Firewall: Kurt Wallander - Softcover

Mankell, Henning

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099459051 ISBN 13: 9780099459057

Publisher: Vintage, 2004

Synopsis

Stopping to get money from a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead. A taxi dirver is brutally murdered by two teenaged girls. Quickly apprehended they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without trace. Soon afterwards a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery. Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked - somehow. Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to lose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace. Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move. Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them In their gripping police procedural about our increasing vulnerability in the modern digitalised world.

About this title

Review:

Not too long ago, Henning Mankell was a well-kept secret, but his latest book, Firewall, will be received by readers worldwide with much fanfare, which is as it should be; Mankell is something special. Some of the initial resistance to Mankell's work might be understandable; like one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman, Mankell is from a country noted for Nordic gloom and the lazy-minded are not always prepared to go beyond stereotypes. Their loss: like his cinematic compatriot (Mankell is in fact married to Bergman's daughter), this is an artist of rare achievement.

Firewall continues Mankell's unvarnished portraits of modern life, in which society and all its institutions (not least the family) are on the edge. Here, his long-term protagonist, Inspector Kurt Wallander, moves into new area of crime: cyberspace. Various deaths have occurred: the user of a cash machine, a taxi driver killed by two young girls. The country is plunged into blackout by an electricity failure, and a grim find is made at a power station. What's the connection? Wallander finds himself on the trail of cyber terrorists with shady anarchic aims. But can his own malfunctioning team of coppers pull together to help catch them--or is there a fifth columnist in the police? Plotting here is impeccable, although Firewall may not be a prime entry point for those new to Mankell. But Wallander (here worried about his diabetes and failure to lose weight) is one of the great literary coppers: enthusiasts need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Firewall is the eighth of his investigations, and the most enjoyable yet" (Guardian)

"Another gripping Inspector Wallander mystery by Sweden's master crime writer" (The Times)

"Enormously enjoyable" (Jessica Mann Sunday Telegraph)

"Firewall cracks along at a punishing pace... I am already hankering for a return to Ystad and a few more sleepless nights traipsing after Kurt" (Observer)

"Kurt Wallander is right up there with Ian Rankin's John Rebus" (Waterstone's Books Quarterly)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0099459051
• ISBN 13: 9780099459057
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544