Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team return to investigate the harrowing case of a serial killer whose victims include one of their own colleagues. Interspersed in the investigation, that takes Wallander to the Swedish Baltic islands and to Copenhagen, the anxieties, doubts and health concerns of the all too human Kurt Wallander intervene.
Mankell tells a good story, creates a believable atmosphere of an overworked, under-resourced police team investigating a brutal and baffling series of crimes plus coping with the loss of a colleague while the media, politicians and high brass are pressurising for quick results. The detection (99 % perspiration and 1 % inspiration) is realistically recreated while Mankell is excellent in evoking the changing environment of modern Sweden and the loss of the old certainties, while Kurt Wallander must be one of the most human and sympathetic detectives in current fiction.
Although perhaps not quite as good as some of Wallander's previous excursions (The Fifth Woman is particularly excellent), One Step Behind succeeds as both crime story and novel. Somehow that the peaceful Skane area of southern Sweden seems to have a murder rate similar to that of Glasgow or Los Angeles simply doesn't seem to matter. We look forward to the next in this consistently readable and well thought out series.
