Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) 's Reviews > Faceless Killers

My first novel by the Swedish Mystery master, Henning Mankell and not the last, I am sure of it.

From the blurb "It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smouldering anti-immigrant sentiments."

What I like about nordic mysteries is how real they feel. The investigation has its ups and downs, it gets stuck, it resumes etc. The main character is not entirely likeable, he has his own prejudices and faults. The refugee problem is debated here and the MC does not have the entirely politically correct opinion, which was refreshing. We get to read how he muses on the subject, but how he also admits when he is wrong.