Excellent read; outstanding characters and lots of background on Sweden.

I chose to read this for an International Fiction class because I have seen the BBC show and really liked it. I would say that this is a very mediocre crime novel, especially when (invariably) compared to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (same publishing house, country, etc.). The writing is okay, a little flat, and the story hits points where it feels stagnant, but the character Kurt Wallander is the reason to read this. He is a hero that is plagued by many demons and, while being a great detective, is self-destructive. Anyway, a decent read. I might read the next book in the series and see if it the writing is better. ( )

While the chief is on vacation, Kurt Wallander is temporarily in charge of the force and the investigation into the double murder of a couple murdered in a farmhouse. The woman's dying word was "foreign," and those trying to limit immigration into Sweden immediately seize upon the word as fodder for their cause although no one knows what the context involves. The investigation quickly shows the couple, or at least the man, was not quite as poor as believed, but the case is quickly on the road to landing in the dead case file because of the lack of clues. Just when hope seems lost, they receive a clue that helps. There's also another murder which may or may not be related that occurs and is investigated. It's an interesting start to the series. I listened to the audiobook. ( )

SPOILER ALERT!

Well, as a fan of Nordic noir and as someone who'd enjoyed episodes of the British Wallender TV series, I had expected more from this "classic". But I must say I was put off by Wallander as a person, not because he was flawed, but because I found the writing uncompelling and flat throughout. Mankell writes too frequently in the passive, with not enough dialogue for my tastes. I finished the book, but felt no interest or care whatsoever in its dénouement.

Moreover, I find I am quite sick of the hackneyed misogyny in so many of these male-penned novels. The description of Wallender's relationship with the lead prosecutor, as well as his dreams of the mysterious black woman who comes to his dreams, is quite off-putting and tiresome. It seemed almost expected that he would make a move on her and that she would eventually go to bed with him, although she did not leave her husband. Moreover, we learned nothing about any of the women in this novel, unless they were somehow useful to Wallender in completing some task or another.

I'm fairly sure I will not venture further into any of Mankell's works. ( )

My first Wallander, and definitely not my last. I love how terrible his indigestion is, and how he's always tired.

Also I didn’t expect action scenes, and this had action scenes! Pretty nifty! ( )

This was more of a procedural than I was expecting. There were two separate cases , both of which involved the social and political atmosphere of the country . There is a lot of somewhat gloomy character development of wallander, the detective. Will have to try more, kept my interest, but I like a bit of humor sometimes in my mysteries ( )

"There is no such thing as the face of a murderer"

"Justice is the pursuit of truth without end."

A solid start to the series. I was a little disappointed by the major drops in intensity. The mystery was sometimes lost in Mankell's realism, earning him the genre name of "police procedural" more than anything else. The thorough characterization of Wallander prepares him to be reused for story after story. I love this curmudgeony cop and will gladly return to the series. The Swedish politics around immigration is the pet topic of the book. And the author is forgiven of his "conservative" stance due to him nodding toward neutrality or multiple perspectives. His opinion was a bit on the nose sometimes. An enjoyable read, I hope the next book is a more intricate/thrilling mystery. ( )

Story: 7 / 10
Characters: 7.5
Setting: 7
Prose: 6 ( )

This was an interesting read. Was looking for a book for a prompt called Nordic Noir and this was one of the books suggested.

I was invested from the first chapter. I think I will definitely be reading this book again in the future. I really enjoyed the character of Kurt Walldander and may even see if I can’t find the BBC series they made based on this book series. ( )

A gripping crime novel that introduces us to Inspector Kurt Wallander, a brilliant but flawed detective that has to deal with a series of brutal murders and racism in his Swedish town. Wallander is a very relatable character, I like that he has not only strengths but weaknesses as well. His personal struggles add more depth to the story and the character, making him more than just a crime solver.

Faceless Killers is an excellent introduction to the Kurt Wallander series and a great read for fans of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Plot Summary from Bard AI

In the quiet town of Ystad, Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is called to the scene of a gruesome double murder. An elderly couple, Johannes and Maria Lövgren, have been found brutally slain in their remote farmhouse. The only clue left behind is Maria's dying word, spoken in a foreign language.

Wallander's investigation quickly takes him into the murky depths of xenophobia and racism, as he uncovers a series of hate crimes _targeting immigrants. He soon realizes that the Lövgrens' murder was not an isolated incident, but part of a larger, more sinister plot.

