Faceless Killers

Rating:
Summary: Introducing Kurt Wallander
Review: "Faceless killers" is Henning Mankell's first book with swedish detective Kurt Wallander as main character. It is a detective story in all senses: murders with only a few scattered clues, car pursuits, explosions, cigarrete butts lying on the floor...

But it's more than that. Kurt Wallander is a very interesting character, complex and well developed by Mankell. His wife left him. He haven't seen his daughter in quite a while. His father is on the verge of senility. He's overweight. He has almost no clues to the murders he has to investigate. And yet, he tries real hard to live a better life and do his work. Wallander lies among the men in the limit between being heros or anti-heros. But we, readers, can't help but cheer for this seemingly slow and a little obtuse guy. And we know in the end he will be fine. Or will he?

As to the "detective" part of the story, Mankell is a different thriller writer. There are no clues thrown in by the killers all over the crime scenes, no vengeful evildoers with maniacal plots. Wallander has to work with his intuition as much as with his luck during all the book. But that's close to what real life is, isn't it? Detective work is a slow job, and Mankell has catured it very well; but his book is not slow. On the contrary, it is a fast and intriguing read. And we even get to know a little about Sweden, a country unknown to most of us.

I recommend the "Kurt Wallander" series to all those who like a good and realistic detective thrillers.

Grade 8.8/10


Rating:
Summary: Foreignewrs are not Welcome
Review: A couple of farmers is murdered on their farm. When found, the wife is still barely alive and her last word is "Foreigner". And she has a rope around her neck with a strange 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 hate of foreigners comes to the fore and begins to grow all the way to riots against them.

As so often, Mankell wrote a book that is only partially a mystery. The rest is an indictment of various conditions humans are prone to establish. For comparison, see the White Lioness, ranting against apartheid in South Africa.

All this makes the book overly long and not entirely enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: An Intriguing Murder Mystery
Review: An intriguing murder mystery in which the plot is held together by the character Kurt Wallander, Chief Police Inspector, investigating an apparently motiveless double murder. Being apparently motiveless, the reader is not challenged to work out "whodunnit" as in an Agatha Christie plot but to sit back and enjoy the read as Wallander copes with the many stresses of his private life and the pressures of solving the murder. Recently divorced and trying to come to terms with this situation, experiencing weird erotic dreams, coping with problems with his 20 something wayward daughter and pursuing romantic ambitions with the state's chief public prosecutor provide just some of the fabric around which the novel is cleverly weaved. A few suspects do crop up as the novel progresses and these are gradually eliminated or further and further investigated with sometimes surprising outcomes. There's a serving of violence towards the end as the chase for the faceless killers reaches its inevitable climax. This story is an easy read with plenty of lighter moments to contrast with and provide a break from the gruesome murders. Also the backdrop of the relatively quiet and calm country of Sweden is a contrast to the more familiar and frenetic New York or Los Angeles settings. New readers as well as those who are already familiar with the Wallander crime books should enjoy "Faceless Killers".


Rating:
Summary: Swedish life introduction.
Review: As reading "Faceless Killers", I remembered a non-fiction "Even in Sweden" (Allan Richard Pred), both treats of same theme, immigrants. Some scenes in this novel written in early 90's are very close to some reports collected in the latter, written almost 10 years after. It might be Mankell's foresight.

But as a novel, it seems that Mankell has a distinct opinion upon this issue, then let Wallander (the main character) make many speeches for himself, in monologues and dialogues, plainly. I suppose, it's not an excellent manner of storytelling.

Also to my disappointment, it's too coarse and careless as a mystery (as some former reviewer pointed out), full of oddness. Everything occurs "suddenly" or "all of a sudden", with no hint or foreshadow. The most surprising thing is its solution. Expected things had occured as expected, it's pretty unexpected.

But aside from the mystery part, or racial issue, simply viewing this piece as a novel describing details of Swedish people's life, it's very interesting (especially to foreigners like me).
Their daily life, their way of thinking, their relations with their elder parent (one more unexpected thing is that Wallander's attitude to his elder father, which is not so far from some of ours in Japan as I've imagined), et al.

I recommend it for foreigners who interested in Swedish life.

Rating:
Summary: Swedish life introduction.
Review: As reading "Faceless Killers", I remembered a non-fiction "Even in Sweden" (Allan Richard Pred), both treats of same theme, immigrants. Some scenes in this novel written in early 90's are very close to some reports collected in the latter, written almost 10 years after. It might be Mankell's foresight.

But as a novel, it seems that Mankell has a distinct opinion upon this issue, then let Wallander (the main character) make many speeches for himself, in monologues and dialogues, plainly. I suppose, it's not an excellent manner of storytelling.

Also to my disappointment, it's too coarse and careless as a mystery (as some former reviewer pointed out), full of oddness. Everything occurs "suddenly" or "all of a sudden", with no hint or foreshadow. The most surprising thing is its solution. Expected things had occured as expected, it's pretty unexpected.

