![]() Mankell links these fortuitous discoveries together over the course of the novel and the eventual solution delivers the same satisfaction as found in Roseanna by Sjöwall and Wahlööįaceless Killers is not just about introducing the character of Wallander, it is just as much focused on making wider statements about the changes becoming noticeable in the Sweden of the early 1990's significantly the increasing trend towards a country marked by less of a contrast between city and rural areas in terms of the crime experience and reflecting how the effects of open borders have increased the prevalence of organised crime. The distinct benefit of this is just how realistic the investigation feels as it stalls to eventual deadlock and grinds to a halt on several occasions before a series of seemingly innocuous details picked up through the course of the investigation deliver an eventual resolution over six-months later. When Johannes Lövgren is revealed to be a richer man with a much more complicated past than previously foreseen, the police are powerless too subvert a wave of nationalistic sentiment sweeping the country.įor all that this novel does include it is a little lacking in pace and the actual investigation seems more like a vehicle for Mankell to make wider statements on society through the character of Kurt Wallander. As Wallander himself receives several phone calls threatening retribution and events climax with a immigrant being shot dead, the police come under fire from all angles, all distracting them from the atrocity which unleashed the furore. When this detail anonymously finds its way into the public domain, the rebuttal from the police is not enough to stop a series of attacks swiftly being launched at the growing number of camps which hold the illegal immigrant influx. As she draws her final breath she repeats the word "foreign" on several occasions and opens a can of worms that threaten peace and stability across Sweden. Neither wealthy or known to keep valuables, surely the brutality speaks of a act of revenge and hatred? Rushing Maria to hospital, a bedside vigil is instituted in the hope that as the only witness she can provide a potential clue to the identity of her attackers. ![]() With retired farmer Johannes already dead and his wife, Maria, left in a noose and clinging to life, Wallander struggles to comprehend just what can have brought such an act to bear on the remote farmhouse. What greets him is a bloodbath a scene of such brutal violence that he cannot remember being so appalled previously in his entire career. Januin the county of Skåne with snow yet to fall, there is something far more chilling awaiting Wallander at the isolated farmhouse in Lunnarp he is sent to. A double murder and an ensuing manhunt which soon triggers another murder. Lonely, living on junk food and blighted by lack of sleep, Wallander's family dilemmas seem to occupy as much of his focus as the brutal double murder of elderly Johannes and Maria Lövgrens in Lunnarp, a "village where life flows along the creek without vigour or intent". At forty-two-years old he shouldn't feel as apathetic as he does, but with a separation from his wife, sporadic contact and relations with his daughter, Linda, and with a father characterised by erratic mood changes and almost impossible expectations, he doesn't have much to smile about. From his early days as a new recruit in Malmö through to twenty-years later and now in a more remote area and smaller city, Wallander is in a prime position to observe the changing patterns of crime over the years, both their nature and their prevalence. Given that my previous meeting with Wallander came in the form of the final novella of the series, I am struck by how much more gloomy and self-pitying the character seems to be in this first case, noticeably disposed to wallowing. Faceless Killers marked the debut appearance of the dyspeptic Ystad detective, Kurt Wallander, and although the Swedish language version was written in 1991, the English translation did not follow until 1997.
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