Faceless Killers: The First Kurt Wallander Mystery
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Product Description
First in the Kurt Wallander series.
It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.
Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his alienated daughter, or the gorgeous but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.Amazon.com Review
If you remember with pleasure persons dark and gloomy Martin Beck mysteries by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, you’ll be glad to plunge into the first of Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender mysteries to appear in English. Wallender’s personal life can occasionally seem more depressing than even a provincial Swedish detective should be questioned to bear, but his investigative skills are strictly first rate. And Mankell’s tale of the brutal murder of an elderly farm couple uncovers an unusual aspect of life in modern Sweden–a streak of dread and prejudice against the many newcomers from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe who have sought asylum there.
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One of the problems with foreign language books translated into English is the poor way in which they are translated. I’m sure this book in its original form is very excellent but the translator has turned it into a lifeless monologue. This is the 2nd translation I’ve read this year (the additional was an Allende book) and I’ve vowed never to read a translated book again (unless it comes fervently recommended by a friend.)
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is my second Kurt Wallander Mystery and the first book in the series. As I mentioned in my review of Side-tracked it is my wife who is Mr. Mankell’s huge fan having read all of his books. I am not a huge mystery fan so it would take a lot for me to be overwhelmed by a police procedural (as I guess they are called). So again here, I was not overwhelmed but I establish the book entertaining and well written. Although I find it appealing that the case goes one direction all the way to the end only to have some tiny clue find things were not as they seemed. In this case the clue was rather hard to judge, but I guess it could take place. Will I read anymore Kurt Wallander books? Well I don’t know but I know Mankell has books with the daughter out now and that might be appealing to take in when the need to just be entertained on a plane is the mission at hand.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This first book in the Kurt Wallander series revolves around a very simple plot. The “mystery charm” is not really there, but the main character, Kurt Wallander, is so appealing that you will be hooked to leran more. That is why I am giving this series at least one more shot at improving the plots!
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
A couple of farmers is murdered on their farm. When establish, the wife is still barely alive and her last word is “Foreigner”. And she has a rope around her neck with a weird knot in it. Inspector Wallander recognizes the importance of this knot and spends time and effort to solve this riddle. The solution points to a foreign sailor – and there is a camp with foreigners seeking asylum nearby.
This sets the tone of the book. The despise of foreigners comes to the fore and starts to grow all the way to riots against them.
As so regularly, Mankell wrote a book that is only partially a mystery. The rest is an indictment of various conditions humans are prone to set up. For comparison, see the White Lioness, ranting against apartheid in South Africa.
All this makes the book overly long and not entirely enjoyable.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
I really expected better, but I’m willing to give Mankell the benefit of the doubt. The language and pacing of Faceless Killers was so pedestrian that – for no additional reason – I’m moving on lacking a intermission to The Man Who Smiled. I’m moving on and hoping for a less plodding narrative.
With any book translated from another language, there’s no way to be sure that the voice you hear is the one the leader proposed. But, my spouse, whose grandfather came over from slightly north of Malmo, has really studied the language. He tells me that Swedish has many less words in the glossary than does English, where we’ve adopted words from every additional language. This offers us far more subtlety in expression, but it doesn’t reasonably clarify the flat-affect, non-descriptive prose style that makes this book ultimately so unsatisfactory.
The pacing – which can’t be attributed to translation – is also disturbing, in that the actual solution to the crime is open as a virtual deus ex machina in the last ten pages.
Not my favorite. Hoping for better.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5