I do like me a good Swedish noir, especially one where the author gives full rein to let his master sleuth (Kurt Wallander) fall apart from depression and crawl his way back to solve the mystery and save the day. Particularly good in this one were:
- The opening mysterious, violent (though off-camera) crime.
- The introduction of our reluctant hero as a highly depressed, barely functioning alcoholic who is about to quit policing altogether after having shot a bad guy to death the previous year.
- His friend’s plea to investigate his father’s mysterious death in a car accident doesn’t pull Wallander back from the brink
- But his friend’s murder finally does.
- The development of Wallander’s team and the rise of a young female cop who begins to take the role of Wallander’s dead mentor.
- Wallander’s messy personal life that keeps popping its head round the door – his cantankerous artist father, his absent first wife, absent pen-pal future love, his infrequently visiting daughter Linda.
I didn’t think the solution to the mystery was handled particularly adroitly (the main suspect just confesses then nips off, leaving his henchmen to do in Wallander, which of course they fail to do adequately).
But over all, an atmospheric, semi-philosophical trip through middle age, appealing most perhaps to a reader of a certain similar age and gender.
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No. 7 of 50 books I intend to read and review in 2023. (yeah, I’m a bit behind)
I’m Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at my conversation school in Abiko, Japan, I write and illustrate textbooks for non-native speakers of English, release Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, paint, sketch and write essays and a monthly newsletter highlighting good writing in English, often about about Japan, art, crime fiction and teaching.
Patrick Sherriff 