Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Man Who Smiled (Kurt Wallander #4)

by Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson (Translator)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 6,167 ratings · 373 reviews

"After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself in a deep personal and professional crisis; during more than a year of sick leave, he turns to drink and vice to quiet his fears and anxieties. Once he pulls himself together, he vows to quit the Ystad police force for good - just before a friend who had asked Wallander to look into the death...more

Hardcover, 325 pages

Published September 19th 2006 by New Press, The (first published 1994)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Best Crime & Mystery Books

311th out of 3,394 books — 7,825 voters

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason

Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries

25th out of 142 books — 224 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 07, 2011 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2012 Karmen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebay, pbswap

Wonderful book. Presenting truly how police work impacts a man's psyche. The shooting, though justifiable, weighs heavily on Kurt. A year has passed and he is resolved, after 25 years service, to retire from the police force.

During a visit to Denmark, he is visited by Sten Torstensson, an old friend, now practicing lawyer in his father's firm. His father had been recently found dead in an "accident". Kurt declines his request to investigate the matter deeper.

Returning to Sweden, he finds an obit...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 17, 2008 Marsha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-detective

I love Kurt Wallander, the cynical & filled with existential angst detective. And this is so European. It's nice to remember that a fictional killer can have some real hangups about taking someone else's life. I can't remember the last time that was played out on US tv. Wallander spins a great tale, although I could do without the comments on how crime is becoming worse in Sweden. While he links this to the demise of social-democracy, he still insinuates that it is also because people are in...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 19, 2011 Annabelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a Kurt Wallander mystery. Mankell captures the locale of Ystad, Sweden, south on the Baltic Sea by Denmark. The fog, the wind, the town center are a three dimensional setting that the reader wants to inhabit and have coffee with Kurt. The basic plot is that a distance acquaintance of Kurt, an attorney, finds him in a seaside town where he has escaped trying to cope with severe depression after killing a criminal. The friend’s father has been killed in what has been judged an accident. Ku...more

like · see review

Dec 14, 2008 Reinhold rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

Mankell liefert üblicherweise Besseres

Henning Mankell kann es besser als er es in diesem Werk vermuten lässt. Die Story in diesem Buch ist an sich sehr gut. Ein toter Anwalt und noch ein toter Anwalt und dann geht es bald richtig zur Sache. Hinter all dem steckt der "Mann der lächelt", ein gevifter und mächtiger Geschäftsmann, der praktisch unantastbar erscheint.

Verglichen mit "Die weiße Löwin" und "Mittsommermord" ist jedoch die Erzählung sehr flach. Das Buch hat sich auch ein besseres Ende ver...more

like · see review

May 22, 2013 Rod rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel features Mankell’s well-known detective, Kurt Wallander. In the previous book, Wallander had killed a criminal. Though he had little choice this event set him back so much he was off work for a year and seriously considered resigning from the police force. Why didn’t he? Because it was the only life he knew and also because a lawyer sought him out, seriously concerned that his father, also a lawyer, had been murdered.

The son is correct, his father had been murdered, though it was made...more This novel features Mankell’s well-known detective, Kurt Wallander. In the previous book, Wallander had killed a criminal. Though he had little choice this event set him back so much he was off work for a year and seriously considered resigning from the police force. Why didn’t he? Because it was the only life he knew and also because a lawyer sought him out, seriously concerned that his father, also a lawyer, had been murdered.

The son is correct, his father had been murdered, though it was made to look like an accident. But when the son is also murdered, with no attempt made to disguise the fact, Wallander is drawn into the investigation. And improbable as it may seem, the main suspect appears to be a man called Harderberg, a self-made businessman on an international scale who is also big in charitable giving.
[This review contains spoilers]

When an attempt is made to murder Wallander himself, the only possible conclusion is that those behind it are worried that the lawyer’s son who had sought him out had passed on sensitive information. He hadn’t, but they had no way of knowing that.

This book is one of the better titles in the Wallander series, but it does have weaknesses. As always in these books, insights are felt to be there but just out of reach, and as always people say things which our detective feels instinctively are significant - but either he can’t remember exactly what was said, or he can but isn’t sure what it signifies. And these events happen too often.

