From Publishers Weekly
In the sixth Kurt Wallander book to appear in English (One Step Behind, etc.), Mankell proves once again that spending time with a glum police inspector in chilly Sweden can be quite thrilling. In the small town of Ystad, a pair of seemingly random events take place within a matter of days: two teenage girls with no apparent motive brutally beat and stab a taxi driver to death, and a remarkably healthy man checks his bank balance at an ATM and then collapses dead on the sidewalk. After two more odd murders, Wallander becomes convinced that the incidents are all connected. The recurring clues demonstrating the vulnerability of society in the electronic age remain just outside of the Luddite inspector's understanding. But once he detects a conspiracy to collapse the world's financial infrastructure on a specific date, Wallander, whose position at work is already imperiled, ignores office politics and protocol to stop the would-be revolutionary. Although Wallander and his investigative team are forced to work at a dizzying speed, the pace of the book is just right, doling out new leads and intrigues right when they're needed. The only shortcoming in this otherwise smartly written mystery is that too many of the most perplexing clues discovered by Wallander are dismissed as red herrings or coincidence. Overall, however, Mankell's ambitious endeavor to combine large themes with small-town murder is a notable success.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Well-paced...a thinking man's thriller." --The New York Times Book Review
“Satisfying…. [Mankell's] Sweden, cold, isolated and brimming with disappointment--is as intriguing a landscape as Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles or Charles Willeford's Miami." --The Wall Street Journal
“Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture.” --Associated Press
“Satisfying…. [Mankell's] Sweden, cold, isolated and brimming with disappointment--is as intriguing a landscape as Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles or Charles Willeford's Miami." --The Wall Street Journal
“Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture.” --Associated Press
Book Description
Seventh in the Kurt Wallander series.
A body is found at an ATM the apparent victim of heart attack. Then two teenage girls are arrested for the brutal murder of a cab driver. The girls confess to the crime showing no remorse whatsoever. Two open and shut cases. At first these two incidents seem to have nothing in common, but as Wallander delves deeper into the mystery of why the girls murdered the cab driver he begins to unravel a plot much more involved complicated than he initially suspected. The two cases become one and lead to conspiracy that stretches to encompass a world larger than the borders of Sweden.
A body is found at an ATM the apparent victim of heart attack. Then two teenage girls are arrested for the brutal murder of a cab driver. The girls confess to the crime showing no remorse whatsoever. Two open and shut cases. At first these two incidents seem to have nothing in common, but as Wallander delves deeper into the mystery of why the girls murdered the cab driver he begins to unravel a plot much more involved complicated than he initially suspected. The two cases become one and lead to conspiracy that stretches to encompass a world larger than the borders of Sweden.
From the Back Cover
"Well-paced...a thinking man's thriller." --The New York Times Book Review
“Satisfying…. [Mankell's] Sweden, cold, isolated and brimming with disappointment--is as intriguing a landscape as Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles or Charles Willeford's Miami." --The Wall Street Journal
“Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture.” --Associated Press
“Satisfying…. [Mankell's] Sweden, cold, isolated and brimming with disappointment--is as intriguing a landscape as Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles or Charles Willeford's Miami." --The Wall Street Journal
“Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture.” --Associated Press
About the Author
Internationally acclaimed author Henning Mankell has written numerous Kurt Wallander mysteries. The books have been published in thirty-three countries and consistently top the bestseller lists in Europe, receiving major literary prizes (including the UK’s Golden Dagger Award in 2000) and generating numerous international film and television adaptations. Born in a village in northern Sweden in 1948, Mankell divides his time between Sweden and Maputo, Mozambique, where he works as the director of Teatro Avenida.
