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The Fifth Woman (Kurt Wallender Mystery)
 
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The Fifth Woman (Kurt Wallender Mystery) (Paperback)

by Henning Mankell (Author), Steven T. Murray (Translator)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 592 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (5 Sep 2002)
  • ISBN-10: 0099445212
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099445210
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.1 x 4.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45,728 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
A series of men who seem to have nothing in common are brutally killed--one is impaled, another starved and then strangled. We know more than the police--we know that the killer is a woman and we gradually understand some of her motivation; her much wronged mother was murdered almost by chance in a North African country--but we don't know who she is, or, for a while at least, her motives and principles of selection of her victims. Inspector Wallender finds himself investigating the case--two missing person enquiries that turn into a murder hunt--and finds himself endlessly confused by red herrings and side issues; a set of leads concerning mercenaries in the Congo of the 1960s turn out to have little to do with the case and Wallender has to waste considerable time suppressing an attempt by the far Right to turn the murders into a reason to set up vigilante justice.The Fifth Woman is a stylish police procedural which lets us see not only the leg work of investigation but also the diligence which makes effective murder possible--the killer Wallender is trying to catch is at least as good at her job of murder as he is at his of prevention. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Four nuns and a fifth woman, a visitor to Africa, are killed in a savage night-time attack. Months later, in Sweden, the news of the unexplained tragedy sets off a cruel vengeance for these killings. Inspector Kurt Wallander is home from an idyllic holiday in Rome, full of energy and plans for the future. Autumn settles over the province of Skane, and Wallander prays the winter will be peaceful. But when he investigates the disappearance of an elderly bird-watcher he discovers a gruesome and meticulously planned murder - a body impaled in a trap of sharpened bamboo poles. Then another man is reported missing. And once again, Wallander's life is on hold as he and his close knit team work tirelessly to find a link between the series of viscous murders. Making progress not through revelation but through dogged police work, and forever battling to make sense of the violence of modern Sweden, Wallander will lead a massive investigation to find a killer whose crimes are the product of the new realities that make him despair.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Fifth Woman (Kurt Wallender Mystery)
66% buy the item featured on this page:
The Fifth Woman (Kurt Wallender Mystery) 4.3 out of 5 stars (23)
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The Dogs of Riga
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The Man Who Smiled
7% buy
The Man Who Smiled 3.6 out of 5 stars (21)
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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent detective and well marked trail of detection, 24 Feb 2004
By M. I. R. Clarke "ian clarke" (northern ireland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
What a refreshing change to find a real person in charge of an investigation rather than the larger than life comic book creations too common in the staple American detective fiction. As plots go, Mankell's "Fifth Woman" is far fetched but what makes it so absorbing and believeable is the painstaking procedural plodding by Inspector Wallender's team. It builds up an incredible mountain of forensic and circumstantial evidence, dead ends and red herrings which for a long time seem to lead nowhere. To a certain extent the reader is a step ahead, seeing also from the killer's perspective, so part of the book's fascination is the tension we feel when the clues become tantalisingly close to revealing the identity. Kurt Wallender is certainly an engaging and sympathetic character whose intuitive leaps are generally credible because he also gets his hands dirty, makes mistakes and shows real human frailties. The book is relentlessly paced and indeed hard to put down at times. "Sidetracked" and "One Step behind" are equally good in the series, "Faceless Killers" a bit below par, and avoid "Dogs of Riga" which is more a far fetched spy thriller.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very existential, very Swedish, very, very good, 29 Sep 2001
By Dr. Sn Cottam "Steve the medic" (Preston, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
The human, all too human, Inspector Kurt Wallander is thrown up against personal and professional challenges in this worthy addition to a sucessful series.
In the bleakness of a Skane autumn, beautifully evoked, a serial killer is murdering men with the utmost barbarity. Wallander and his team investigate against the backdrop of a changing Sweden where the old certanties and social cohesion have gone and an unsure future awaits. In addition Wallander faces the uncertainties and decisions of his own life. Mankell has created a post-modern investigator who in addition to solving a brutal series of killings and prevent more deaths, must also confront his own existential problems.
The story-telling is effective, the plot tight, the round of police investigation (99 % hard routine work, 1 % brilliant deduction) is superby recreated. Very effective, very existential, very Swedish and very very good. Highly recommended
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Though this be madness, 20 Feb 2007
By Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
yet there is method in 't." Hamlet: Act II, Scene 2.

