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Faceless Killers (Wallander #1)

by Henning Mankell, Steven T. Murray (Translator)

3.66 · rating details · 6,626 ratings · 864 reviews

First in the Kurt Wallander series.

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the po...more

Paperback, 280 pages

Published January 14th 2003 by Vintage (first published 1991)

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Community Reviews

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Jan 18, 2011

Kemper rated it

Shelves: scandinavian-mayhem, crime-mystery

During one of my periodic efforts to prove to myself that I'm not one of The Great Unwashed, I watched PBS's Masterpiece Mystery series featuring the Swedish detective Kurt Wallander as played by Kenneth Branagh. (Yes, it had English actors playing Swedes and was filmed in Sweden. Just go with it.) I liked it quite a bit and since I also loved the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I decided to read some more about these murderous Swedes. And now I'm really hooked.

Written in 1990, t...moreDuring one of my periodic efforts to prove to myself that I'm not one of The Great Unwashed, I watched PBS's Masterpiece Mystery series featuring the Swedish detective Kurt Wallander as played by Kenneth Branagh. (Yes, it had English actors playing Swedes and was filmed in Sweden. Just go with it.) I liked it quite a bit and since I also loved the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I decided to read some more about these murderous Swedes. And now I'm really hooked.

Written in 1990, this book introduced Wallander as a police detective in a backwater town in Sweden. When an elderly couple are brutally assualted and murdered in their rural home in an apparently motiveless crime, the initial clues make some citizens think that someone in the flood of immigrants seeking asylum following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe is responsible. A wave of anti-immigrant violence and hysteria is on the verge of being unleashed.

Wallander is having enough trouble dealing with his messy personal life. His marriage has just failed, his emotionally troubled teenage daughter flits in and out of his life, and his estranged father is showing signs of dementia. The strain of balancing his increasingly unmanageable personal life and his police work are starting to take a serious toll on him. In addition, he's constantly worried about the new wave of crime and violence he's noticed rising in Sweden.

Wallander is a great sort of every-man detective. Not brilliant in a Sherlock Holmes or Columbo kind of way, and definately not built for leaping into action against the bad guys, Wallander just comes in and attacks the tasks he thinks he needs to complete to solve the crime and get his life under control. Even though he doesn't manage to get through the list most days and experiences numerous setbacks, he just starts over again the next morning even if doesn't really feel like trying. Despite his frustrations with his own shortcomings and the government bureaucracy, Wallander manages to make progress with his steady two-steps-forward/ one-step-back method.

Good writing with an intriguing crime and a very relateable main character made this an interesting read. I'll be checking out more of the Wallander books.(less)

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Apr 03, 2011

Angela rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: crime, mystery

My initial reaction to this book “Faceless Killers” was “Poor Kurt Wallander”!
Our introduction to the character of Inspector Wallander by Henning Mankell, was certainly unusual . As the hero of many detective novels after this story, he cuts a sorry figure - and yet, a realistic one. At the beginning of the novel, we quickly discover that Wallander’s marriage has finished, his daughter doesn’t want to have much to do with him and his father doesn’t appear to like him much either! However,...more

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May 31, 2011

Elizabeth rated it

Shelves: 2011, continental-types-of-other-sorts, mystery, reviewed

There are three things I don't like about mysteries:

1. The author reveals too little so it's impossible for me to figure it out;
2. The author gives away too much and I've figured it out long ago;
3. The author does it perfectly, all the clues were there, and I still didn't figure it out.

Knowing this about myself, I don't read mysteries for the mystery. I read them for the other parts: the character study, the political or village landscape in which they're set,...moreThere are three things I don't like about mysteries:

1. The author reveals too little so it's impossible for me to figure it out;
2. The author gives away too much and I've figured it out long ago;
3. The author does it perfectly, all the clues were there, and I still didn't figure it out.

Knowing this about myself, I don't read mysteries for the mystery. I read them for the other parts: the character study, the political or village landscape in which they're set, the logic of the tightly-controlled story. Mystery writers don't usually sprawl. They don't wander off on tangents about provincial land reform or forty-page rants about their own political ideas. There is no excuse for wasting that kind of time. Everything in the book is part of the point, either leading you to the conclusion, or drawing you off, briefly, as the detective is driven off-course, as well. So it is a challenge, a more interesting challenge, to make the book about something else, not just a murder or two or three.

I also can't ignore how refreshing it can be to read something and see the logical thought process behind it. Sometimes, I need that break from all-over-the-place and want to follow the clear path. Reading (e.g. finally finishing) this now was probably a reaction to a week of the Darkfever series. A great read but not exactly logical or linear (which isn't always required) or clear.

