the end.

Praise for Henning Mankell:

“Mankell is a master of the traditional arts of the crime novel, narrative pacing and suspense.”

–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“An arresting story by an arresting writer … [Mankell] understands and probes the underside of everyday living – in an elegant and artful way.… He is able to look loneliness square in the eye. The result is writing that walks a line between ephemeral and everlasting.”

–The Washington Post

“Powerful…. Thoroughly engaging…. Amazingly human characters…. It’s a testament to Mankell’s skill with plot that the story gets more and more urgent as he transforms a series of small mysteries into a much larger thriller…. Mankell [is] a master storyteller.”

–San Francisco Chronicle

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

It is strange how things are inter-related. Henning Mankell writes the Kurt Wallander series. The series became popular crime movies. And now the music from the Wallander movies has become popular as well. Nostalgia (Wallander Main Theme) by Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo.

You can listen to the track below or purchase the song as an MP3 file for £0.80 GBP, €0.90 EUR or $1.30 USD. Click the image on the left for a link to amazon US. Here is a link to amazon UK: Nostalgia (Main Theme For Wallander)

And here is a scene from the Wallander movie The Woman in the Photograph from the BBS-series as well. The Brits have already seen it, here in the US we will just have to wait for it. Oh well.

In the movie clip Wallander turns to Isa to help shed light on the identity of the woman in the photograph, but the assassin is once again closing in. Contains some violent scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkv2ITs4TrE

In this brilliant police procedural, which has also been filmed and was recently shown on TV in the US, three friends are killed in a secluded meadow on Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden. They have a nice party, all the time being observed from a distance by the killer. And when they eventually fall asleep, the murderer walks up to them and kills them. Three shots, one in the head of each. Then he carefully buries them. In One Step Behind, Wallander confronts perhaps his most horrific case so far.

While we, as readers, know all this, Mankell’s modest hero Inspector Kurt Wallander does not know. All he knows, is that the three have been reported missing. However, as one of the missing girls send postcards home from various European countries, the case of the three missing people does not receive much attention.

Kurt Wallander’s focus is instead on a healthier life, as he has been diagnosed with diabetes. Then the relative peace in Ystad is completely shattered when his colleague Svedberg is murdered. There is very little to learn from the scene of the crime. Thus Wallander turns to the motive: Why was Svedberg murdered? It soon turns out that Svedberg had been hard at work during his vacation with the case of the three missing persons. Is there a connection between the two cases?

As well, during the investigation Wallander surprisingly learns that Svedberg had a mysterious girlfriend – Louise. No one has ever seen her, but Wallander eventually locates a picture of her, and also a picture of three young people in costume. These are the only leads.

Then the bodies of the three missing people surface. And Wallander learns that a fourth friend should have been at the party, but was prevented by illness. He locates her twice, and the second time he does, she is killed during the night while Wallander is sleeping in the same house. So now Wallander must deal with a police killing and a serial killer who has killed four people.

Wallander’s investigation is very persistent, occasionally even brilliant, and gradually uncovers useful information. And more murders follow while the exhausted Wallander and the under-staffed Ystad police struggles to prevent the next murder.

The mystery in One Step Behind is riveting. We really have the feeling that we solve the crime with the team at the Ystad police station. The writing is excellent. And the development of Wallander’s character in this book is very interesting as well. Simply a wonderful, very exciting crime fiction book. A remarkable book you really ought to read!

(Read more reviews of Henning Mankell‘s books at ScandinavianBooks!)

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

An aging farmer and his wife have been attacked on their isolated farm. When Inspector Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police force arrives, he finds the elderly couple brutally tortured, the husband dead and the wife barely clinging to life. They appear to have little money and no enemies. The only clues are the dying word of the farmer’s wife: “foreign”, and some unusual ligature on a rope that has been used in the crime.

This is the start of the tale told in Henning Mankell’s first Kurt Wallander detective mystery Faceless Killers. And the result is a well-done, very exciting police procedural.

Since Faceless Killers is the first book in the Kurt Wallander series,  readers are provided with some background information about the main characters. Kurt Wallander is gritty and determined, newly separated from his wife and somewhat estranged from his daughter. He often drinks too much, and he has problems dealing with the interim prosecutor, who is an attractive young woman sent down from Stockholm. Perhaps it is the fact that she is pretty that is bothersome? Also, he has a somewhat strange and remote relationship to his father, an ageing artist, who is showing the first signs of senility.

Henning Mankell lets the reader join in on the investigation process. There are no hidden clues as in Agatha Christie’s books. It is all systematical thinking, logical reasoning, hard work and lots of man hours. And, as it turns out, after the media have found out that the murders were carried out by “foreigners”, poor Wallander seems to spend almost as much time dealing with attacks by racists as with the crime itself. Even so, it is fascinating and exciting.

Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series has often been compared to the Martin Beck detective mysteries authored by the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. Wallander, like Beck, is a police detective in Sweden. Unlike Beck, whose beat was Stockholm, Wallander works in the small southern Swedish city of Ystad. The Wallander series takes place in the 1990s while the Beck series took place in the 1960s and 1970s. While the Beck series may be richer, the Wallander books are entertaining page-turners. Mankell mostly stays well within the ‘police procedural’ formula and has not tried to reinvent the genre. He has developed the character of Mankell and his supporting cast of characters extremely well. Wallander gets results more by perspiration than inspiration. And, perhaps even more important – Henning Mankell, as opposed Sjowall & Wahloo, does not have a political agenda that drives his writing.

Henning Mankell is a talented writer equipped with a very keen sense of the psychological dimensions of his characters, and uses this to make his stories dynamic.  In Faceless Killers he delivers a fast paced, very interesting and highly entertaining read. My main complaint is that it ends too soon.

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

You can read more about Henning Mankell and several of his books at Scandinavianbooks.com>