Sidetracked: Kurt Wallander - Softcover

Mankell, Henning

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860467636 ISBN 13: 9781860467639

Publisher: Harvill Press, 2000

Synopsis

Midsummer approaches, and Inspector Kurt Wallander prepares for a holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his ageing father will cope without him.

But his restful summer plans are thrown into disarray when a teenage girl commits suicide before his eyes, and a former minister of justice is butchered in the first of a series of apparently motiveless murders. Wallander's desperate hunt for the girl's identity and his furious pursuit of a killer who scalps his victims will throw him and those he loves most into mortal danger.

WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION GOLD DAGGER

About this title

Review:

"The Swedish summer-time is too beautiful and too brief for something like this to happen." A young girl commits self-immolation, a former government minister is killed with an axe and scalped; these are the two brutal facts that confront Inspector Kurt Wallander as he prepares for his holiday. As the Swedish midsummer approaches there is no escaping from the darkness of society.

Sidetracked, the fifth of Henning Mankell's acclaimed Kurt Wallander mysteries, and the second to be translated into English, is an engrossing police procedural. The hard-boiled Kurt Wallander has softened slightly since he was first introduced in Faceless Killers, the first title in the series. He drinks less, has more functional relationships and has developed a faith in his investigative team. Despite this, it is his other qualities as a character, his philosophical angst and his intuitive pursuit of hunches, which drive this novel as Wallander struggles to discover the leads that will trap the killer.

Mankell manages to squeeze in serious comments on the state of Swedish society. The over-stretched police force, child prostitution and the corruption of high politics, all come under the scrutiny of Wallander's wearied gaze as he struggles to come to terms with the new violence of his society. This is a dark novel peppered with genuinely nasty violence, but it is Wallander's struggle to uncover the truth and face his own demons that provide the real thrills. --Iain Robinson

Review:

"Wallander's investigations are perfectly judged to create a thrilling mood of growing tension culminating in a satisfying climax" (The Times)

"Wonderfully bleak thrillers...somehow unremitting and gripping at the same time" (Sean French Independent)

"Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended" (Observer)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1860467636
• ISBN 13: 9781860467639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384