Faceless killers

This first book in the Kurt Wallander series set in Sweden and written by Henning Mankell was originally published in Sweden in 1991 (English translation 1997). Chapter one sets the scene - a savage attack, resulting in murder, on an elderly man and his wife in their farm house. The only clue is provided by the dying words of the wife 'foreign'. A neighbour on an adjoining farm found the victims when he awoke in the middle of the night to the feeble cries from the wounded woman but he did not see or hear anything relating to the actual attack. Inspector Wallander and his team face the painstaking task of discovering the perpetrators of the crime and the motive for such a vicious attack. The only clue, foreign' only complicates the issue as the police attempt to prevent possible attacks on foreigners by a section of the community. Immigration policy in Sweden is a major theme explored throughout the book. The book also focuses on Kurt Wallander's personal problems including issues with family members, his health and the health of his respected colleague, Rydberg. This is a gripping thriller with many twists and turns as Wallander and his team endeavour to solve this brutal crime.

The dogs of Riga

The second book by Henning Mankell in the Wallander series is set in Sweden and in Riga, the capital of Latvia during the early 1990s when there was the beginning of transition of power from the Soviet occupation to the Latvians, but not total freedom. The plot begins with a raft, containing two dead bodies, washing up on a beach in Sweden. Investigations carried out by Inspection Kurt Wallander and his team suggest that the raft originally came from one of the Baltic countries to the north. A visit from Major Leipa of the Latvian police confirms the supposition but when Major Leipa returns to Latvia he is murdered. Inspector Wallander is then sent to Riga, supposedly to help with the investigation, but wherever he goes he is followed and his movements restricted. However he does manage to meet the widow of Major Leipa and agrees to try and help her not only to establish the truth about the death of her husband but also locate the report Leipa was writing about corruption in the police force.

Mankell uses the novel to write about the political situation in the Baltic states at this time, the fear that existed as citizens struggled for the independence of their country and the general mistrust through not knowing who was friend and who was foe. When Wallander return to Riga under cover he and the people he is trying to help are in constant danger until they discover who the enemy really is. In many ways it is a dark story as Wallander also has to examine what he wants in his own life.

The white lioness

This book was first published in Sweden in 1993 with the English translation appearing in 1998. According to the Inspector Wallander website thirteen books in this series have been published in Sweden between 1991 and 2009 but not all have been translated into English. The white lioness is number three in the series. A number of films and television series in Swedish have been produced. The BBC has also produced three series of television productions based on the books and shown on SBS.

Inspector Wallander lives and works in Ystad in southern Sweden. In the first chapters of The white lioness by Henning Mankell, Wallander and his team are alerted to the disappearance of a female real estate agent. While looking for her a house and surrounding buildings explode and in the ruins are found the finger of a black man, the remains of a Russian made radio transmitter and the but of a pistol. Shortly afterwards the woman's body us also found in a well. Events in South Africa at the end of Apartheid become interwoven with the hunt for the murderer of the Young Swedish woman as investigators uncover a plot to assassinate a major South African political figure.

Although 550 + pages, this is a fast moving story which makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens next. As well as the plot, however, a major feature of the book is the development of the flawed character of Wallander as he endeavours to work out the connections between seemingly unconnected events, catch the murderer and foil the assassination. His health, both physical and mental, is jeopardised as depression sets in after killing a man and the need to save his daughter when she is imprisoned.