But if we accept all that, there is still the problem of the ending. Wallander is captured by Harderberg and his two murderous henchmen. Amazingly, and improbably, he gets the better of his captors as they escort him to the helicopter from which he is about to be dropped without a parachute.

On the plus side, Mankell is excellent at evoking the machinations of an international business empire though, in the process, drops some unwelcome names, in particular that of the late Robert Maxwell whom some of us had managed to forget.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 12, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

De man die glimlachte is de vierde roman in de Inspecteur Wallander reeks. Dit verhaal is een vervolg op het vorige boek 'De witte leeuwin' en is daardoor een vloeiende overgang.

Nadat hij een man gedood had in “De witte leeuwin”, raakt Kurt Wallander van de recherche in het Zuid-Zweedse Ystad in een diepe depressie door schaamte en schuld. Hij is al meer dan een jaar met ziekteverlof. Hij probeert weer te herstellen op het strand van het Deense Skagen. Hij heeft juist besloten om de politie te...more De man die glimlachte is de vierde roman in de Inspecteur Wallander reeks. Dit verhaal is een vervolg op het vorige boek 'De witte leeuwin' en is daardoor een vloeiende overgang.

Nadat hij een man gedood had in “De witte leeuwin”, raakt Kurt Wallander van de recherche in het Zuid-Zweedse Ystad in een diepe depressie door schaamte en schuld. Hij is al meer dan een jaar met ziekteverlof. Hij probeert weer te herstellen op het strand van het Deense Skagen. Hij heeft juist besloten om de politie te verlaten als een oude vriend, Sten Torstensson, hem daar benadert met het verzoek om de recente dood van zijn vader bij een auto- ongeluk te onderzoeken. Eerst wil hij daar niet op ingaan en dient dan ook zijn ontslag in. Wallander was zo opgeslokt door zijn eigen ellende, dat hij Stens noodkreet niet gehoord had. Als echter Sten vermoord wordt gevonden, komt hij op zijn besluit terug en gaat de moord op de zoon én de vader onderzoeken, want hij is ervan overtuigd, dat ze allebei vermoord zijn. Hij voelt zich nu nog schuldiger over de dood van Sten en het afwijzen van diens smeekbede dan over de gebeurtenissen het jaar daarvoor.

Een jonge vrouwelijke rechercheur, Ann-Britt Höglund, is tijdens zijn afwezigheid bij het korps gekomen en Wallander neemt de rol aan van mentor. Zij is in wezen een vertegenwoordiger van een nieuwe generatie politiemensen, vindt Wallander. Daardoor krijgt hij meer moed voor de toekomst. Door de samenwerking krijgt hij ook meer zin in zijn werk. Een zakenman met een wereldwijd imperium, die zich verschuilt in zijn kasteel met een solide beveiliging lijkt de gemeenschappelijke factor te zijn in de beide moorden. Het is een man zonder scrupules, die altijd glimlacht. Al snel belandt Wallander in een wespennest van fraude en illegale handel in menselijke organen. Hij onderzoekt alles omtrent deze zakenman en beetje bij beetje ontdekt hij de waarheid.

De man die glimlachte is een zoektocht naar de moordenaar, welke door de schrijver wordt aangegrepen om een paar punten van kritiek op de maatschappij onder de aandacht te brengen: de onderbezetting van de politie, zijn bevoegdheid en de organenhandel. Ook het feit, dat een rijke zakenman heel moeilijk te pakken is, omdat alle firma ’s heel ondoorzichtig zijn, veel in het buitenland gehandeld wordt en de politie dan moet gaan samenwerken met andere instellingen, waardoor het nog moeizamer gaat. De macht van de man die glimlacht en de wreedheid waarmee hij zijn zaken doet, geven Mankell een manier om het kapitalisme te bekritiseren, die in de jaren 90 naar Zweden is gekomen. De financiële wereld schiet tekort aan verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel. De mogelijkheid, dat gerechtigheid niet geschiedt is een spookbeeld voor Wallander. Een aantal morele en ethische dilemma’s worden in het boek besproken, zoals bijvoorbeeld hoe het komt, dat iemand heel rijk kan worden: “Achter elk groot fortuin zit vaak een misdaad”, is een uitspraak van één van de mensen in het boek. Ikzelf denk ook, dat als je heel rijk wordt, dan heb je misbruik gemaakt van andere mensen. Aan het eind van het verhaal vraagt de secretaresse van Sten aan Wallander: ”Zijn er echt geen grenzen aan het kwaad wat mensen doen?”

