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[Faceless Killers] by Henning Mankell
Kurt Wallander Series Book #1
3.5
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 police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.
Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecutor who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.I thought this sounded familiar but I knew I had never the book...but I did see the DVD. The book and the DVD are very much in agreement with one another. We first meet Kurt Wallander on the case of a murdered farmer and his wife in the dead of the night in a small Swedish village. Kurt Wallander is very distracted as he is dealing with a lot of personal issues involving his family, but he still doggedly pursues the killer or killers responsible for these violent deaths. I found this a bit hard to hold any interest until I became used to Wallander's dark, melancholy moods. It was a good story even though it was slow in parts.
