The Return of the Dancing Master in Scandinavian Mysteries

Nov 14, 2009 Paul Patterson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-mysteries

In the prologue of Henning Mankell’s The Return of the Dancing Master, I thought I recognized a character from a recent TV movie called The Last Hangman, featuring the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint. (actor:Timothy Spall) I was wrong about the novel character’s exact identity; Mankell’s hangman was a fellow called Davenport. As for the connection between the prologue and rest of The Dancing Master, my movie association however functioned as a helpful template in discovering one of Mankell' In the prologue of Henning Mankell’s The Return of the Dancing Master, I thought I recognized a character from a recent TV movie called The Last Hangman, featuring the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint. (actor:Timothy Spall) I was wrong about the novel character’s exact identity; Mankell’s hangman was a fellow called Davenport. As for the connection between the prologue and rest of The Dancing Master, my movie association however functioned as a helpful template in discovering one of Mankell's crucial themes, the need for impartial justice.

Davenport moves covertly between England and Germany executing war criminals in a humane but just manner. The hangman’s admission that the horrible crimes for which the prisoners were punished were not unique to Nazi’s or Germans but could under similar circumstances be committed anywhere including Britain or the U.S. This episode is never mentioned again but its dissimilarity to the events that took place in the isolated village of Härjedalen, Sweden should not be neglected by the reader.

The opening scenario depicts a retribution neither swift nor clean. Herbert Molin an apparently bland individual, with hobbies including Jig-saw puzzles and Tango Dancing with a broomstick manikin, is mutilated, dragged through the cold snow and left dead outside his cabin. Molin’s back story identifies him as a retired ex-detective from the more populated area of Boras, Sweden. He is an insomniac capable of sleeping only in the day, at night is he haunted by his past.

Upon hearing of this gruesome death, Sefan Lindman a young detective formerly mentored by Molin volunteers to lend a hand in the investigation. Not unlike his elderly counterpart Sefan is paranoid, closed off to communication with others, and unconsciously haunted by family secrets. Complicating Stefan's sleuthing efforts is his recent diagnosis of mouth cancer which distracts him with a dread of death and social shame about how this disease that may signify more about him than he imagines.

The themes of banal normalcy, with an underside of paranoia, cover-up, and an urgent desire for security, leak into the Swedish national character in the form or an insidious nationalist group called the Strong Swedish Foundation. This apparently conventional group, comprised of elderly housewives, successful business people, surpass the more overtly dangerous Aryan brotherhood and Skinheads in their poisonous effect on society. In this instance, the aphorism that “evil triumphs when the good do nothing” is intensified and comes to mean “the trouble with normal is it always gets worse.” (Lyriicist: Bruce Cockburn) Normal made Nazi Germany such a hideous triumph, normal made Molin a frightened puppet of ideology and normal made Sefan emotionally closed off and ashamed of his weakness.

The extremely violent, out of the ordinary act of retribution, that initiates The Return of the Dancing Master administers a shock that unearths normal, exposing the perpetrator, his or her motives, and applying justice impartially and fairly with humane empathy but accuracy is at the heart of this excellent novel.

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Dec 12, 2010 Shannon 3k rated it liked it

A good Swedish mystery, translated into English, which started out very well, and held my attention until it galloped off to a rapid and semi-implausible conclusion. Mankell is better at character development than plot, at least in this novel.

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