By Henning Mankell
(Reviewed by Nancy Jelinek)

If you’ve not yet read any of Swedish author Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series, his latest book is the best place to start. Wallander’s First Case introduces rookie policeman Kurt Wallander, only 21, in June 1969. He’s not yet married and is continually at odds with his father. A patrolman, Kurt knows he wants to investigate crime scenes, not walk a beat. When an elderly neighbor in Wallander’s apartment building dies from a gunshot, an apparent suicide, he is first on the scene and gets his chance to be in the thick of the inquiry. While having the brains and the intensity to be a good policeman, Wallander doesn’t yet have all the skills he’ll later acquire, and he nearly gets himself killed.

The Man with the Mask takes place on Christmas Eve of 1975. By then, Wallander is married and has a five-year-old daughter. Leaving the station, he’s asked to stop by a grocery store, from which the owner has called several times, saying a strange person has loitered outside the store all afternoon. As Kurt enters the store, he knows immediately something isn’t right. He’s alone in facing a dead woman and a desperate young man.

By April 1987, Wallander has been promoted to Detective Chief Inspector in Ystad. When what appears to be a natural death of a man in the back seat of a taxi is shown to be a murder or a suicide by poison, Kurt and his team get involved. The Man on the Beach takes Wallander to a village visited by the dead man four days in a row, walking along the beach every day and then returning to his hotel in Ystad. The answers to why he was there and whom he could have met are the questions Wallander must find to solve the case.   

The next year, Wallander’s case is The Death of the Photographer. Separated from his wife, Kurt is concerned about his personal life, as well as his case. The photographer, known to Wallander because he’d taken pictures of Kurt’s wedding and daughter, seems to have been a very quiet, private person. When a photo album of well-known people—including Kurt Wallander—is found in his studio, a different picture starts to develop.

The longest of the stories is The Pyramid. In December 1989, a Piper Cherokee is flown into Swedish airspace under the radar. It makes its drop, but crashes before getting to the coast, killing the pilot and passenger. Drugs are suspected. Along with trying to solve a difficult case, Wallander is facing personal issues: feelings about his now ex-wife; closing the distance in his relationship with his daughter; ending a love affair; aging; and as always, dealing with his cantankerous father.

The Kurt Wallander series includes Faceless Killers, The White Lioness, The Dogs of Riga, The Man Who Smiled, Sidetracked, The Fifth Woman, One Step Behind, Firewall, and The Return of the Dancing Master. Linda Wallander, Kurt’s daughter, joins the police force and is featured in Before the Frost.

The New Press
 ISBN 978-1-56584-994-5