Het verhaal is opnieuw goed geschreven. Korte zinnetjes en daardoor gemakkelijk leesbaar. De personages worden opnieuw goed uitgediept. Het verhaal kent echter wel weinig verrassingen. Het is vlot duidelijk, dat een zakenman, die de enige client was van de oude Torstensson achter de moorden zit. Alleen hoe valt dat te bewijzen? De plot houdt internationale handel in organen in, die operatief uit vermoorde mensen worden verwijderd en hebzucht. Het verhaal blijft boeiend, doordat je volledig wordt meegesleept met Wallanders zoektocht naar de waarheid. Boeken uit de serie zijn heel erg realistisch en menselijk geschreven. Wallander is een geloofwaardig hoofdpersonage, die ondanks vele twijfels, een gedreven speurder is. Dit is niet dé beste Wallander-thriller, maar wel weer een stevig verhaal.(less)

like · see review

Apr 05, 2013 Carmen Amato rated it 3 of 5 stars

Depressed Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander is growing on me, but not as fast as the portrayal of him by British actor Kenneth Branagh. I like the book plotlines, the descriptions of rural Sweden, the nice balance of character introspection and action. His perpetual unhappiness, stilted dialogue and self-searching angst are part of Henning Mankell’s moody style, so I guess I have to accept it as a package deal.

In The Man Who Smiled, Wallander can’t come to grips with the fact that he kille...more Depressed Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander is growing on me, but not as fast as the portrayal of him by British actor Kenneth Branagh. I like the book plotlines, the descriptions of rural Sweden, the nice balance of character introspection and action. His perpetual unhappiness, stilted dialogue and self-searching angst are part of Henning Mankell’s moody style, so I guess I have to accept it as a package deal.

In The Man Who Smiled, Wallander can’t come to grips with the fact that he killed a man in the line of duty. He’s drinking himself into oblivion, emerging briefly for a sex-addict’s blurred holiday in Thailand. After an intervention by his grownup yet unseen daughter Linda, he takes his angst to the windswept beaches of Jutland and plans to retire from his job as senior police detective in Ystad, Sweden. But an old friend approaches him to investigate the death of his father, then later turns up murdered. These events cause Wallander to get back into harness and start investigating again.

He’s been gone for over a year. The squadroom has changed, notably with the addition of a young female detective. As I write a mystery series about a lone female detective in a squadroom full of hostile men, this character really resonated with me. Her attitudes, dialogue and action scenes were very well done.

The book showcased the way Wallander pieces together what are really multiple murders. I enjoyed the pacing of the discovery of clues and the logic thread which made the mystery one of the best in the Wallander series. But there was one epic fail and it surprised me, given that the rest of the book came together so well. The wrong part would have been very easy to leave out or adjust to make sense. Without giving it away, it involved a switch by the bad guys after the good guy was dead and they simply could have taken the clue when they left the scene of the crime. Or Mankell could have left the original item to be found as the clue. Either way the plot elements would have hardly been affected.

I often look for solid motive in a mystery. The bad guy’s motive was a bit thin, but Mankell sold it as an appalling disregard for human life. It worked—but barely.(less)

like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 Remo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novela, 2005

Henning Mankell es un escritor sueco que ha escrito muchas cosas, pero al que se conoce principalmente por la saga policíaca de Kurt Wallander. Éste en concreto es el cuarto título de la serie. Los tres primeros son Asesinos sin rostro, Los perros de Riga y La leona blanca (creo que hay edición de bolsillo de todos ellos).

Kurt Wallander es un poli municipal, para que nos entendamos. Es el segundo de a bordo de la comisaría de Ystad, en Escania (la zona sur de Suecia). A juzgar por lo que se saca

...more

like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 Bill Krieger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is Wallander 4. It's a good entry in the series. Wallander is wonderful, of course. The plot is a little weaker and sillier than usual, but Mankell makes up for it by blowing up a lot of stuff. Cha!

Here in #4, Mankell gave us a map of all the places he's been writing about: Ystad, Malmo, Loderup, etc. Excellent.

