After reading so many new books (which I will catch up on my reviews in the future), I’ve been rereading some old favorites. One of these is the first Kurt Wallander book, Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.

Wallander is well-known by PBS Mystery watchers. If you’ve only watched the video interpretations, you’re really missing out on some great books. Mankel weaves action, character, and a great feeling of the Swedish countryside together in a seamless satisfying whole. I can still imagine those cold winds from the book. The writing style is excellent too. When you’re reading a translation, you never really know if the style is the author or his translator. But I imagine that we must thank Steven Murray for giving us a true rendering of Mankel’s style in this case.

In this introduction to Kurt Wallander, an aging farm couple  are murdered in a bloody way that is not typical of the rural, Swedish landscape. Wallander and his team work their way thru the possible solutions to the crime with meager clues in a very logical, exhaustive way. If you’ve seen the video version, try to forget it as you read the book! The puzzle is a satisfying one. This is definitely a must read!