As Wallander delves deeper into the case, he finds himself facing not just a ruthless killer but also the prejudices and fears that fuel his crimes. He must confront his own biases and grapple with the complex social and political issues that lie at the heart of the case. ( )

Clueless in Sweden
I’m not a fan of the detective crime genre, but having enjoyed Markell’s Italian Shoes I thought to branch out, and hopefully be able to read his The Troubled Man which I’d discarded, finding it difficult to keep track of Detective Wallender, his loves, his family and his cohorts.

It a fairly typical plot - brutal murders that prove difficult to solve with a cast of supporting characters. Sidelines are cameos of Wallender’s loves, the troubles of his mates, his fear of getting overweight - the usual concerns of middle-aged middle-income maless in the West.

Theres a contemporary slant, concerning illegal immigration and the problems it brings to western countries. Though the mass migration of this century is nothing like the small level experienced in the late eighties; the book was published in 1991.

I spent most of the book imagining its “foreigners” to be black or Hispanic - Somalis or Venezuelans - when’s in fact “foreign”, the last word of one of the victims, referred to Eastern Europeans.

This introduction of 1980s refugees in the novel tends to date it rather than give it an historical or modern vibe. You just can’t win with the rate and pace of 21st century socio-political change. Austen had it easy.

I found the build-up to be rather slow. There’s a sub-plot about the murder of an immigrant, but it fails to generate enough interest, occurring around the middle of the book, when Wallender is having his personal crises.

Around the two-thirds mark, Detective Wallender comes into his own, and the search for the killers gains momentum.

I enjoyed the book well enough. It was a medium to light read. I was turned off by Wallender as I found him to be a bit of a misogynist. His cringe-worthy attempt to seduce the beautiful and highly intelligent state prosecutor was a turn-off. The other characters were farming folks. There’s lots of mud and horses and run-down farms. Sort of an Ireland without the humor. ( )

Standard fare. I'll continue Wallendar books with an eye toward this character development. ( )

CW: Suicide, sexual references ( )

Det är vinter i Skåne. En bonde vaknar och ser från sitt fönster att allt inte är som det brukar. Han ser att fönstret i granngården är öppet. Han går dit och tittar in genom fönstret och får se sin granne Johannes Lövgren ligga på golvet med krossat ansikte. Hustrun Maria har en strypsnara runt halsen och hennes nattlinne är fullt av blod men hon lever. Innan Maria dör på sjukhuset, yttrar hon ordet "utlänning" som snabbt läcker ut i medierna. Utredningen leds av kommissarie Kurt Wallander vid Ystadspolisen som snart får anonyma hot per telefon. När stadens flyktingförläggning brinner och en somalisk flykting mördas, förstår han att den som hotat honom menar allvar.

A well-paced police procedural set in a small Swedish town. Inspector Kurt Wallander deals with a double murder and a random killing while navigating personal issues with a wife who wants a divorce, a suicidal daughter, a father who's senile and a prosecutor with whom he harbors unrequited love. The personal takes some of the edge off of the various investigations and gives us insight into Wallander's flawed but nevertheless heroic character. All this and some prescient delving into xenophobia too. Realistic and laconic. ( )

I liked the book, although I think I'll need to get used to the main protagonist, Wallander; he's a little hard to like sometimes, especially when he drinks. He says and does some pretty dumb things under those circumstances. But he's a pretty good detective all in all, and he managed to figure out what was going on. If only we didn't have to hear about his diarrhea when he eats too fast, etc. ( )

In the early days before I discovered crime fiction I was more into... well, whatever I could find in the basement and the occasional texts from English classes that particularly struck me. Then I got wind that Scandinavia's a happening place for the genre, picked up this book, and read a lot of [a:Henning Mankell|22339|Henning Mankell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336761478p2/22339.jpg] and [a:Jo Nesbø|904719|Jo Nesbø|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1493220079p2/904719.jpg] before the subsequent and ongoing fantasy binge. The idea of rereading any crime fiction book wasn't an immediately attractive one, because where's the fun in a mystery that you already know all the answers to, but somehow I liked it far more having reread it.

Faceless Killers/Mördare utan ansikte, the first in the Wallander series about a detective based in the southern Swedish town of Ystad, has Kurt Wallander investigate the double murder of a farmer and his wife. Latent xenophobes immediately latch onto the wife's dying word, "foreign", and thinking it gives them license to act on their hatred, begin a slew of racially motivated crimes that keeps the police department's hands full.