But aside from the mystery part, or racial issue, simply viewing this piece as a novel describing details of Swedish people's life, it's very interesting (especially to foreigners like me).
Their daily life, their way of thinking, their relations with their elder parent (one more unexpected thing is that Wallander's attitude to his elder father, which is not so far from some of ours in Japan as I've imagined), et al.

I recommend it for foreigners who interested in Swedish life.

Rating:
Summary: For Martin Beck fans, this is trip down memory lane.
Review: Echoes of Martin Beck, Sjöwall and Wahlöo's great Swedish detective are found in each chapter of this excellent police procedural. The language, too, reminds one of the Beck series--well crafted and straight-lined like Swedish modern furniture. If you've been longing these 20 years for a return to the doings of Sweden's police forces, welcome back. Or is it welcome beck? Whichever, Henning Mankell is one author I hope will return with more. All that's missing in this book are the mazarins!

Rating:
Summary: Mankell is a fantastic writer!
Review: Every book he has written has been fascinating, realistic, exciting and ... everything a book shoul be ! This is the first book (i think) with Kurt Wallander, the overweight detective who has problems with his family. Even though his problems he is a VERY SMART GUY. This book (and all other Mankell books) is a MUST !

Rating:
Summary: Very cool
Review: Everything about this novel exudes a sense of cool -- the characters, the landscape, the language. I love the way Wallander thinks and responds to his world, and Mankell's writing is a perfect fit for him; it's a bit broken and wounded, just like his protagonist. In a way this is a sad novel, one about a changing world that is increasingly hopeless and violent, and modern readers can certainly empathize with Wallander as he wonders how this has happened. Indeed, many of us feel that things have changed so much in so short a time, and Wallender wonders when this change occured and how he missed it. But he solves the crime, so alas, there is hope....I highly recommend Mankell. He's made me a fan. Start with this one, the first in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining procedural let down by poor translation
Review: Henning Mankell was a new writer to me, but having seen comparisons of his genre fiction with that of Ian Rankin I tried this novel.

This is the first in Mankell's Inspector Wallander series. Set in rural Sweden it is a police procedural. The opening chapters of the novel are gripping. It begins with a vicious murder to which Wallander is called. There are few clues, other than the last word of the second murder victim, "Foreigners". When news of this leaks out Wallander is drawn into a series of racially motivated incidents, and investigations around camps holding asylum seekers.

The tension is built up well in the first half of the novel, and the investigation of the murder, and the racial incidents, maintains high interest. The second half of the novel is more slackly paced, the denouement slightly disappointing.

Wallander is a fascinating character, and while the novel is third person narrative, so much is written from Wallander's perspective that the novel might as well be in the first person. Wallander is not the most likeable of characters. He has a strained relationship with his father and daughter, has recently separated, and falls into a number of stereotypes as the "loner" cop. Wallander's flaws, his racism (his observations on asylum seekers, for example), and his misogyny, for example, create a rounded well-drawn character. You may not like Wallander but so crafted is the character that his motivation is comprehensible.

However, the depth given to Wallander means that supporting characters suffer. Wallander's father - never satisfied, slightly ill-tempered, and suffering from a serious illness - has potential to be an interesting character, but seems instead to act as a checkbox to note Wallander's famly troubles. Others have a poorer fate. The prosecutor (and putative lust interest) Ms Brolin is one character that seems particularly flat. So ill-drawn are some of the characters that one wonders if a first person narrative may suit Mankell more, allowing Wallander the depth, and giving the excuse of Wallander's perception of others to justify their poorer treatment.

With this flaw, Wallander's work reminds me more of RD Wingfield's Frost series than Rankin's Rebus - where incidental characters tend to be fleshed out.

Most serious flaw in the novel, though, is the translation. Mankell's prose is rendered in a stilted manner, with a number of glaring grammatical problems. Mankell seems ill-served by a tin-eared translation.

This was an enjoyable novel, that started very well, but tailed off towards its conclusion. Wallander is a character I would like to see more of, and I intend to read other books of Mankell's. The series does hold much promise. But if you're looking for the new Ian Rankin try elsewhere (e.g. Denise Mina).

Rating:
Summary: Cliche-driven despite the good reviews
Review: I came to this book with high expectations given the numerous positive reviews it had received. Whilst it has a good plot and narrative pace, overall, I was disappointed by the author's lack of attention to small details and the novel's freqently unrealistic and cliched tone.

For example, the opera-loving, divorced, and worried-about- having-to-pay-for-staff-overtime, aspects of the protagonist Wallander could all have been taken from the creative writing school's "lonely, moody detective" template.

Also, it may have something to do with the translation but the dialogue is extremely stilted and unconvincing at times e.g. pg15 - "...it was particularly fiendish individuals who did this last night ... we have to find these people before they strike again".

Finally, I was particularly unimpressed by the fact that the Wallander character (who we are led to believe is a senior policeman with 20 years experience) is reduced to asking a colleague "Can you take finger prints from an apple core?" Either the other character's response that "you can take prints from anything" is wrong (at least good prints require a regular, flattish surface) or Wallander should already know the answer.