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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
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
"
"From the Trade Paperback edition."
"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
"
"From the Trade Paperback edition."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 51 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.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
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
50 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I was bought this book as a Christmas present. I had never heard of the author or the detective who is the main character.
However what an absolute delight. A real story about a detective in a small police force in Sweden. Normally he has to deal with petty crime so when a very violent double murder is uncovered our detective "Kurt Wallander" has a problem on his hands.
What is exceptionally good about this book is the development of the main character Wallander. His wife has left him, his father is on the start of suffering from dimentia and his daughter wont talk to him. This is story of a policeman working laboriously through what small clues there are, managing his private life, yet it is done with a very ydry humour through out the book.
Loved it
However what an absolute delight. A real story about a detective in a small police force in Sweden. Normally he has to deal with petty crime so when a very violent double murder is uncovered our detective "Kurt Wallander" has a problem on his hands.
What is exceptionally good about this book is the development of the main character Wallander. His wife has left him, his father is on the start of suffering from dimentia and his daughter wont talk to him. This is story of a policeman working laboriously through what small clues there are, managing his private life, yet it is done with a very ydry humour through out the book.
Loved it
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent start, poor finishing
Enjoyed the first three quarters of the book, but then the final solution was so contrived and rushed that it spoiled the read as a whole. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dave Bear
Excellent read
I bought it for my sister who assured me it was a brilliant read. Hope it won't be too long before his next one comes out
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. C. E. Etchells
Amazon please raise your standards
4 stars for the book minus 3 for Amazon for sending me an email informing me of "Henning Mankell's new book". Read more
Published 5 months ago by pliget
Idiots at Amazon combined with usual Xmas email frenzy
When I received an email entitled, 'Henning Mankell's new book', as a fan I was quite intrigued, knowing what happened in the last new book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JXHogan
A good yarn let down by a slightly lumpen translation
A well plotted, tale, definitely the dark Branagh Wallander rather than the blander Krister Henriksson version. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Andy Rooney
One of the best books I've read this year
I'd already come across Kurt Wallander thanks to the excellent Kenneth Branagh series, but this is the first time I've picked up one of the original novels. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Miss E. Potten
Way before Stieg Larsson there was Henning Mankell
Although Scandinavian crime fiction may have seen the masses enjoy part of it with Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, way back in the 1990s a couple of authors had started their... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mikey
Better than the rest
There are many Scandinavian crime writers that have come out of the woodwork since the success of the Stig Larsson books, but Mankell was here before all that, and is also the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Basement Cat
Good Read
I have just finished reading Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, the first in the Kurt Wallander series. Read more
Published 7 months ago by TraceyC
An excellent find
I have watched neither the Swedish or English TV adaptations but was tempted to finally try the Wallender series after hearing Henning Mankell on Book Club. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. L. Watson
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