Four nuns have been found brutally murdered in a convent in an unnamed North African country. A fifth woman has also been murdered. Although news of the murders is suppressed and the fifth woman is never publicly identified a policewoman with a conscience forwards letters found in her possession to her daughter in Sweden. Soon thereafter a series of seemingly unconnected and brutal murders grip the small, Southern-Swedish city of Ystad. The murders are well planned and executed. They seem designed to inflict as much pain as possible. Detective Inspect Kurt Wallander is tasked with identifying the killer or killers and the motive behind the killing. If Wallander cannot discover a motive he must at least learn enough about the killer's method to stop him or her before more people lay dead in strange surrounding. That is the plot of Henning Mankell's "The Fifth Woman".

"The Fifth Woman" is the sixth book in Mankell's Kurt Wallander series. This series is often compared to the Martin Beck detective mysteries authored by the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. Wallander, like Beck, is a police detective in Sweden. Unlike Beck, whose beat was Stockholm, Wallander works in the small southern-Swedish city of Ystad. The Wallander series takes place in the 1990s while the Beck series took place in the 1960s and 1970s. Although I tend to prefer the Beck series, the Wallander books are entertaining page-turners. Mankell stays well within the `police procedural' formula and has not tried to reinvent the genre. However, he has done a good job, through the first books in the series, of developing the character of Mankell and his supporting cast of characters. Wallander is no Sherlock Holmes and gets results more by perspiration than inspiration. He is also a fully drawn character. We see him dealing with the break-up of a marriage, an estranged daughter, and a father who is developing senile dementia. The supporting characters, particularly his fellow detectives, are also well drawn.

As the plot in "The Fifth Woman" plays itself out Mankell does a good job of showing the grunt work that goes into a murder investigation. Mankell also does a good job portraying the relationship of Wallander with his fellow police officers and with his family, especially his aged and failing father. Wallander is shown as a flawed man, a man with a temper and someone who can be more than a bit stubborn. However, I found myself drawn to the character as much for his flaws as for his detective skills.

The Fifth Woman is, in my opinion, one of the better books in the Wallander series and I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone interested in a good police story, especially one set in a location outside the United States. Recommended. L. Fleisig

For those who prefer to read a detective series in chronological order this is the order of the Kurt Wallander series written by Henning Mankell. The dates listed are the dates of publication in Sweden.
Faceless Killers (1991)
The Dogs of Riga (1992)
The White Lioness (1993)
The Man Who Smiled (1994)
Sidetracked (1995)
The Fifth Woman (1996)
One Step Behind (1997)
Firewall (1998)
Before the Frost (Linda Wallander) - 2002
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars What a book!
This is the first Mankell book I've bought and I found it to be absolutely brilliant. It seems that you cannot pick up a Scandinavian thriller these days and not enjoy it, but... Read more
Published 1 month ago by John

5.0 out of 5 stars Kurt Wallander - Sweden's answer to Morse
A multi-layered story, much like our hero's character. Wallander is a real person, with faults and foibles and his dogged pursuit of the villain is at times almost painful to... Read more
Published 1 month ago by C. A. Kennedy

4.0 out of 5 stars Henning Mamkell book
The book was in very good condition and was well packaged it arrived promtly. thank you
Published 4 months ago by S. M. Binsley

5.0 out of 5 stars HENNING MANKELL
Can highly recommend this author -- also watch out for the tv series starring kenneth branagh -- equally brilliant!!
Published 5 months ago by M. Teodorini

3.0 out of 5 stars Readers review
The book gives a good insight in the southern Swedish police work with excellent characters and a very good plot. The translation from Swedish is not the best I have seen.
Published 5 months ago by Anders Engborg

5.0 out of 5 stars Swedish crime at its best
You get so much out of the Kurt Wallander series. Henning Mankells writing is tip top, his characterisations are superb, in Kurt you see a man whose life has been ruled and in a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by jo

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't
There may be a story in there, but -- in translation at least -- this is atrociously written, trite, full of cliches and dead language. It's in the bin.
Published 7 months ago by E. Maclachlan

5.0 out of 5 stars These books are now like an old friend
Firstly I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Its the 6th Kurt Wallender book and all of them have been very enjoyable. This one especially so. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Scully Bloke

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book full of doubts
Kurt Wallander and his team have to solve a series of extremely cruel murders: an old man is found killed on a pole in the canal behind his house, another man first goes missing... Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2006 by Linda Oskam

2.0 out of 5 stars Kurt Plods After Another Serial Killer
This is the sixth book in the Wallander series, and probably the last I'll read for quite a while. The series started out promisingly enough with Faceless Killers, an interesting... Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2005 by A. Ross

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