- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: The Harvill Press; 1st ed. edition (5 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1860469841
- ISBN-13: 978-1860469848
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 882,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
One Step Behind (Wallander TV Tie)
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product details |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"The real test of thrillers of this kind is whether you want to spend more time in the detective's company. I certainly do" Sean French, Independent; "Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around, strong on characterisation, plotting and atmosphere. Highly recommended" Peter Gutteridge, Observer
Product Description
It is Midsummer's Eve, three young friends gather in a wood. In the still-sunlit Scandanavian dusk, they don costumes joyfully to enact - or so it appears to an unseen observer - a kind of masque. The hidden watcher soon brings their performance to an end. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. The murderer then carefully photographs the grisly tableau. The Ystad police station meanwhile is experiencing a summer lull, indeed Inspector Wallander is at last at liberty to attend to - albeit reluctantly - his deteriorating health, but his peace of mind is shattered when one of his colleagues is murdered. An unknown killer, seen by no-one, is on the loose, and the police's only lead is a photograph of three dead young people in costume. Forced to dig more deeply than he would have wanted into the personal life of one of his colleagues, Wallander's investigation reveals something none of his team could ever have imagined. However, they remain tantalisingly, terrifyingly one step behind the lethal progress of a killer Wallander would have to suppose was deranged if his methods were not so meticulous and his victims so clinically targeted.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
multi-layered detective tale Swedish style,
By
This review is from: One Step Behind (Kurt Wallender Mystery) (Paperback)
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.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tracking a very careful serial killer,
By
This review is from: One Step Behind: A Kurt Wallander Novel (Kurt Wallender Mystery) (Paperback)
On Midsummer night (a big celebration in Sweden) 3 young adults are shot to death in cold blood in a nature reserve in South Sweden. The killer is extremely careful: he removes all traces, including the bodies, and makes the parents belief that their children have gone on an extended summer holiday to Europe. But something is not right and this feeling becomes very urgent when one of Inspector Kurt Wallander's colleagues is found in his apartment with his face blown to pieces. Time for Wallander and his team to start an investigation for a killer that always seems to be one step ahead of the team. Four more people die before the team has an idea who the killer might be, and even when the investigation turns into a manhunt, they need all their considerable skills to bring this case to a good end. And in all this mess Wallander also finds out that he is a diabetic and has to change his lifestyle: not an easy option when you are trying to catch one of the most gruesome serial killers that Sweden has ever seen...
Once you are reading this book you cannot stop. The book seems to be slow-paced, but that is only at the surface, below that there are numerous developments that keep the reader interested. A real page turner.
53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Skåne is lethal!,
By Robin S. Hall (Ealing, London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: One Step Behind: A Kurt Wallander Novel (Kurt Wallender Mystery) (Paperback)
This is one of the better Wallander novels. The story begins with typical Mankell opening - a killing with mysterious and incomplete details. The tension builds as Wallander's team are increasingly aware of links with one of their colleagues mysteriously killed in an apparently unrelated incident. The culmination builds to a crescendo as the killer gets very personal. Some of the details are totally unexplained even at the end of the book, but this does not spoil the overall quality of the writing. In spite of actually being a quiet rural area with a distinctive accent, Skåne comes over in the Wallander series as a lethal place to live. Wallander continues his decline in this book, now suffering from diabetes and angst over his dead father - he reminds me of both John Rebus(by Ian Rankin) and Martin Beck (Sjöwell/Wahlöö). Thoroughly recommended as an expose of aspects of contemporary Swedish society as well as a riveting police procedure novel.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