And the dry, straight-faced dialog is great... here's Wallander discussing the case with crusty Nyberg. He he.

QOTD
"You were also right in thinking it was a sort of cooler. But it's...more

like · see review

Aug 21, 2011 Lianne added it

Once again on the search for Scandanavian mysteries beyond those of Stieg Larsson. Picked up my first in the Kurt Wallender series – very highly regarded by critics. Mankell is one of the most often translated European mystery writers. Kurt Wallender is an interesting policeman portrayed as a flawed human being in a literary style. The novels are in the same league as those of P.D. James, high praise indeed. The mood is dark and it's always foggy and rainy, and the cases are opaque and murky. Yo...more

like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Don rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is my second book in this police procedural series, set in a small city in southern Sweden. I found this less than fully compelling. Here are some of my problems with the book:

1. The pacing is slow, and the book bogs down a bit in the middle.

2. The mystery at the heart of the book is suspected financial crime by the principal of a large and secretive complex of businesses. The murder of several people, and the attempted murder of a couple of others, trigger the police investigation and appa...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 10, 2011 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, bookcrossing

This is the second Kurt Wallander book I've read, and enjoyed quite a bit.
Wallander is on sick leave after accidentally killing a man on duty, walking on a beach in Denmark, when a friend of his comes to ask for help. He suspects the death of his dad was not an accident. A few days later that friend is killed, and Wallander makes his decision to return to work to find justice for his friend, to find out who killed him, and what really happened to the father of his friend. Before long, the secret...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 13, 2010 Jenn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery, read-2010, novel, from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I nestled quite happily back into the world of another aging detective/adventurer, but was surprised to see how much I'd missed by skipping (due to the book being unavailable at the library) the third Wallander book. This book opens with a depressed Wallander stalking the beaches outside Skagen, preparing to turn over his badge and call it quits forever. In fact, the very day that he returns to Ystad to retire for good -- his desire to be a policeman having died when he shot and killed a man in...more

like · see review

Apr 08, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Mankell, Henning. THE MAN WHO SMILED. (1994). ****. Kurt Wallander has just gone through a one-year’s catharsis after having killed a man in the line of duty. He’s in Denmark, vacationing at a secluded beach and still trying to dry out after a year’s worth of heavy drinking. An old friend, a lawyer, finds him there and asks him for his help. Wallander tells him that he isn’t officially on the police force anymore, and hasn’t decided if he will return or not. The problem is that his friend’s fath...more

like · see review

Dec 13, 2009 Ria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kurt Wallander is op vakantie in Denemarken. Hij maakt er een strandwandeling. Hij is moe, depressief en wil ontslag nemen uit het politiekorps van Ystad. Aan het thuisfront in Zweden vinden echter twee moorden plaats die hem op andere gedachten brengen. Het gaat om de 69-jarige advocaat Gustaf Torstensson en diens collega en zoon Sten, een jeugdvriend van Wallander.[return][return]Op weg naar huis in het zuiden van Zweden weet de 69-jarige advocaat Gustaf Torstensson ternauwernood te stoppen vo...more

like · see review

Nov 23, 2009 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Man Who Smiled begins promising enough, with a murder disguised to look like an accident on a dark Swedish highway. Then we move to Kurt Wallander, brooding on a Jutland beach, trying to decide whether to quit the Ystand police department after he has killed a man in self defense. Of course, we know he won't quit, and he manages to get deeper and deeper into a murder investigation that soon turns into a gruesome investigation of a world-wide organ theft operation.

The problem with the book s...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 24, 2009 Ian Mapp rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

This is a real crock of a book.

Wallander is depressed cause he shot a crim and still has relationship problems with his father - which is just layed on as a break from the investigation to show that he has problems outside work.

Is he coming back into the police after his bout with depression and hard drinking. Yes he is and on day one - he is given the case of a father and son pair of solicitors who are murdered. And he is welcomed back as a returning hero.