In what I hear is the grand tradition of Scandinavian crime fiction there's a great deal of social commentary, mostly concerning immigration in this case. I gather that it was a sensitive issue in 1991 Sweden, and it probably still is, though it's far more evenhanded than I remember it being. Mankell rightly decries the bigoted asshats that Wallander has to put up with, but he also has dim view of contemporary immigration policies, or at least the policymakers; there's a chapter where Wallander phones an immigration officer who refuses to acknowledge the government's failure to account for a shamefully large amount of refugees and somehow fails to realize that anything's amiss. Best of all, the book doesn't offer any answers, which I find surprising more than ever given Mankell's left-wing persuasion, but I actually kind of respect him for that, because the issues the book grapple with are far too complex for there to be a single or easy solution, and it's not something that can be solved by any one person, let alone a novelist.

Mundanity also has as much a presence in the novel as Wallander's work; there's several diversions devoted to his personal life, and sometimes it's not even that, like his car breaking down, for example. Probably sounds uneventful, I know, but it rounds out Wallander's character nicely, and it makes the people surrounding him also feel equally real. The environment also seems to mirror the drabness of Wallander's life; the story takes place in the dead of winter, and the backdrop is so grey that it probably looks something like purgatory for those afflicted with seasonal depression. It's also entirely possible that's just what Sweden's like at that time of year, though, so perhaps it's quite presumptuous of me to frame it like pathetic fallacy.

There is one loose end that annoys me to no end though, and it's what preventing me from giving it the highest possible score. The press gets hold of Maria Lövgren's last word within hours of her death, and it's deduced fairly quickly that someone within the force is leaking every development in the case for the highest bidder. Want to know who the leak is? So the fuck would I, because that subplot has no resolution whatsoever, and it's been long enough since I've read the rest of the series that I can't remember if it ever comes up again.

Aside from that and the generic-ass title, Faceless Killers is a promising start, even if it is obviously indebted to the Martin Beck series. It has a well-conceived crime, a reasonably sympathetic detective, more nuanced social commentary than I initially gave it credit for, and lastly, it strikes a nice balance between crime fiction and slice-of-life. ( )

Mankell has a very, very dry writing style. I did enjoy the book but it wasn't a real page turner. Plan to read more though geiven that mankell is so highly regarded among aficiandos of the Scandinavian crime genere I have come to like so much. ( )

On a remote Swedish farmhouse, an elderly farmer is beaten to death, while his wife is left dying, with a noose around her neck. It is for Wallander and his team to investigate.
An enjoyable police procedural, a good solid start to the series. ( )

Probably 3.5 stars. Kurt Wallander is called out to investigate the brutal double murder of a farmer and his wife, whose dying word "foreigner" ignites smoldering fears within Sweden. The book's pace is uneven, but Wallander's determination successfully brings the main case and a senseless second murder to conclusion while his personal life is imbalanced too. ( )

The character is sort of disgusting hygiene-wise, but gets the job done with the help of his phenomenal luck, especially while chasing baddies. He always catches sight of the sneaky buggers just when he thinks he's lost them. Go Kurt Wallander! Also he gets wounded a lot.
Mankell makes this part of Sweden sound profoundly bleak.
Good characterizations and some amusing jabs about interdepartmental politics. I'd probably read another one. ( )

After enjoying the books of Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo & Asa Larsson it seemed only right that I give Henning Mankell's Wallander series a go. I decided to do the sensible thing and start with the first book in series even though a prequel has since been published. I definitely needed some light reading after The Shock Doctrine and I felt ready for some fiction again. I was a little skeptical however, the reviews for this book are all over the place which made we wonder how good it would be.

The main character Kurt Wallander is in a bit of a rut with his life. His wife has left him, his daughter doesn't seem to what to know him. His father is old and cantankerous and Wallander has let himself go while feeling sorry for himself. He also has that common theme with fictional policemen, he drinks far too much. One thing that stood out instantly is that I saw quite a few similarities between him and Nesbo's Harry Hole. They even share a like of music albeit classical instead of rock in this case.

Wallander is a likeable character but still retains a hard edge which makes some of his decision making questionable. The supporting characters are a varied bunch but none of them really come to life with the exception of Rydberg. He is someone who's opinion means a lot to Wallander and is his sounding board when things are on his mind.