Faceless Killers is an excellent example of a mystery novel being about other things. Kurt Wallander is that classic detective-type whose world is falling apart around him while he's trying to solve a case (a case that challenges him in a way he's never been challenged before) and it brings out all of his insecurities and hang-ups at just the wrong time. It's been done before (a lot) but it's done well here. Cleverly. I know almost nothing about the other characters in the book as I reach the end but I feel like I'm beginning to know Wallander and I feel like that was intentional. Mankell is presenting an isolated man whose job is observation but who has somehow been oblivious to those around him for years. It's compelling because unlike some of the others I've been introduced to who are similar (Knots and Crosses, A Clubbable Woman, Jar City, Case Histories, etc.), Wallander is a little more complex, probably because Mankell spends a lot more time on him than the other authors. I found the others mostly unpleasant, generally unsympathetic, and in the case of Rosco (A Clubbable Woman) totally appalling.

I wasn't left with a lot of answers in this book. Oh, yes, the mystery is solved but Wallander is having an identity crisis as big as Sweden (most of which he seems to drive over in the course of the six months in this story) as well as trips to Denmark and Norway. He represents a lot of things, an excellent case study for his author to examine the feelings of Swedes in a changing society and their responses to events that force them to acknowledge these changes. And, as with every Scandinavian mystery I've read so far, there is a significant political message in that. Since I'm not in it for the mystery, of course, I find that fascinating. (less)

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Sep 05, 2007

LJ rated it

Shelves: mystery, police_procedural, sweden, contemporary_post_1945

FACELESS KILLERS (Swedish Police Procedural)- G+
Henning Mankell – 7th in series
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. English Translation, 2003 – Trade Paperback
Police Inspector Kurt Wallander is called to the scene of a particularly violent attack of an elderly couple on a small farm. The husband is dead but the wife, found with a noose around her neck, utters the work “foreign” before dying. Wallander becomes obsessed with solving the case before feelings against Sweden’s immigrants b...more

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Oct 31, 2008

Peter H. Fogtdal rated it

Henning Mankell might be the most famous Scandinavian writer of crime novels in the US. May I humbly ask why? I can think of at least three Swedes and two Danes who are far, far superior. And let's not forget the Norwegians. Read Frederik Skagen for Christ's sake. I'm not sure he's been translated but he's brillant when it comes to the twisted mind of killers and rapists.

Actually, I don't like being hard on writer colleagues, but this book is simply not very good. The prose is flat,...more

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Dec 20, 2007

ahdid rated it

This was my introduction to Mankell. Reading Faceless Killers is an excellent way to dispell any myths about Sweden as a peaceful country where nothing bad happens. Not only is Mankell one of the greatest contemporary mystery/crime novel writers, he presents the dark side of modern Sweden that you wouldn't otherwise think about if you've never been. He's not afraid to describe murder scenes in the most detailed and bloody way possible, but read a couple of his novels and you may be desensitized....more

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Jan 19, 2011

Ben Loory rated it

it was 15 pages before the end before anyone in the police department thought to follow the most obvious trail. i mean i'm not even trying to solve the case, i'm just lying in bed sick, idly flipping 250 pages, but i'm ahead of these people? pretty sad. in the meantime there's no suspense, the characters are dull, and the scenes are boring and poorly written. nice title, though, i suppose... can't imagine reading more of these...

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Sep 29, 2009

notgettingenough rated it

Shelves: crime-fiction

Ugh.

Maybe this book is dreadfully translated...or maybe it's like Ikea furniture. Mostly you end up with a bunch of bits that don't make sense. It's a popular theory in Australia that Ikea furniture is some sort of revenge upon people who live in sunlight. Maybe Henning Mankell is a plot to get the people who escaped the Ikea trap.

We all over here prefer more Abba and less bad furniture and miserable books please.

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Mar 01, 2009

Atalanta16 rated it

Shelves: modern-mysteries

I first learned about the Wallander series watching Kenneth Branaugh's made-for-television presentation. Faceless Killers is my first book and I have ordered the next two books in the series.

I am disappointed that amazon.com does not offer the series on the Kindle but understand the difficulties with foreign authors.

It's a good read, but I have to say that Wallander is far more interesting than the crimes he solves. Separated from his wife, estranged from his daughter a...more

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Aug 30, 2010

g rated it

Shelves: cold

Do these get better? I flew through this first in the Kurt Wallander series, but the writing was squarely in the spectrum of unremarkable to outright you've-got-to-be-kidding-me. The police officers are barely differentiated (Wallander himself is the only one with any character traits to speak of, and he comes across as kind of a schmuck), and the book cries out for description and emotion. Not really psychological and only half-heartedly political, this novel strikes me as gratuitous and forget...more

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Jan 05, 2010

Pilvi rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: crime book readers

Shelves: crime, scandinavian-writers, own-a-copy

First book in the Wallander-series (Mördaren utan ansikte). This version is Finnish.