For a crime book - this contains no red...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 01, 2009 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-crime-fiction-and-myst

The Man Who Smiled is number four in the Wallander series, picking up some time after Wallander's experiences in book 3, The White Lioness. As book four opens, Wallander is still on sick leave, and has made the decision during a period of incredibly intense depression that he will not be continuing on in his career as a policeman. But all of that changes when a friend seeks him out to ask him for help regarding the case of his father's death. The police had ruled it a car accident, but the frien...more The Man Who Smiled is number four in the Wallander series, picking up some time after Wallander's experiences in book 3, The White Lioness. As book four opens, Wallander is still on sick leave, and has made the decision during a period of incredibly intense depression that he will not be continuing on in his career as a policeman. But all of that changes when a friend seeks him out to ask him for help regarding the case of his father's death. The police had ruled it a car accident, but the friend is convinced that it was not. Wallander tells him that the police are most likely correct -- but then his friend is also mysteriously killed. This prompts Wallander to return to the job to find out what lays behind the deaths of father and son ... and uncovers much more than he bargained for.

While the plot will keep you turning pages and provide you with more than a few tense moments, what really made this book stand out was the character of Kurt Wallander. For the first time, really, since I started this series, I really got an insight into how Wallander thinks and what makes him a great cop. Mankell's characterization of Wallander is absolutely stunning, making him much more human in this book as compared to all of the other ones. It was absolutely amazing to be allowed into Wallander's thought processes -- I think Wallander became very real for me in this book for the first time in the series. When a character can become that real, it's definitely a sign that his or her creator is a top-notch writer.

The author does not only offer up a first-rate criminal and first-rate policemen here; he also raises several questions about the future of police forces, about the decline of the whole basis of the modern Swedish state as the profits of corruption become more entrenched, and about issues of morality & the true nature of justice in a world where crime is constantly changing and the police and justice system are trying to adapt. These questions are not relevant just to Sweden, but everywhere.

A bit on the gloomy side, this is not a book for readers looking for a lighthearted crime novel. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a superb reading experience, but I suggest starting with book one, Faceless Killers, and continuing the books in series order. Mankell is an excellent writer, definitely not to be missed. (less)

1 like · like · see review

May 10, 2012 Dorothy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: police-procedurals, swedish-mysteries

A problem that I have with almost all the Swedish novels that I read (and there seem to be quite a lot of them) is that often the language is incredibly stilted. Since I'm reading the books in English and I'm not familiar with the Swedish language, I can only assume that it is a problem with the translation, that it must be especially hard to render Swedish into English and make it flow easily over the page. Nowhere do I notice this problem more than with the books of Henning Mankell. I often fe...more A problem that I have with almost all the Swedish novels that I read (and there seem to be quite a lot of them) is that often the language is incredibly stilted. Since I'm reading the books in English and I'm not familiar with the Swedish language, I can only assume that it is a problem with the translation, that it must be especially hard to render Swedish into English and make it flow easily over the page. Nowhere do I notice this problem more than with the books of Henning Mankell. I often feel like I'm reading a Saturday Night Live parody of a Swedish scene. That was especially true with The Man Who Smiled.

We're now more than a year after the time when Kurt Wallander, the famously depressive, dour, angst-ridden Swedish detective, was forced to kill a criminal in the course of duty. It was self-defense, but still he is riven with guilt and has had to take sick leave from his job because of his emotional distress. He has tried unsuccessfully to find solace in booze and promiscuous sex, but in the end, he is more depressed and sick at heart than ever. He has decided, at length, that he will resign from the police and perhaps seek a job in security.

While he is pondering all of this on a beach in Denmark, a lawyer friend visits him and asks for his help in investigating his father's recent death. He had apparently died in an automobile crash and it was put down as an accident, but the son doesn't believe it. Kurt is too self-absorbed to really listen to what the man is saying and he refuses to help. A few days later, he learns that his friend has been murdered. At last something piques his interest! He decides to go back to work and to find out what happened to his friend as well as the friend's father - both lawyers. Not far into the investigation, someone plants a land mine in the backyard of the two lawyers' secretary. Then, while Kurt and a colleague are out on the road, pursuing their investigation, someone plants a bomb in his car and only his instinct that something is wrong saves them from being incinerated.

This is a complicated story involving a powerful Swedish billionaire with business interests around the world. Kurt comes to suspect that he is at the center of the evil that seems to be consuming Sweden, even though he is highly respected with an unassailable reputation. How will a simple police inspector, with limited resources and constant self-doubt and second-guessing every decision he makes, ever be able to crack the protective shell surrounding the billionaire and find proof of what he suspects?

