Mankell, Hennng. THE PYRAMID. (1999; this trans. 2008). ***. Most readers have a problem with fiction that doesn’t have the usual flow of a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is why fans clamor for more and more information about the early life of a character – the influences and events that shaped a character that suddenly appears before them in whole cloth. It isn’t clear whether the stories in this collection were previously published or were made to order to satisfy fan demand, but here they are. This book is a an assemblage of five long stories that tell of the “early” cases of Kurt Wallander. They are spaced from the time he first became a policeman at age twenty-one to the title story which elegantly segues into the Wallander we know and love, now in his late forties. We learn about the relatiionship with his father and with his wife, Mona. We meet his daughter as a young child. We find out why he moved from Malmo to Ystad. On and on. The stories take us from his first case – when he was still a foot patrolman – to his current persona when he is involved in a case involving a downed airplane and the assassination of a pair of spinster sisters. The stories are not bad, but they don’t give Manning the space to spin out his usual tales of multicomplex cases with labyrinthine leads and details. Although not Mankell at his best, it is still a good bedside read for the dyed-in-the-wool fan.