One frozen January Morning at 5 am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he expects is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, victims of violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, racial hatred is unleashed. Kurt Wallander is a senior police officer at Ystad, a small town in the wind-lashed Swedish province of Skane. His life is a shambles. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, even his ageing father barely tolerates him. He works tirelessly, eats badly and drinks the nights away in a lonely, neglected flat. But now winter closes its grip on Ystad, and Wallander, his tenacious efforts closely monitored by the tough minded (and disarmingly attractive) district attorney Anette Brolin, must forget his trouble, and throw himself into a battle against time and xenophobia.
Faceless Killers: Kurt Wallander
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A new world had emerged, and he hadn't even noticed it. As a policeman, he still lived in another, older world. How was he going to learn to live with the new? . . We live as if we were in mourning for a lost paradise, he thought...
It could be said that as a policeman, Kurt Wallander, Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell's award winning creation, isn't much cop. He eschews the meticulous and the scientific in favour of his hunches, which all too often lead up blind alleys. He drinks too much, then drives. He doesn't get enough sleep. And to cap it all, his wife has left him and his daughter doesn't speak to him.
Faceless Killers is the first of the acclaimed Wallander novels. 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. 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. When this limited evidence and its implications leak to the press it stirs right wing activists into action.
At times Wallander seems too much like the traditional hard-drinking, hard-living, hard-boiled detective of old, but he is more than that. 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.
--Iain Robinson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Review
" An exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth and suspense." -- "Los Angeles Times"
" An especially satisfying crime novel, like those of such past masters as Georges Simenon, Nicholas Freeling, and Sweden's own Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo." - "The Wall Street Journal
"
" Intelligent, moving and topical, this is a thriller of the very best kind." - "The Times" (London)
" A well-crafted police procedural, the story moves along at a brisk pace and comes to an exciting climax." - "St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"
" An especially satisfying crime novel, like those of such past masters as Georges Simenon, Nicholas Freeling, and Sweden's own Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo." - "The Wall Street Journal
"
" Intelligent, moving and topical, this is a thriller of the very best kind." - "The Times" (London)
" A well-crafted police procedural, the story moves along at a brisk pace and comes to an exciting climax." - "St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By Dot
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Faceless Killers is the first book in the Inspector Wallander series by Henning Mankell. It is like no other crime novel that I have read. It is set in Sweden and this is integral to the book; Mankell is describing the deterioration of the Swedish culture throughout his story. Wallander is shocked at the violent murders that have taken place; in many other crime novels these would have seemed expected and run-of-the-mill almost.
Wallander as a character is a brilliant creation. In many ways he is the stereo-typical overweight, divorced police inspector. However, he is much more complex than that; you feel that his career has taken over his life yet he is still struggling to decide what life is all about and what he wants out of it. You get a real sense that he is not a detective that merely wants a result; he wants to try and understand why these brutal crimes are committed.
I will definitely read the other books in the series, Mankell really draws you in but the book is so much more than a mere page-turner
Wallander as a character is a brilliant creation. In many ways he is the stereo-typical overweight, divorced police inspector. However, he is much more complex than that; you feel that his career has taken over his life yet he is still struggling to decide what life is all about and what he wants out of it. You get a real sense that he is not a detective that merely wants a result; he wants to try and understand why these brutal crimes are committed.
I will definitely read the other books in the series, Mankell really draws you in but the book is so much more than a mere page-turner
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was no great work of literature, and possibly lost something in the translation, but I give it five stars because it did exactly what I wanted it to, which was to keep me amused on holiday. I've long been a fan of the Wallander TV series (not Kenneth Branagh - the proper one) so I was intrigued to know what the original books were like, and thought it wise to start with the first one just in case I then wanted to read the rest. This book lived up to its expectations, with Wallander and his colleagues struggling with their sometimes dreary and difficult private lives whilst at the same time trying to solve gruesome crimes. The atmosphere of the long Swedish winter is captured perfectly. The book has a map of Skane, the area of southern Sweden where it is set. (All good books should have maps; saves me the trouble of digging out my atlas, which I otherwise feel compelled to do.) I enjoyed this book very much, and hope to read more of them. Perfect for that long flight.
56 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having seen Kenneth Branagh play Wallender on TV, I was intrigued to see for myself the original source. I'm not disappointed. The character of Wallender is nicely developed as an 'every-man' -a middle-aged man trying to do a difficult job that wrecks relationships, (I'm an ex-cop, and know that this aspect of the job is all too common) while trying to cope with the changes in society that seem always to be for the worst. As for the 'coincidences and luck' that lead to the eventual capture of the killers - that's how it is in reality. Someone remembers something that they thought was trivial, and it leads to a conviction. Cops spend an awful lot of time going up blind alleys, chasing false leads. It's worth remembering that criminals don't want to be caught, and often succeed in evading the law. So, for other reviewers to criticise the luck element in the story is naive. Well worth a read, but don't expect James Ellroy or Kathy Reichs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Faceless killers
The story was ok. A little slow in some places. Too much information about the little things. Overall a good story. Will read others in the series.
Published 8 days ago by paula mathias
3.0 out of 5 stars
It is okay but not to the same level as the Girl with the Dragon...
It was okay but did not particularly hold my interest, felt the ending was somewhat weak and not to the same level of writing as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy or the Jo... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mrs J Spicer
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dreary book
I have never watched an episode of Wallander as the trailers seemed so dismal, dreary and depressing. Read more
Published 16 days ago by L. Baxter
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you want to read Wallander (and you should!) start here!
This is the first novel in the Wallander series and if you haven't yet read these excellent Swedish detective stories, then you are in for a treat. Wallander is in his forties. Read more
Published 1 month ago by joc66
1.0 out of 5 stars
It was a struggle to make it to the end!
A very repetitive narrative which trundled laboriously on. Lack of any forensic input to the investigation of a brutal seemingly meaningless murder. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mary Hiley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping from start to finish
A real page turner.
I couldn't put this book down until I'd finished it.
A thrilling main plot with twists and turns with side plots and a little sadness too - a... Read more
I couldn't put this book down until I'd finished it.
A thrilling main plot with twists and turns with side plots and a little sadness too - a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alexandria Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy read
Good for bedtime reading. Swedish names hard to follow.. Characters quite well developed. Some bits a little Far fetched. Introduced me to this author
Published 1 month ago by Izzy Armstrong
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing... and pedestrian
Having really enjoyed the (Swedish) television series and read countless Scandinavian crime novels I was looking forward to this, only to be profoundly disappointed. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Hermannator
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hmmmm
Author and his character came recommended, but I found the story slow and the main character, Wallander, a typical policeman - with personal issues and lifeless. Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Kubski
5.0 out of 5 stars
Natural Affinity
Although I am a very elderly lady ,I feel a natural affinity with all of Hennings character .More More please
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Mollie M. MacDougall
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