These stories are interesting in their exploration of how the Swedish system of justice works and how police investigative units work. Apparently, it is a very collaborative effort with meetings every day to share information and brainstorm. Indeed, they spend so much time in meetings that - as one who spent much of her professional career in meetings - it is a wonder to me that any crime ever gets solved!

The personality of Wallander continues to be the prime point of interest to the stories. He is such a sad sack that often the reader (this reader anyway) just wants to shake him and say, "Get over it and get on with it!" So much agonizing over everything. It's hard to see how he ever finds the energy to get out of bed in the morning and go get his man. And yet, somehow, he always does. (less)

like · see review

Jun 22, 2010 Dougal rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

The fourth book in the Wallander series, and I've read the first four sequentially. This is probably the best so far but that isn't really saying a lot. As with the others, it's not so much the plot that's preposterous, but the way in which the characters interact. At times these interactions are handled skillfully, at others as if Mankell was not doing very well on his creative writing course: 'Must try harder'.
If the overall plot isn't completely preposterous, just like the previous novels, t...more

like · see review

Feb 04, 2010 Tori Hoeschler rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ok, by my definition, this book is not a mystery. This is a book ABOUT a mystery, and unless I'm totally missing a point here, it's just not a good book at all.
Here we have a story about a detective, Kurt Wallander, who has come out of retirement to solve the mysterious death and apparent murder of two local attorneys. I'm just going to stop right here and say that the reason he goes into retirement is because he's conflicted over killing some criminal in a face off I assume took place in a pre...more Ok, by my definition, this book is not a mystery. This is a book ABOUT a mystery, and unless I'm totally missing a point here, it's just not a good book at all.
Here we have a story about a detective, Kurt Wallander, who has come out of retirement to solve the mysterious death and apparent murder of two local attorneys. I'm just going to stop right here and say that the reason he goes into retirement is because he's conflicted over killing some criminal in a face off I assume took place in a previous book in the series. The author must've been so pleased with his initial telling of this prequel climax that he feels compelled to reference it almost every other page of this book, and let me tell you, it gets old. FAST. We get it: Wallander feels bad about killing a man in the line of duty so let's all take some Paxl and move on with our lives.

Now, less than 20 pages into the book the reader is told who the killer is so in my experience, when you know who did it, the remainder of the book is typically dedicated to fleshing out a really intriguing back story that ultimately leads to additional suspense at the end. Not the case here. Not only are you told who did it, but you get to spend the next 250 pages waiting for our melancholy hero to catch up to your foregone conclusion. Think that's fun? Well you're wrong. You don't actually get to read about how he catches up to the conclusion; you get to read about how he feels about catching up. There is literally a 30 page section where the author pontificates about how Wallander can't help but feel that something is amiss. His can just feel it in his gut. Three people have turned up dead, two more murders have been attempted, including an attempt on Wallander himself, and his gut is telling him something is amiss. Congrats, Wallander, your gut has a profound grasp of the obvious.
What I'm assuming was meant for a dramatic ending is actually a melodramatic, unbelievable 20 page stint at the very end of the book that actually had me saying out loud, "You have to be kidding me. I waited 300 pages for THIS??? That was it???" Absolutely infuriating!
Again, I say it, maybe I'm missing something but this is one of the most tedious and un-gratifying non-mysteries I've ever read. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First published in Sweden in 1994, Mankell's terrific fourth Kurt Wallender mystery opens with the kind of startling image typical of this internationally bestselling series (Firewall, etc.): a lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees "a human-sized effigy" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was "dead before his body hit the damp asphalt." The police accept the assailant's claim th...more

like · see review

Aug 11, 2010 rabbitprincess rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: returning Wallander readers

Recommended to rabbitprincess by: indirectly, Kenneth Branagh

Shelves: bibliotheque, 2010

A decidedly less gruesome Wallander outing than, say, Sidetracked or even The Fifth Woman. The story begins with a car accident killing an elderly lawyer, whose son suspects that it was not an accident. When the son is shot a few weeks later, Wallander is pretty sure that the son's suspicions were correct. At the start of the book Wallander is wrestling with having shot and killed a man a year before, and is not even sure whether he will return to the force. However, the deaths of the father and...more

like · see review

Mar 29, 2012 Mj rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, henning-mankell, mystery-suspense-thriller

This is the 4th book in the Kurt Wallander detective series and like all previous books, I enjoyed this one even more than the one before. This is primarily because I get to know Kurt Wallandaer a bit more each time and like/love him even more with each book. The Man Who Smiled was also filled with clues and intrigue that kept me fully engaged throughout in trying to solve the crime.

