Sidetracked is the fifth book in Mankell’s series about Inspector Kurt Wallander. It is a highly praised book, and has won The Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction and Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year awards.

“Before dawn he started his transformation. He had planned everything meticulously so that nothing could go wrong. It would take him all day, and he didn’t want to risk running out of time.” This is how Sidetracked begins. A hard, vicious award winning crime fiction novel. The translation of Sidetracked by Steven T. Murray is excellent.

In this book, Henning Mankell tells the story from the perspectives of both cop and criminal. So there are no surprises for us as readers – this is not a who-dunnit but a wonderful police procedural.

The action in Sidetracked is fast paced. Soon, three more people are found murdered and scalped, and signs suggest that the perpetrator is becoming increasingly agitated. Wallander and his crew follow standard procedure and try to link the four victims. However, their lives seem never to have intersected. Using American profiling methods as well as his own intuition, Wallander struggles to make headway in the case.

Kurt Wallander’s investigation is beset with obstacles – a police department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, as well as hiw own tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow.

Mankell’s meticulously detailed descriptions of Wallander’s investigation as well as his somewhat lyrical portrayal the Inspector’s attempts to rearrange his thought processes in Sidetracked are masterful. This, along with his treatment of the deeper phenomena involved in this crime, turns Sidetracked into something much more than an ordinary police procedural. This is another great Henning Mankell, with Kurt Wallander, the fumbling Ystad police detective with the big heart and the great intuition, at his very best.

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

Prise for Sidetracked:

“Connoisseurs of the police procedural will tear into this installment like the seven-course banquet it is.” Kirkus Reviews

“[A]bove all, the novel stands out for its nuanced evocation of even the peripheral characters. Winner of Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year, this is another terrific offering from the talented Mankell.” Publishers Weekly

“It is Wallander’s anguished voice. . . that captures us….Mankell’s philosophical hero vows to make it up to the coming generation while he still can.” The New York Times Book Review

See more reviews of books by Henning Mankell at ScandinavianBooks.com (and other Scandinavian crime fiction writers as well)!

©2012 NekkidBlogger Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

There are many ingredients to the plot in The White Lioness. First, a happily married woman disappears in southern Sweden while going about her business as an estate agent. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called in to investigate this case of a missing person.

As readers, we know right from the beginning what is going on: she was at the wrong time at the wrong place. However, Wallander does not know this. Inspector Wallander has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in a search of the killer and the origin of the crime.

The case turns out to be much more complicated that it appeared to be. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent.

It turns out that it all started in South Africa. A pro-apartheid conspirator has sent a gaunt, steel-eyed former KGB assassin and a black hit man to Sweden to train for a unnamed killing. When their hideout is destroyed in a fireball and the remains found in the ashes – a precision firearm, a sophisticated, high-powered radio, and a severed human thumb – the clues lead Wallander back to South Africa.

Combining compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue, The White Lioness keeps you on the knife-edge of suspense. Some may find the book a little long-winded in the passages about South-African politics, but it is a wonderful book even so!

You can read more Henning Mankell reviews at ScandinavianBooks.

The White Lioness has been filmed as well. You can order the DVD from amazon (US): The White Lioness, or the book: The White Lioness

Or, order from amazon UK: The White Lioness (book) or White Lioness [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC).

©2012 NekkidBlogger Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

That is where the plot starts in Henning Mankell’s first Kurt Wallander detective mystery: Faceless Killers. The result is a well-done, intense and enjoyable police procedural..

Since Faceless Killers is the first book in a series, the reader is provided with some background information on 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. Also, he has a somewhat strange relationship to his father, an ageing artist, who is showing the first signs of senility. As well, he is a little grumpy at times.

In Faceless Killers, Mankell lets the reader join in on the investigation process. There are no hidden clues as in Agatha Christie’s books. It is all hard work, sweat and reasoning.

With a keen sense of the psychological dimensions of his characters, Henning Mankell delivers a fast paced, very interesting and highly entertaining read in Faceless Killers.

You can read more reviews of Henning Mankell’s books at ScandinavianBooks.com.

Order Faceless Killers from amazon UK: Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallender Mystery).

©2012 NekkidBlogger Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.