![]() The writing manages to bring out heaps of atmosphere and enough detail to make the reader fully understand that although Wallander is a fictional character, there seems to be immense truth and realism shaping the story. Henning Mankell was obviously a talented writer and he brings out the various characters that Wallander works with well. I cannot stress too strongly how much I enjoyed reading this first-in-the-series novel. He's not a cliche but a very carefully etched human policemen based in Ystad in Sweden. Wallander has problems in his personal life but these events shape his character beautifully. ![]() This book is the first of the Wallander series, a brilliant introduction to Kurt Wallander who manages to inspire as well as any previous Investigator you may have come across previously. This is a writer who manages to convey massive talent and 'Faceless Killers' is an incredible debut novel from writer who sadly is no longer with us. He writes so assuredly and poetically that the result is sublime. The reaction to them was well portrayed and an exception to the lifeless backdrop.Īs an introduction to 'Nordic noir', you could miss out, by not reading Henning Mankell. I had no idea such issues existed in Sweden then. The portrayal of illegal immigrants in Sweden that number of years ago was interesting. For example "a seabird flew past" - without further elaboration the information does nothing. There was local colour, but a lot of the description did not seem to add much to the picture. If he ate a meal then you could be sure a stomach upset was to follow. Outside his police work, everything he touched was a disaster. Apart from the main charcater Wallender, everyone else seemed wooden. There would not be a sentence anywhere in the book which reaches the complexity of normal written English. I am not expecting Jane Austen and maybe it loses in translation, but I found the sentences simply were not a pleasure to read. The crime fiction bit was fine but I found everything else rather ponderous. I had heard that this was superior crime fiction so gave a try to a genre I don't normally read. Different Weltanschauung, different brain space, but still worth it. Once you get into the groove it's somewhat soothing, tho a bit at odds with native English crime writing. Maybe it's just how the Swedes, and particularly Henkell, thinks. My advice: stick with it to get the background, and then expect better, though equally dour and old-fashioned writing in the subsequent books. However, I notice with trepidation that the translator of this book is given another one to do later in the series - I can't remember which one, tho I haven't read it yet (I'm reading out of sequence). However, I gave myself one more to read, before abandoning the series as a bad job: "The Dogs of Riga" was much easier to read (tho a bit redolent of the farfetchedness of Tintin at times) and it's been an upward trajectory ever since, all the way to "The Troubled Man" (the best, although saddest of the bunch) mainly due to the employment of two different translators that have done a much better job than that of the original chosen. The writing, the direction, the sometimes jokey Bergmanesque references, the acting, the use of the locations: all top-shelf BBC and Swedish quality. Everything about it I loved, apart from maybe Sir Ken's overplaying Wallander's diffidence occasionally. But I did, because I loved the English language telemovie adaptation so much. I think because it was Henning Mankell's first outing in crime fiction, or Swedish to English doesn't scan well, but most probably because of the leaden and uninspiring translation, the book creaked and clunked, and was a chore to get through. I've got to say that I was pretty disappointed with this volume. After watching the BBC series with Kenneth Branagh, I thought I'd better read the book it was based on, not least to see how the inevitable compromises between written and visual texts were accommodated.
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