A well written police mystery introducing detective Kurt Wallander of Ystad, Sweden. A small town detective finds himself buried in big city problems.

Wallander investigates savage murder of elderly Swedish couple in climate of high racial tension. Mankell typically places the stories murder investigation into the context of Swedish current events. In 1990 for "Faceless Killers" it was Somalia refugees in Sweden.

Originally published in Swedish in 1990's, series continues as follows:

Mördare utan ansikte, 1991 (Faceless Killers)
Hundarna i Riga, 1992 (The Dogs of Riga)
Den vita lejoninnan, 1993 (The White Lioness)
Mannen som log, 1994 (The Man who Smiled)
Villospår, 1995 (Sidetracked)
Den femte kvinnan, 1996 (The Fifth Woman)
Steget efter, 1997 (One Step Behind)
Brandvägg, 1998 (Firewall)

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An excellent read! One warning: not every part of the mystery is resolved. According to an online interview with Mankell, this question comes up again in future books.

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This is the FIRST of a wonderful Swedish (translated of course!) series. Kurt Wallander is a character with a lot of depth that you will really care for. Recently divorced he is faced with a challenging double homicide as well as another potential serial killer. This series reflects issues in today's Sweden (and Europe) as well as a introducing wonderful detective. I can't wait to read the next one.

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Fabulous Swedish mystery. Quality writing, an interesting puzzle with numerous twists and a fully developed and intriguing character, Ystad police inspector Kurt Wallander. I will definitely be reading more of this series. Lots of Scandinavian angst and a chilling atmosphere. Highly recommended!

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I expected to be a little more "wowed" by this book because I know several people who love this Henning Mankell series. It's okay, but a little dark for my taste. I will read more out of curiousity to see if they get better.

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Not a real exciting book. I can't say that I was impressed.

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The Kurt Wallander character is developed well in this book, and I'm looking forward to reading more about him. As with other Scandinavian writers I've read, the prose is sparse - one of these days I would love to read this as written in the author's native tongue.

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This was not what I expected, it was a bit too wordy for me.
There was a lot of extra in it that really didn't add to the storyline other than filler.

Good story when you could wade through the filler.

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When Police Detective Kurt Wallander responds to a call in the middle of the night, he finds a farmer has been brutally tortured and murdered. His wife has been beaten and is barely alive. Before the farmer's wife succumbs to her injuries, she whispers the word "foreign". Kurt wants to keep that fact from the public; but there is a leak at the police station and newspapers quickly let everyone know what the woman said. This leads to a rise in hate crimes in the usually peaceful Swedish countryside.

Several years ago, I watched the Kurt Wallander mysteries on public television and enjoyed them. I thought I'd give the first book in the series I try, so I downloaded the audiobook. The character of Wallander was a bit depressing. His wife has left him, his teenage daughter will not talk to him, and his father seems to have the beginnings of Alzheimer disease. Kurt is working long hours and drinking heavily. The whole situation made me question if he should be in charge of this investigation.

Even though the narrator, Dick Hill, does a fine job with the story, I found my mind wandering while listening to this mystery. I had a hard time remembering the names of the characters, including which ones were cops and which ones were suspects. I probably should have switched to reading instead of listening. My rating: 3 Stars.

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Because I watched the Wallander PBS series prior to reading this book, I was stuck with the image of Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. That's not a bad thing but probably impacted my opinion of that character. Mankell does an excellent job developing Wallander as an immensely flawed police detective and his story really helped glue this mystery together for me. I was not, however, as intrigued by the mystery itself and I found myself a little disappointed as the book came to an end. The story had not stayed with me from the PBS series (possibly a forewarning that the book may not engage me). I do plan to continue the series as I'm curious about Wallander and his future.

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