Ensimmäinen Wallander-sarjan kirja. Murhaajan henkilöllisyys pysyy salassa hyvin koko kirjan ajan viimeisille sivuille asti. Mankell kuvaa hyvin sitä välillä puuduttavaakin perustyötä, jota poliisit joutuvat tekemään rikoksia selvitellessään. Monet johtolangat johtavat umpikujaan, mutta ratkaiseviakin vihjeitä saadaan selville. Kirjassa on hyvä sekoitus rikosta ja Wallanderin henkilökohtaista elämää. ...more

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Nov 15, 2010

Agent Zero rated it

· review of another edition

Sono stato indeciso fino all'ultimo sul giudizio, ma alla fine, mi sono detto, questo è un giallo, e nei gialli sono due gli elementi fondamentali su cui non si può transigere: il protagonista e la verosimiglianza nello sviluppo delle indagini.</p>

Il protagonista.
Questa è la prima delle indagini del commissario Kurt Wallander scritte da Mankell ed è qui che lo scrittore ci fornisce le prime coordinate sulla sua creatura.
Bè, come ve lo immaginate un poliziotto sui quaranta, appena scaricato

...more

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Mar 14, 2009

Tony rated it

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Mankell, Henning. FACELESS KILLERS. (1991). *****. An old farm couple living on the outskirts of Ystad are discovered in their house by their neighbors. The old man is dead – savagely beaten to death. His wife, also beaten, and with a noose around her neck, is close to death. When Kurt Wallander and his crew arrive they are appalled at the violence and bloodshed. The woman is rushed to the hospital, but cannot be safed. Just before she dies, she whispers the word “foreigner” over and ov...more

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Mar 13, 2009

Carole rated it

This is Henning Mankell's 1st book (of 9) in the Inspector Wallander series.

My review is based on the abridged audio version recently serialised on BBC Radio 7.

This is the first Henning Mankell book I've read/listened to and I know that he is a very popular Swedish best selling author.

Kurt Wallander is your typical over-worked Detective, working long hours but has tremendous dedication for the job at hand. In this book, Wallander has very few clues and no obvious mo...more

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Dec 14, 2008

Reinhold rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: crime

Ein guter Einstieg in die Wallanderreihe

"Mörder ohne Gesicht" ist der erste Titel aus einer Reihe von insgesamt 10 Romanen um den schwedischen Kommissar Wallander. Henning Mankells Wallanderserie hat zu Recht Furore gemacht.

Kurt Wallander ist ein wichtiger Mitarbeiter der Ystader Mordkommission. Er ist geschieden und hat eine Tochter und eine Schwester die er kaum sieht und einen Vater der merklich alt wird und sehr eigensinnig ist. Irgendwie befindet er sich s...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Regan rated it

Shelves: mysteries, audio

Since stumbling on the extraordinary trilogy by Steig Larsson, I’ve learned that Swedish writers have a long-standing reputation for producing great crime writing and have followed the hordes in tracking down some of these writers. First, of course, came Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, a fabulous writing team from the 1960s and 70s. Now, the hugely popular Henning Mankell and his famous police detective of the 90s, Kurt Wallander.

Given his enormous popularity I was really looking forward t...moreSince stumbling on the extraordinary trilogy by Steig Larsson, I’ve learned that Swedish writers have a long-standing reputation for producing great crime writing and have followed the hordes in tracking down some of these writers. First, of course, came Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, a fabulous writing team from the 1960s and 70s. Now, the hugely popular Henning Mankell and his famous police detective of the 90s, Kurt Wallander.

Given his enormous popularity I was really looking forward to these books, but I was very disappointed by the first in the series, Faceless Killers. Many reviewers find it riveting and entertaining, but I found that it dragged. The pace of the action is set over several months and there are many days when Wallander turns up in the office and the sum of the work is “nothing happened today.”

While Wallander’s character is broadly developed, full of faults and personal crises, it almost feels forced, as if the problematic character is stuck in to fill the gaps while we wait for something to happen in the action of the mystery. The rest of the police investigation team is not well developed and I had trouble keeping most of them straight.

