Before the Frost: A Linda Wallander Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Unusually for Mankell, highlights some weaknesses
Review: I think Henning Mankell is trying to up the ante in the Wallander books. The early books were about criminals, often loners. There was always some connection with national or world issues like immigration or racial tension, but the clever bit was how one small event in Ystad reflected world trends.
Lately though, Mankell is concentrating on more and more unlikely situations to, presumably, give the books a bigger impact. The trouble is, it has the opposite effect.
The last book, 'Firewall', had Ystad at the centre of a bunch of criminals infiltrating a computer network with the intention of world domination. It spoiled the book somewhat. In 'Before the Frost' it's a group of religious fundamentalists (how topical) with a 'grand plan'.
And I think Mankell's problem here is that even he doesn't really know what this grand plan is. So he has trouble describing it. The actions of the fundamentalists are a series of pseudo-symbolic acts, like burning animals, and putting women-who've-had-abortions to death. It's empty stuff, melodramatic, and dull. It doesn't move the plot along and feels like Mankell was struggling with his material.
The rest of the book deals with soon-to-be police officer, Linda Wallander, and her relationship with her father, our beloved Kurt. But even here, the writing is untypically stilted, and there are some downright unbelievable scenes. For instance, Linda has an argument with Kurt at the Police Station and throws a glass ashtray at him, making him bleed profusely. I didn't believe this scene at all. Much of the dialogue in the book, especially between Linda and her father, or Linda and her friends, is highly unrealistic and difficult to voice.
When Mankell gets back to the things he's good at, the novel is fine though. He's good at describing the Skåne landscape. He's phenomenally good at creating tension, suspense and atmosphere. He's good at describing the way the police station works.
'Before the Frost', more than any other Wallander novel, makes you think about what he's not so good at: dialogue is the chief culprit. He's okay when it's police matters, but he just doesn't have an ear for ordinary dialogue like, say, the Norwegian crime writer Karin Fossum, which makes me think it's not just a translation problem.
I'm not sure he's so great at writing from a woman's perspective either. Linda's character is not nearly as compelling nor empathetic as Kurt's. She's at times gloomy, like Kurt, at times childlike, and girly, but rarely realistic. Her previous life events are what define her, and they're like something from a 'build a character' kit. I'm not sure I look forward to the next Linda Wallander mystery.
All these criticisms aside, I still largely enjoyed the book, though I found much of the melodramatic religious stuff tedious. There are moments of great tension and horror, just like in any Mankell crime novel, but it seems to be spread more thinly than usual.
It makes me glad there's a Kurt Wallander novel ('The Man Who Smiled') still untranslated. Somehow I know it'll be better than this.


Rating:
Summary: mankell passes wallander's torch
Review: If you're a Mankell fan, you're a Wallander fan. If you think the parts of the Wallander books that don't feature Wallander were ho-hum and Return of the Dancing Master was good but Stefan is something of a Wallander rip-off, then you are about to meet heaven.
Linda Wallander is a chip off the old block. If Mankell is passing the torch down to Wallander's daughter and start a series there, he is on sure ground. She is every bit as fascinating a character as her father and since her father still features in the book, it works great.
What I especially love about this book is the way Mankell deals with their relationship. It shows Linda learning how to be a good cop, shows Wallander being his typical grumpy but brilliant self, and (as always) brings so damned much real humanity to the story that it's impossible not to feel you're participating.
Crime writers branching out with new characters is always iffy. Parker's Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone are good examples. But Mankell is giving real-time progress to his books by bringing Linda in.
It's absolutely fabulous and I can't wait to read more and more...

Rating:
Summary: terrific Kurt Wallender Swedish police procedural
Review: No one is more proud of Linda Wallender graduating from the Swedish Police Academy than her dad Chief Inspector Kurt Wallender. Linda looks forward to begin work at the Ystad Police Department and ultimately to find a flat of her own having lived with dear old dad until now.

Dad is eager to mentor his daughter and she is eager to learn from him how to run an investigation though her patience runs thin when he becomes protectively fatherly. Still while Kurt struggles to stop a religious extremist seemingly setting up a mass murder, Linda investigates on her own. Dad frets over her safety because of the disappearance of her friend Anna Westin, who vanished shortly after her father reentered her life after he went away and did not returning for over two decades. As Wallander the younger seeks clues from a variety of sources including Anna's journal, another young woman named in the journal, vanishes. The case has the Wallenders arguing and putting up a FIREWALL between them as the teacher-pupil relationship falls into a more adversarial situation with each feeling ONE STEP BEHIND the other in pursuit of FACELESS KILLERS. They must cooperate if they are to uncover the dark goings on as their two cases have merged.

The Kurt Wallender Swedish police procedurals has been some of the best the sub-genre has had to offer over the last few years to include novels translated like these or originally in English. The latest story BEFORE THE FROST takes an intriguing spin as Kurt shares top billing with a chip off the old block his own daughter Linda. The two subplots merge effortlessly so that the audience receives another winning cop tale from talented Henning Mankell.

Harriet Klausner