Kurt Wallander is fierce and soft. He has a gruff exterior but is very sensitive and soulful - which is a big reas...more

like · see review

Jul 12, 2011 Adrienne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-foreign

Henning Mankell is a gifted author. His mysteries are fast moving, engaging and give you a detailed view of Sweden, its culture and politics. Kurt Wallender, Mankell's main protaganist is a skilled but troubled master detective in the Ystad police force. In this book, Kurt Wallander has been on leave from the police-force. After killing a man, [The White Lioness], he is riven with self-doubt and is on the verge of quitting the police-force. Sten Torstensson, an old friend of Wallender's chases W...more

like · see review

Apr 10, 2012 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa-scandinava, marsilio, gialli-thriller-noir

Wallander torna al lavoro dopo un periodo profondo di crisi per la quarta indagine raccontata da Mankell. Questa volta il colpevole per l'omicidio di due avvocati è quasi ovvio, ma mancano le prove.
Più che gialli i libri di Mankell sono romanzi sulla vita, sul modo di essere degli scandinavi. Mi ha colpita una frase di Wallander riguardante il mestiere di pittore del padre:
"In quante case, su quante pareti poteva essere appeso quel quadro con o senza gallo cedrone e con un sole che non tramontav...more

like · see review

Dec 17, 2012 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It seems that Kurt Wallander must be an extremely popular character. There is a Swedish and a British tv show about him. Mankell has sold squillions of books written about him. And I just don't understand why!
This is the 4th Wallander book and it is the best so far in the series. That's not saying a whole lot as the first 3 were not that flash and to be honest I'm surprised that I've continued to read them. But I kind of enjoyed this one, the storyline was ok and the introduction of Hoglund mix...more

like · see review

Mar 30, 2008 kareem rated it 2 of 5 stars

this came highly recommended, so my expectations were pretty high. it was a bit slow, but readable, with a payoff (that was somewhat far-fetched, imho) coming in the final 20-30 pages. i'm curious to read some of the more highly-rated books in the series, but i'm not sure i would recommend reading this one as an intro to the series.

k.

1 like · like · see review

Jan 27, 2013 Minty McBunny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, january-2013

I read the first Wallander book and loved it, so I went on to read the rest that my library had available, 5 in all (not the first 5, there were some I had to skip). By the time I read Firewall, I was a bit burned out by Wallander and his morose, phlegmatic nature, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have. Realizing I had just OD'ed on Mankell, I took a break then came back to fill in the gaps in my reading of the series with a fresh attitude. For that reason, I quite enjoyed this story (tho...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (62)

More editions...

Genres

Mystery

164 users

Mystery > Crime

107 users

Thriller

34 users

Mystery > Detective

27 users

Cultural > Sweden

25 users

European Literature > Scandinavian Literature

22 users

European Literature > Swedish Literature

16 users

Thriller > Mystery Thriller

11 users

Suspense

8 users

Novels

5 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
by Maj Sjöwall
Woman with Birthmark
by Håkan Nesser
Voices
by Arnaldur Indriðason
The Blood Spilt
by Åsa Larsson
Sun and Shadow
by Åke Edwardson

About Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer, children's author and playwright. He is best known for his literary character Kurt Wallander.

Mankell splits his time between Sweden and Mozambique. He is married to Eva Bergman, Swedish director and daughter of Ingmar Bergman.

More about Henning Mankell...

Books by Henning Mankell

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About L'uomo che sorrideva

24 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

title link	preview: The Man Who Smiled
avg rating	preview: The Man Who Smiled Goodreads rating: 3.88 (6167 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/39792.The_Man_Who_Smiled?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328752677l/39792.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/39792.The_Man_Who_Smiled?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell[/url]

The Man Who Smiled (Kurt Wallander #4)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website