I read this on audio and some (or perhaps all) of this may be down to the narration. Dick Hill was an inappropriate choice of narrator for this series. Hill approaches the material as if he’s reading Beat poetry rather than a police procedural. All his characterizations sound as if they’re 70-year-old Jewish men whining about parking, rather than young and middle-aged professional cops. The translation from the Swedish is to British English, but Hill reads with a Brooklyn accent incompatible with the language. Hearing distinctly British word choices (strand instead of beach, ‘a video’ vs. VCR, first floor vs. second) read straight outta Brooklyn or the mispronunciation of words (pension as “pen-shun”) is jarring. Speeding up the playback helped with the slowly. Punctuated. Beat. Interpretation. and the worst dragging of the narrative development, but I won’t try another of Mankell’s books read by Hill.(less)

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Jan 03, 2012

Andy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I've been wanting to read the Wallander books for a while after being told about them (and the TV shows) repeatedly by friends, so despite needing to ship my library back to NZ and spending the next month in India I took advantage of the Christmas sales to buy more books.

Having read many a police/thriller type book in the past (and not being that sold on Rebus recently) I actually quite liked Wallander. It's very much a procedural, sparse, not overly sensational with a certain relentl...more

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Dec 02, 2011

Josh Duggan rated it

Henning Mankell hits the ground running in Faceless Killers, the first in the internationally acclaimed Kurt Wallander series made popular in part by both the (multiple) Swedish and BBC series that aired in the US under the Masterpiece Mystery! banner on PBS, the latter starring Kenneth Branagh as the titular Swedish Police Inspector.

The thing that sets Mankell's work apart from the standard detective fare is that he uses the genre as a vehicle by which he can shine a light on the il...more

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Nov 19, 2011

Jules rated it

I'm not sure precisely what it was that made this mystery sub-par, compared to other mysteries, including the other Mankell I read. It might've been a shoddy translation (there were word choices throughout that felt inapt, or maybe were just relics of the 1990 publication date). It might've been that the bare prose, often so repetitive, and near absence of emotional detail didn't sit right with me, particularly after reading a Laura Lippman novel (comparatively so skilled at speaking to both the...more

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Oct 31, 2011

astried rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, detective-mistery-etc, bbc-wbc

so this book made me lost a night sleep. it has been a while since a book made me do that. today, finishing the book during breakfast, i realized that it dissapointed me a bit.

it started good, really good, the opening scene gave me goosebump and i enjoyed reading the story carefully not skipping much. investigation story can be dreary but mankell is a new writer for me so i haven't figured out his tricks and habits which made all wallander's to and fro enjoyable. the proof is on how ...moreso this book made me lost a night sleep. it has been a while since a book made me do that. today, finishing the book during breakfast, i realized that it dissapointed me a bit.

it started good, really good, the opening scene gave me goosebump and i enjoyed reading the story carefully not skipping much. investigation story can be dreary but mankell is a new writer for me so i haven't figured out his tricks and habits which made all wallander's to and fro enjoyable. the proof is on how i busted my sleeping time until i passed out.

now here comes my complain, i felt that the process is realistic enough, i mean which police force actually solves crime with such a spare clue in 1week? not wallander and i'm thankful for that. police work is hard work combing through facts, i get that. i was not annoyed when it was shown that the whole book until that part can be erased and i won't miss a thing toward capturing the criminal, after all i was given enough premonition for it. what annoyed me is that afterward all his work was based on luck. i didn't say that he's not doing any thinking or investigating, he did, but everything hangs in luck, luck and luck. it's just after folllowing his intense process reader sudddenly get fed with luck and sometimes it feels like reading a completely different book.

my other dissapointment is how mankell strew out all those violence and motives at beginning which really captivated me. then in the end it was solved so superficially. so yeah, he didn't leave those ends hanging like some other authors, but sometime you kinda wonder if those details should even be in the book. it feels like mankell's was baiting me with salmon and served me milkfish....

then again if you're talking about realistic or not, i suppose what happened in this book is closer to what would happen in real life. real life is never smooth, there's no tidy end, things happen for no reason, as written nicely even by mankell himself, i'd need to quote those when i'm not this sleepy anymore. will i read another wallander? i suppose so, i do need to remind myself not to start reading before sleeping. i'm too old to loose sleep because of book.

ps. another book read after listening bbc world bookclub. their podcast is really good in tempting me to read stuffs..(less)

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Oct 31, 2011

Nina rated it

· review of another edition

Das alte Bauernehepaar Lövgren wird auf seinem Hof in der schwedischen Provinz brutal ermordet. Kurt Wallander nimmt die Ermittlungen auf und hat als einziges Indiz die letzten Worte der sterbenden Maria Lövgren: „Ausländer, Ausländer“.
Er weiss, dass diese Information einige Brisanz enthält. Auch in Schweden tummeln sich Anhänger der rechtsextremen Szene, die nur darauf warten, einen weiteren Grund für Anschläge auf Ausländer geliefert zu bekommen.
Aber wollte Maria Lövgren wirklich mi...more

