From his early days as a new recruit in Malmö through to twenty-years later and now in a more remote area and smaller city, Wallander is in a prime position to observe the changing patterns of crime over the years, both their nature and their prevalence. Given that my previous meeting with Wallander came in the form of the final novella of the series, I am struck by how much more gloomy and self-pitying the character seems to be in this first case, noticeably disposed to wallowing. Following his diagnosis in 2014, Mankell wrote a number of articles on his battle with cancer until his death in October 2015įaceless Killers marked the debut appearance of the dyspeptic Ystad detective, Kurt Wallander, and although the Swedish language version was written in 1991, the English translation did not follow until 1997. Henning Mankell was born in Stockholm in 1948. In 2008, the University of St Andrews conferred Henning Mankell with an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his major contribution to literature and to the practical exercise of conscience. Faceless killers kindle free#Mankell devoted much of his free time to working with Aids charities in Africa, where he was also director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. Faceless killers kindle series#His books have been translated into over forty languages and made into numerous international film and television adaptations: most recently the BAFTA-award-winning BBC television series Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. His prize-winning and critically acclaimed Inspector Wallander Mysteries have featured in bestseller lists all over the globe for many years. Henning Mankell became a worldwide phenomenon with his crime writing, gripping thrillers and atmospheric novels set in Africa. Iain Robinson -This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. He is a truth seeker, trying to make sense of his rapidly changing world, his method happens to be detective work, and it is this search that lies at the philosophical heart of the novel. When this limited evidence and its implications leak to the press it stirs right wing activists into action.Īt times Wallander seems too much like the traditional hard-drinking, hard-living, hard-boiled detective of old, but he is more than that. Wallander investigates a brutal double murder at a remote farmhouse in which the only possible clues are the whispered words of a dying woman and a freshly fed horse. Set in January 1990, in a frozen landscape and against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Europe, this is a bleak novel that deals with the thorny issues of immigration and racial hatred. And to cap it all, his wife has left him and his daughter doesn't speak to him.įaceless Killers is the first of the acclaimed Wallander novels. He eschews the meticulous and the scientific in favour of his hunches, which all too often lead up blind alleys. It could be said that as a policeman, Kurt Wallander, Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell's award winning creation, isn't much cop. We live as if we were in mourning for a lost paradise, he thought. How was he going to learn to live with the new?. As a policeman, he still lived in another, older world. Highly recommended' Observer 'Mankell is in the first division of crime writing' The TimesĪ new world had emerged, and he hadn't even noticed it. 'Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. But now Wallander must forget his troubles and throw himself into a battle against time and against mounting racial hatred. He works tirelessly, eats badly, and drinks his nights away. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, and even his ageing father barely tolerates him. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes a tide of racism. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. 'Wallander is among the very best fictional crimebusters' Daily Telegraph One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. Discover the first novel in the addictive Wallander series.
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