Faceless Killers

Product Information

Wallander is a great fan of opera; while in his car he regularly listens to recordings of famous opera singers such as Maria Callas, and when he can find the time goes to opera performances, sometimes crossing over to Copenhagen, Denmark for this purpose. At one time, Wallander had dreamed of making opera his life, leaving the police force and becoming the impresario of his friend, Sten Widén, a tenor who aspired to sing opera. But Widén's voice was not good enough and the dream came to naught—a crushing disappointment in Wallander's life (as in Widén's). Over the years he has grown increasingly disillusioned with his work and often wonders whether he should have become a police officer at all. He was once falsely sued and harassed for police brutality and still lives with the guilt of having shot and killed a man in the fog, an act which drove him into depression and nearly led to his resignation. His relationships with his colleagues are tentative; they are alternately amazed by his intellect and frustrated by his brusque manner and aggressive tactics. The Troubled Man ( Den orolige mannen) The last series begins like the first, with an episode adapted from a book. Charlotta Jonsson takes over the role of Linda Wallander. Kurt, now a grandfather, loses his gun. Although on suspension because of the incident, he investigates his new father-in-law’s disappearance, which involves an historical submarine incident in Swedish waters. Mankell, Henning (2013). "How It Started, How It Finished And What Happened In Between". An Event in Autumn. London: Penguin Random House - Vintage. ISBN 978-1-7847-0084-3. Before the Frost ( Innan frosten) In the only episode in series one based on a book, Linda has just joined the Ystad force and helps her father with an animal torture case that becomes the prelude to the ritual murder of humans.

The Priest ( Prästen) A priest is shot after leaving the arms of a local businessman’s wife. When the priest dies, the murder weapon is found in the businessman’s house, and he is charged for the crime. As Kurt investigates the spouses of both parties, he becomes convinced the man has been framed. The Missing ( Försvunnen) A little girl slips away from her fighting parents who are both suing for custody. Wallander recruits the help of a suspect from a similar case years earlier to find the missing girl. The Courier ( Kuriren) A murdered drug courier leads to a local biker gang who threaten Isabelle and Svartman. A young recruit in the gang is their chance to infiltrate and break up the vicious drug ring. There's something about Swedish authors that both fascinates me and tugs at my heartstrings. Henning Mankell does indeed do that for me with his Inspector Kurt Wallander.Spy stuff. Hyper-inflation; crime as always politically motivated; KGB-like watchdogs everywhere; bugs as standard in hotel rooms; buildings and structures made of grey concrete left to whither in the country side; violent and secret interrogations; crime syndicates in cohort with corrupt government officials as they vie for post Cold War spoils; an anti-communist underground movement that meets regularly to oppose the betrayal of communism (yeah, I had to read that twice too); police officials where allegiances fall based on shifting power. For Wallander, it is like trying to hold onto a greased ball. Unnerving and gastronomically ominous. On the heels of reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, I decided to branch out and try a couple more Swedish crime authors. Faceless Killers is the first such book to fall into my hands. The style of the Wallander series is that of a police procedural. This book is the first in the series of eleven. I thought it was a very good mystery and better than the other one I read and reviewed, The Man Who Smiled. There’s a bit of local color of Sweden and I liked the map that allows you to follow the action around the southern section of the country, especially around Ystad, a real city where the detective is based. The mystery is an intriguing one and delves into the secret life of one of the victims. The mystery is not of the solveable variety but that's ultimately not that important. My main attractions to Faceless Killers were the glimpse into Swedish society and Kurt Wallander himself.

Faceless Killers has also been adapted into a 90-minute television episode for the BBC's Wallander series starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. It was first broadcast on 3 January 2010. Fredrik Gunnarsson, who played Svartman in the Swedish TV series, had a cameo in this episode. [2] All detectives have to have their personality quirks and personal problems to keep the story interesting. But Swedish detective Kurt Wallander has so many things going on that it would take a full hour with Dr. Phil to even make a dent.Mankell transmite la incertidumbre de esos días, los suecos no sabían nada de la vida letona ni los letones de la vida sueca siendo vecinos solo separados por el mar báltico. Estaban preocupados por cómo les iba a sentar la libertad después de tantos años bajo el yugo soviético. Cosa normal en unos países que llevaban décadas cerrados en sí mismos mientras se arruinaban sin dejar libertad a sus habitantes. Faceless Killers is a 1991 crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell. It is the first book in the Wallander series, named after its recurring protagonist, a middle-aged detective based in Ystad, Sweden named Kurt Wallander. While Wallander’s personal life flounders after a recent divorce, he strives to find the killers of a well-respected elderly couple who owned a local farm. Wallander finds that the brutal murders may have been perpetrated by foreigners; the case, as it unravels, makes an implicit commentary on the relationships between Sweden’s immigration policies, the epidemic of racism, and Swedish nationalism. Detective Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police in Sweden has an unusual case...a life raft washes ashore with 2 executed men in it....from where? Who are they? Why were they killed. The investigation involves a detective from the Latvian police being sent over to liaise when its discovered the boat must've originated in the Baltic region.

Inspector Kurt Wallander, Our Hero, is a detective in a provincial town in southern Sweden. When two murdered Latvians wash up on his shores in a life raft, he ends up falling down a rabbit hole trying to solve the crime and the associated murder of his Latvian counterpart, whom he befriended earlier in the story.Kurt Wallander, Swedish detective, is inexplicably sent to Latvia to investigate the death of a Latvian police officer who was killed ...in Latvia. Second Swedish language production" (announcement). SE: Yellow Bird. 2008-03-25 . Retrieved 2010-01-08. Swedish detective Kurt Wallander is plunged into another depressing mystery when two bodies wash ashore on the Swedish coast in a life raft. The two male victims have been shot to death and then wrapped in an embrace in the lifeboat and cast adrift. They are carrying no identification, but their dental work suggests that they are from somewhere in Eastern Europe. Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer known mostly for this fictional character Kurt Wallander. He is married to Eva Bergman.

In Wallander, Mankell has crafted a complicated and darkly charismatic protagonist. With his drinking, poor eating habits, surly manner and clumsy way with close relationships he is almost an anti-hero. Es el segundo de la serie Kurt Wallander, y fue publicado en los primeros años de los 90. Aunque he leído posteriores, tenía pendientes este, y también el tercero, que leeré en breve. And that brings us to Kurt Wallander himself. He's no super-hero unless lonliness and not having anything go right in his personal life is a super power. He's getting older and fatter, his wife left him, his daughter is a stranger, his relationship with his father is strained, and all he has is his job. Instead of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, what I was primarily reminded of when I read this was John Lutz's Alo Nudger series starring a similarly sad character.Rydberg describes the crime scene as being so grisly it was “like an American movie” [p. 21]. What does this comment suggest about the relationship between representations of violence for purposes of entertainment and real violence? What does it suggest about the differences between Sweden and America?