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Sep 28, 2011

Hikachi rated it

Shelves: crime-or-detective-work, mystery-or-thriller

The first in Kurt Wallander series.
I can't even understand why I gave this three stars. xD
But despite the quick and abrupt ending, and how much I consider Wallander as a loser. I pretty like this book. Maybe it's because the first impression was pretty much alike with Stieg Larsson's The Girl with Dragon Tattoo. There's this subtleness in the prose that pretty much enticing.

It's started with a brutal murder of an elderly couple. Which obviously pretty much out of place, since...more

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Sep 11, 2011

Ape rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavia

Den ar forsta Wallander bok jag har last. Jag har bara sett ett avsnitt av Kenneth Branaghs engelsk sprakiga version av teve serien ocksa. Men den ar en stor grej i Sverige, sa jag tankte att jag maste testa lite!

Den har boken ar fran 80talet, och det marks lite, men brist i tekniker polisen anvande... man undrar varfor de inte gor vissa grejer, och sedan tanker man efter, jaha, for att vissa tekniker troligen inte fanns da. Det kanns som om boken utspelar sig i en Sverige som haller...more

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Sep 05, 2011

Jacqie rated it

Shelves: didnt-finish

I got about a hundred pages into this book, so I do think I gave it a fair change.

***SPOILER*** one hundred pages into the 300-some page book, the killer hasn't even made an appearance yet. I don't think this plays fair. END SPOILER.

I'm not really sure exactly why the Scandanavian mysteries are so popular these days. I've tried quite a few of them, and have yet to finish any but the Stieg Larsson trilogy. That's not because the GIRL trilogy is so fantastic, either. Bu...more

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Jun 23, 2011

Bartek rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Mankell w pierwszej części cyklu o Wallanderze pokazuje nam człowieka podwójnie wyobcowanego. Poznajemy go w momencie, gdy zniknął świat, który znał. Ma fatalny kontakt z prawie dorosłą córką, odeszła od niego żona, a porządek świata upadł wraz z murem berlińskim. Nadeszły nowe czasy, a ich symbolem staje się w powieści dość okrutna zbrodnia: starsza, wydawałoby się do bólu zwyczajne małżeństwo zostaje zamordowane z zimną krwią.
Wallander - być może w depresji wynikającej z problemów osobist...moreMankell w pierwszej części cyklu o Wallanderze pokazuje nam człowieka podwójnie wyobcowanego. Poznajemy go w momencie, gdy zniknął świat, który znał. Ma fatalny kontakt z prawie dorosłą córką, odeszła od niego żona, a porządek świata upadł wraz z murem berlińskim. Nadeszły nowe czasy, a ich symbolem staje się w powieści dość okrutna zbrodnia: starsza, wydawałoby się do bólu zwyczajne małżeństwo zostaje zamordowane z zimną krwią.
Wallander - być może w depresji wynikającej z problemów osobistych - wielokrotnie, sam przed sobą, przyznaje, że nie ogarnia rzeczywistości i sobie z nią nie radzi. Był nauczony prowadzić śledztwa w "dawnym" świecie. To, z czym spotyka się obecnie, jest absolutnie nieznane, niezrozumiałe: takie morderstwa nie zdarzały się w uporządkowanym świecie komisarza.
Mankell porusza wątek uśpionego nazizmu. Z pozoru wszystko wygląda, jakby było pod kontrolą, ale poruszone przez okoliczności mordu na starszym, "porządnym" małżeństwie, zaczynają drgać dobrze znane, ksenofobiczne nuty. Łatwo jest znaleźć winnego: imigranci nie mogą czuć się bezpiecznie. Samozwańczy mściciele nie potrzebują znaleźć konkretnego sprawcy, wystarczy im, że ma niepasujący kolor skóry.
To jest również obce komisarzowi Wallanderowi: nie poznaje społeczeństwa, w którym tak łatwo ożywić rasistowskie przekonania.
Mankell w "Mordercy bez twarzy" prezentuje świat, w którym przyczyną zbrodni jest tajemnica i przypadek. Zamordowany mężczyzna okłamywał własną żonę - okazuje się ona podwójną ofiarą. Przypadek z kolei powoduje, że na ślad tajemnicy mężczyzny trafiają bezwzględni bandyci. Warto zwrócić uwagę, że Mankell pozwala sobie na polityczną niepoprawność: mordercy są imigrantami (obecnie szwedzcy autorzy starają się nie podsycać ewentualnych rasistowskich emocji w dużej mierze czyniąc mordercami Białych Porządnych Szwedów), innymi od ofiar rasistów, ale nadal "obcym" elementem w skandynawskim krajobrazie.
Przy wszystkich niuansach (nie przypadkiem Mankell jest uważany za jednego ze zdolniejszych autorów kryminałów) jest to powieść - chyba przede wszystkim - o dojmującej samotności. Wallander budzi się sam, jego romans jest tymczasowy, a jedyny przyjaciel, którego ma wygląda jak on sam za kilkanaście lat (jak trafne jest to porównanie, okaże się dopiero w ostatniej części cyklu). Komisarz jest zmęczony: śledztwo jest dla niego wręcz fizycznym wysiłkiem. Kiedy się kończy "może wreszcie odpocząć", ale z pewnością nie na tyle, na ile by chciał.(less)

