The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases: 10 (Kurt Wallander) - Softcover

Mankell, Henning

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400095824 ISBN 13: 9781400095827

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009

Synopsis

The missing piece of the internationally bestselling Kurt Wallander mystery series: the story of Kurt Wallander's beginnings.

Revealing a side of Wallander that we have never seen, the long stories collected in The Pyramid are vintage Mankell. Here, we see Wallander on his homicide first case as a twenty-one-year-old patrolman, as a young father facing unexpected danger on Christmas Eve, as a middle-aged detective with his marriage on the brink, as a newly separated investigator solving the brutal murder of a local photographer, and finally as a veteran detective, with his signature methodical and instinctive work style, discovering unexpected connections between a downed plane and the assassination of a pair of spinster sisters. In these five riveting tales we watch Kurt Wallander come into his own not only as a detective but as a human being

About this title

Review

When you spend a lot of time enthusiastically recommending a favourite writer to people unfamiliar with him, it's easy to acquire that cosy feeling that you're one of the initiated, spreading the word to those who aren't. For many, that used to be the case with Henning Mankell; crime aficionados who had discovered the Swedish master could hardly wait to extol the virtues of his wonderfully written novels -- and Mankell’s taciturn copper, Kurt Wallander. But the days when Mankell and his creation were known to just a privileged few are long over. There has already been an acclaimed television series made for the Scandinavian territories, and a major new English-speaking series beckons (starring Kenneth Branagh); even more fame is guaranteed for the writer and his detective.

So the time is probably right for The Pyramid, even though those of us who enjoyed putting out the word about Mankell will have to relinquish their proselytising role. Wallander first appeared in Faceless in 1991, when he was a senior police officer just out of his 30s and with his private life in chaos. The stories here describe his early years: the events, the people and the crimes that forged the man we first met in Faceless. We encounter Wallander as a beat cop attempting to crack a murder in his spare time; we follow him in his tentative first steps with Mona, the woman he has decided to marry (his wife, of course, had left him by the time of the events in that first book), and we are shown why his relationship with his father is quite so fractious. The elements that make the full length Wallander novels so successful are all here in microcosm: a cool, dispassionate treatment of crime, the understated evocation of the Scandinavian locales; and (best of all) the puzzling, fascinating character of the tenacious cop at the centre of the narrative.

Mankell fans may prefer the full-length novels (and not every piece here is vintage Mankell), but they will feel the need to catch up with the insights provided by these striking stories. --Barry Forshaw

Review

"A marvel of spare, purposeful prose and artful storytelling."--St. Petersburg Times

"Excellent. . . . Sure to bring [Mankell's] fans stampeding back into the fold."--The New York Times

"Absorbing, chilling, and dripping with evil atmosphere."-The Times, London

"Superb. . . .Mankell has mastered his craft."--Tampa Bay Tribune

"A triumph. . . . Mankell's quiet specificity is mesmerizing. . . . They are surprising small masterpieces."-Times Literary Supplement, London

"No crime writer balances genre conventions with personal concerns as well as Mankell."-Boston Globe

"Kurt Wallander remains one of the most impressive and credible creations of crime fiction today." -The Guardian, London

"This book is Mankell in top form. . . . For Mankell/Wallander fans [it is] a must read."-The Midwest Review

"The Wallander series . . . [is] essential reading for all crime fiction fans, and this collection adds an indispensable chapter to the saga."-Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1400095824
• ISBN 13: 9781400095827
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416