Henning Mankell, one of Sweden's most prolific crime writers, has delivered the final Kurt Wallander mystery. In this tenth novel following the career of the brusque, effective and, at times, controversial police inspector in the small coastal town of Ystad, Sweden. In this series finale, Wallander is 60 years old, in poor health, lonely, and worried about his future. He struggles to maintain good relationships with family as always. He is in frequent conflict with colleagues in the Ystad police department. Even with all his shortcomings, he still knows how to get to the bottom of the most challenging case. In reading this novel, the question is: who is "The Troubled Man"? The main suspect in the crime? Wallander himself? Or, both? 
Teaser Tuesday is described by its host Miz B over at Should be Reading as a "weekly bookish meme" open to any reader who wants to play along. If, like me, you're always curious about what people are reading or on the lookout for the next great read, then this may be your meme. If you want to play, just click on Miz B's link above for the very simple rules.
The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
"The only thing that struck him right now as being an incontestable fact was that Hakan von Enke had stood face-to-face with him in a side room during a birthday party on Djursholm and seemed to be deeply troubled. That's where it all began, Wallander thought. It began with the troubled man." pp. 207-8
Book Description: In Stockholm a retired, high ranking naval officer disappears on a routine daily walk. Soon thereafter, the officer's wife disappears also. The investigation falls under Stockholm police jurisdiction. Wallander is on vacation/sick leave at his home outside Ystad. In typical Wallander fashion he becomes involved in this case because the presumed victims are his daughter's future in-laws. The investigation leads back to Sweden's involvement in the Cold War and suspected espionage activities involving submarine maneuvers within Sweden's maritime borders.
Mankell's Kurt Wallander mysteries were first adapted into a Swedish television series. This highly acclaimed production was then adapted into a PBS Masterpiece Mystery series starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. From the beginning, I was drawn to the series theme song "Nostalgia" by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo. Here she performs the song in one of the setting for "Sidetracked" from the first season. The song captures the Wallander character.
6 comments:
Yep. Men are always at the root of the problem LOL
You can find my teasers here at The Bookish Snob
This does sound like an intriguing story...I like this teaser!
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I haven't read any of this series by Mankell, but I have read "Secrets in the Fire" and I also have on my bookshelf "When the Snow Fell". Have you read either of those? "Secrets in the Fire" was particularly moving.
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sounds intriguing . . . Kaye—the road goes ever ever on
Brooding men always have an interesting story! Love the cover, too.
Hi Faye,
I just happened to stumble over your Blog as i clicked "next blog" in the heading on my own site. For some reason, unknown to me, I tend to get directed to Blogs in English rather than those of my own language, Swedish. Much to my surprise i found that the top article concerned a book written by a Swedish writer. First of all I may have to make you disappointed, but must confess to not having read any of the Mankell books about Wallander. The books (11 to date) has been coming out since 1991 and has been highly popular leading to a number of movies. There has been some 35 different Wallander movies made in Sweden with at least three different actors in the role of Wallander. These films has been both full-feature Theater-films and direct to Tv-films. Many of them with scripts by other writers but also with Henning Mankell as Co-writer. Therefore I think I give voice to an opinion that are widely spread over here when I say that we’re getting a bit fed up with Wallander. And then we still haven’t seen the British version with Mr Branagh on Swedish television!
I of course have no idea how deep you all have been digging into the current flood of Swedish crimewriters that are now starting to reach abroad and to the Americas. But I would recommend the three books by Stieg Larsson known as “the Millenium trilogy” (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest). They were recently turned into three movies here in Sweden and with a Hollywood adaptation in production starring Daniel Craig (also known as James Bond..)
The Millenium Trilogy gives a just as good view on Swedish conditions as Wallander but here on the somewhat more political and sociological level as Sweden as a community is described (Apart from all three books being darn good crimeplots!)
And the true story about the trilogy is almost as intriguing.
Stieg Larsson had finished the
three books and they were ready for publishing when he died very unexpectedly from a heart attack. Here in Sweden we have been following the aftermath to his death as all rights to the books(actually everything he left behind) was left to his family (e.g Father and brother ) and his lifetime partner Eva Gabrielsson was left virtually without anything as they never married. There are rumors of a laptop computer with a completed fourth book that Mrs Gabrielsson has hidden from the family as she is claimed to have been the one who was “cleanwriting” the scribbles and ideas that Stieg had… And it’s when you realize that some 30 million books has been sold in 40 countries you can appreciate the vigour with witch the battle over the Stieg Larsson inheritance is fought. So If not already on the reading list, I suggest you add Stieg Larson!
Please forgive my long comment, but if I can help you find another Swedish writer worth reading I hope it was worth it.
Sincerely
B Anderson,
Stockholm, Sweden
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