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Apr 03, 2011

James Thane rated it

Shelves: crime-fiction

This is the first entry in Henning Mankell's series featuring Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. When we first meet him, Wallander has a boatload of personal problems: he is recently divorced; he's estranged from his daughter; he's drinking too much; he has a lousy diet, and his father is showing signs of senility.

Against the backdrop of this troubled personal life, Wallandar is assigned to lead the investigation of the savage murder or an elderly farm couple. There is no apparent mot...moreThis is the first entry in Henning Mankell's series featuring Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. When we first meet him, Wallander has a boatload of personal problems: he is recently divorced; he's estranged from his daughter; he's drinking too much; he has a lousy diet, and his father is showing signs of senility.

Against the backdrop of this troubled personal life, Wallandar is assigned to lead the investigation of the savage murder or an elderly farm couple. There is no apparent motive and there are virtually no clues, save for the last dying word of the murdered woman, which is "Foreign."

At the time of the killings, some Swedes are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the large numbers of asylum-seekers and other immigrants who are making their way into the country. Fear and prejudice are on the rise, and although the police have absolutely no evidence to support such a conclusion, some anti-immigrant elements jump to the conclusion that foreigners were responsible for the killings. They want revenge and they seek to use the murders as an excuse to reverse the immigrant tide.

Mankell thus sets the stage for a clever police procedural set against the larger social issue of how welcoming Sweden--or any other country--should be to growing numbers of immigrants. Wallander is typical of the breed of plodding Scandinavian detectives who refuse to give up until they have deduced the solution to the case. At times, though, you find yourself wondering why he soldiers along in the face of the overwhelming personal problems in his life off-duty.

Mankell is a very good writer and I admire what he has done here. That said, I find the Kurt Wallander character to be a little too oppressed and a little too humorless for my taste. Like a lot of Scandinavian mysteries, this one takes place in the dead of a long, depressing winter, which only reinforces the generally depressing mood of the book as a whole. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm certainly willing to give the series another try, but I may need a jolt of someone like Lucas Davenport to cheer me up a bit first.(less)

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Mar 29, 2011

Beth Allen rated it

An elderly Swedish farmer wakes up early one cold morning and is sure he has forgotten something.

After a few minutes, the farmer realizes it's too quiet, so he gets out of bed and starts to investigate. Within minutes, the farmer discovers two bodies at a nearby farm, and Kurt Wallander's homicide team is brought in to investigate.

I discovered Henning Mankell's Wallander stories on PBS, with Kenneth Branagh starring as Wallander. The PBS stories are pretty good, so I thought ...more