One of the subjects that was dealt with that I really liked was Wallander's feeling that he is of an older generation and that crime had become far more violent in recent times. This is played out very well and he is stuck in a limbo between his father's generation and that of his daughter. Another topic that is handled superbly is that of immigration. Some books have the main character as some super righteous uber liberal being. Wallander still harbours doubts about the way immgration is being dealt with while treating everyone equally. This is an important distinction that many authors miss in my opinion and something that is even more important given the age of Wallander. Most people of his generation would be worried about what immigration means for his country whilst not being racist.

There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep this interesting and I flew though the book in no time at all. The translation was a bit sloppy and I found some words that had been mis-spelt which was pretty annoying. I really enjoyed the books though and I look forward to reading some more of Kurt Wallander's adventures. ( )

"Justice doesn't only mean that people who commit crime are punished. It also means that we can never give up seeking the truth."

'Faceless Killers' is the first in the Kurt Wallander series of books. Wallander's life is a mess: his wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him and even his own father barely tolerates him. Wallander eats badly, buries himself in work and drinks his nights away in loneliness.

Early one freezing January morning a farmer discovers that his neighbours Johannes and Maria Lövgren have been brutally attacked. Johannes Lövgren is dead, and Maria is barely alive. Ystad Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called to investigate.

Initially there seems no reason why the Lövgrens have been so brutally attacked, they didn't appear wealthy and nothing valuable seems to have been taken. When Maria Lövgren dies, uttering the word "foreign" with her dying breath, Wallander and his team are left with an additional problem. There are several migrant camps in the vicinity and anti-immigration sentiment in the local populace is already running high, so when word leaks out that the Lövgrens may have been killed by foreigners, emotions can only escalate. So when a Somali immigrant is shot Wallander find himself with another murder on his hands and a race against time to prevent others.

As the police look more deeply into the Lövgren case they find that there was more to Johannes Lövgren than it appeared and there are facts about him that even his wife didn't know. Whilst the murder of the refugee has political ramifications of its own. Meanwhile Wallander is having problems of his own.

Police procedure, as the members of the team collect evidence, conduct interviews and follow leads, is central to this novel and gets a realistic impression of how very long it can take to solve a case. There are long hours; the public, press and superiors to satisfy, dogged footwork to be done but there is also a real sense of camaraderie. All of the cops work long hours but still take time to look out for each other.

Kurt Wallander himself is an interesting character. He has had some hard blows in his life but is reflective rather than bitter and doesn't waste his time complaining about it. He’s a very human character who makes mistakes during investigation but through sheer tenacity and devotion to duty still manages to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Given that this was first published some thirty years ago it still feels fresh and relevant. Despite the fact that it takes a while to solve the actual crime the action still flows at a reasonable pace and doesn't get too bogged at any point. But that's not to say that I didn't have a few minor gripes. Wallander is too often conveniently in the right spot at the right time and gets too personally involved in chasing up leads than I believe an officer of his rank should be, whilst his relationship with the prosecutor seems a little strange. This isn't a genre that I would normally reach for but overall I found 'Faceless Killers' a realistic crime novel with an interesting protagonist and I will certainly look out for others in the series. ( )

Just a pretty average murder mystery. Occasionally entertaining just for how many physical indignities Wallander suffers, I suppose. ( )

Finally got around to reading Book No. 1 in the police inspector Kurt Wallander series (Sept. 2012). I have not moved on to Book 2, but hope to someday. Enjoyed this read as will you if you like shadowing a cop solving a crime.

An elderly farm couple is tortured and murdered with the woman's last word suggesting they look for a "foreigner." That's a nasty word as the story is set against a backdrop of growing hatred toward immigrants.

Of course Mr. Wallander has all kinds of personal baggage. One online reviewer put it this way: "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."

Quotes:

“Every time Wallander stepped into a strange apartment, he felt as though he were looking at the covers of a book he had just bought. The apartment, the furniture, the pictures on the walls, and the smells were the title. Now he had to start reading.”

“Justice doesn't only mean that the people who commit crime are punished. It also means that we can never give up seeking the truth.”

“The dread of something menacing that you felt when you were a child returns when you get old.”

“There’s no such thing as a murderer’s face,” he said. “You imagine something: a profile, a hairline, a set of the jaw. But it never matches up.” ( )