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Mar 18, 2011

sabisteb rated it

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In einem kleinen Dorf in Südschweden, wird Nachts ein altes Bauernehepaar überfallen. Er ist sofort tot, sie stirbt einige Zeit später im Krankenhaus. Ihr letztes Wort lautet „Ausländer“. Ein einziges Wort, das jedoch für politischen Sprengstoff und Unruhe in der schwedischen Bevölkerung sorgen kann zumal es einen Maulwurf zu geben scheint, der die Presse mit Insiderinformationen versorgt.
Kurz darauf brennt das Asylbewerberheim und der Hauptverdächtige ist ein ehemaliger Polizist.
„Mörd...moreIn einem kleinen Dorf in Südschweden, wird Nachts ein altes Bauernehepaar überfallen. Er ist sofort tot, sie stirbt einige Zeit später im Krankenhaus. Ihr letztes Wort lautet „Ausländer“. Ein einziges Wort, das jedoch für politischen Sprengstoff und Unruhe in der schwedischen Bevölkerung sorgen kann zumal es einen Maulwurf zu geben scheint, der die Presse mit Insiderinformationen versorgt.
Kurz darauf brennt das Asylbewerberheim und der Hauptverdächtige ist ein ehemaliger Polizist.
„Mörder ohne Gesicht“ ist der erste Krimi um Kommissar Wallander. Mittlerweile ist dieser schwedische Kommissar aus Ystad bereits eine Kultfigur. Jeder kennt ihn und seine Tochter Linda, drei verschiedene Fernsehserien beruhen bereits auf den Romanen von Henning Mankell. Umso interessanter ist es hier wieder einmal die Anfänge zu hören. Wallander, frisch geschieden, noch trifft er sich mit seiner Ex-Frau und weiß kaum etwas von seiner Tochter Linda. Wallanders Vater hat seinen ersten geistigen Aussetzer, aber Kurt und seine Schwester wollen es erst einmal bei einer Haushaltshilfe belassen.
Dieser erste Wallanderkrimi ist leider noch lange nicht auf dem erzählerischen Niveau, wie man die späteren Krimis kennt. Statt seinem ausgefeilten Fall, laufen hier zwei verschiedene Ermittlungen, aber beide bleiben irgendwie unbefriedigend sowohl in der Ermittlung als auch in der Auflösung.
Zusätzlich wurde bei diesem Hörspiel von 90 Minuten aus dem Jahr 2002 die Handlung noch deutlich gekürzt. Einige Passagen des Buches fehlen vollkommen, so dass weder der Kriminalfall noch die Gesellschaftskritik des Romanes durchkommen.
Dieser Hörspiel basiert also einem etwas flachen und enttäuschenden Krimi mit recht unsauberer Ermittlung und dann wurde auch noch kräftig gekürzt, so dass einige Personen flach und leblos erscheinen und nicht in die Geschichte passen wollen wie der krebskranke Kollege Rydberg und auch die Episode mit Staatsanwältin Brolin wirkt irgendwie deplaziert.
Als Sprecher wurden unbekanntere Stimmen engagiert, was ich sehr erfrischend finde. Zwar hätte ich es durchaus bevorzugt einen der Synchronsprecher der Wallander Filme als Sprecher von Kurt Wallander zu hören aber auch so hört man sich schnell in die Stimmen ein. Einige der Sprecher, vor allem in den Nebenrollen, sind etwa schwächer und wirken steif und Leblos und auch der Erzähler wirkt irgendwie hölzern, aber insgesamt kann man sich dieses Hörspiel sehr gut anhören. Es wirkt weniger wie eine direkt für den CD Markt Produzierte Aufnahme denn ein klassisches Radiohörspiel.

Fazit: Ein eher schwacher Wallander Fall mit etwas unausgegorener Ermittlung. Das Hörspiel wirkt wie ein klassisches Radiohörspiel und einge der Sprecher erscheinen ein wenig steif und hölzern. Insgesamt aber eine gute Produktion, die die Buchvorlage stark gekürzt wiedergibt.(less)

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Mar 03, 2011

Cheryl Bradley rated it

After recently seeing a view of the BBC productions of the Inspector Wallander Series on Masterpiece Mystery! on my local PBS station, I became intrigued by the plots and thought perhaps the books would read much better than the film, and perhaps I would understand the plot much better in the book (found parts of the story difficult to follow on TV). I was not disappointed.

I borrowed Faceless Killers (Wallander #1) by Henning Mankell from my local library. First clue that it was a ...moreAfter recently seeing a view of the BBC productions of the Inspector Wallander Series on Masterpiece Mystery! on my local PBS station, I became intrigued by the plots and thought perhaps the books would read much better than the film, and perhaps I would understand the plot much better in the book (found parts of the story difficult to follow on TV). I was not disappointed.

I borrowed Faceless Killers (Wallander #1) by Henning Mankell from my local library. First clue that it was a decent read should have been there was a bit of a waiting list, but finally, my request came in. I can't believe I haven't read this series sooner, especially given that I am a huge fan of mystery/detective fiction. Perhaps I was intimidated by the fact that the story takes place in Sweden, a country with which I'm not familiar, but I needn't have worried.

Kurt Wallander is a jaded middle-aged detective, recently separated from his wife of many years, long estranged from his daughter, and trying to cope with his father's rapid decline into senility.

On a cold January morning, an elderly farming couple in the remote village of Lunnarp, Johannes and Maria Lovgren are brutality attacked. Johannes is dead on the scene and Maria found barely clinging to life, tied to a chair with a noose around her neck. It soon becomes a case of double murder, and before her passing, Maria revives enough to whisper one word, "foreign".

It is the only clue the police have to go on, and a leak reveals to the press that the police are looking for a foreigner, which reveals tensions between the Swedish citizens and refugees seeking political asylum in Sweden. Soon, refugees are being attacked - fires set, a Somali brutally gunned down.

There is evidence the knot in the noose is foreign but the crime feels personal to Wallander. He soon learns that Johannes Lovgren was a wealthy man who made money selling horse meat to the Nazis with his father during WWII and that he made a large cash withdrawal just a couple days before his murder. The cash is nowhere to be found, and it seems robbery was indeed the motive for this murder but who and how remain to be seen. In addition, it is revealed that Lovgren kept a mistress who bore his child and that it is a tightly guarded secret but that he regularly spent more money on his mistress than his wife, keeping the fortune & investments he made during WWII a secret from his wife.

Wallander becomes obsessed with solving the crime before more random acts of violence erupt among the refugees and bring Sweden's anti-immigration activists to more violence. The crime is dogged by dead ends, and at times, Wallander feels hopeless, but eventually, and with dogged determination, he is able to crack the case.
(less)

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Feb 07, 2011

Steven Belanger rated it

· review of another edition

Mankell is a writer of Swedish noir; he inspired Stieg Larsson, and, perhaps, me. I've been purposely trying to learn as I read these days. Not in an academic way--at least until I take my next Masters class--but in a way that I understand writing better so that my writing is also better. I wrote a recent blog about this, using Dan Simmons' Drood as a primer, so I won't do that again here.

In short, here's what I liked about Faceless Killers (besides the title). The thing that struc...moreMankell is a writer of Swedish noir; he inspired Stieg Larsson, and, perhaps, me. I've been purposely trying to learn as I read these days. Not in an academic way--at least until I take my next Masters class--but in a way that I understand writing better so that my writing is also better. I wrote a recent blog about this, using Dan Simmons' Drood as a primer, so I won't do that again here.

In short, here's what I liked about Faceless Killers (besides the title). The thing that struck me first, by about page 20, was that if Raymond Carver wrote Swedish noir, it would turn out like this. Carver was a writer of more depth than this novel, appropriately, shows, but the type of writing is the same. Both writers make the very ordinary seem very important. Carver would write, "He placed the bottle of champagne on the table," in exactly the same way several times in the same 12-page short story, and it would carry weight each time. (I still don't understand how he was able to do that.) Mankell does the same here, but, again, without the strange depth. His words and sentences do have depth, just not the same emotional (or emotionless) as Carver's did.

Secondly, Mankell's Kurt Wallander has very real, gritty problems, shown in very gritty sentences. For example, and pardon the lack of etiquette here, but Wallender has this gastro-intestinal problem--a combination of bad eating habits and lots of stress, caused by his job and his recent marriage break-up--and the novel shows twice that he eats a hotdog, or a pizza, too fast and has to rush to the bathroom with diarrhea. And I'm not paraphrasing or inferring here. It says that he ate too fast, that he had to run to the bathroom, and that he had diarrhea. The first time, it also says that he realizes he has to change his underwear. Now that's intense. The short, clipped, Carver-esque sentences create a dreamy, distant, slowly re-awakening feeling in the character that really is what the novel is about. That, and what is going wrong with Sweden in those days. The two-headed theme is: What went wrong with my marriage?--and--What went wrong with Sweden? They go hand-in-hand here. The setting, as you'd might expect from Sweden, is a character in of itself in the same way that the same type of weather was for Fargo and Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Anyway, this novel got me to consider ditching the 1st person narration of one of my "finished" mystery mss. and allowing my writing style to show the main character's traits in ways that I thought only 1st person could. And it also made me realize that although the mystery starts right away in my novel, the actual crime isn't shown until midway. (Other crimes, including murders and other cases the character takes on, are shown much earlier, all starting on page 1.) But this was a real eye-opener for me in that it shows that maybe the packaging of my novel is all wrong.

We'll see. Anyway, Faceless Killers is highly recommended. I just bought most of the Wallender series a few hours ago. The supposed last one, A Troubled Man, comes out very soon, the first Wallender book in 10 years. Mankell says it's definitely the last, but I'll bet he also said that 10 years ago.(less)

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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.

Series:
* Kurt Wallander
*Linda Wallander
*Sofia
*Joel Gustaf ...more

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“Viver tem o seu tempo, estar morto tem outro. (Kurt Wallander)” — 3 people liked it

“Justice doesn't only mean that the people who commit crime are punished. It also means that we can never give up seeking the truth.” — 1 person liked it

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Faceless Killers (Wallander #1)

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