K.D. Absolutely's Reviews > Faceless Killers

One of those books that I thought I would not like but ended up really liking.

I am not really a big fan of mystery whodunnit books but this one really hooked me from start to finish. The plot is not really focused on who the killer is but on the main protagonist and his life: aging, just divorced, daughter's not communicating to him, father's getting senile, getting fat, postponing his diet, drinking and driving and all of the other matters that make him human and vulnerable. Of course, you'd like to find out who the killer is but that's was secondary to me. I think this is also the first book (1001 or not) that I've read with Sweden as the setting and I found it interesting because I have not been there. Prior to this book, the images of Sweden in my mind were either those beautiful Ms. Universe contestants, milk products with cows and young smiling girls holding a glass of milk on their covers. Funny but that was Sweden in my mind.

Why did I think that I would not like this? Oh, Robert Langdon. I got tired of him. But Kurt Wallander is different. His being an inspector (a detective) is just about any job in the office. As I read this in the past 5 working days, I could not help relate what he goes through to what I am going through in the office. There are times that even if I put everything I have (full attention, extended working hours, extensive research), there are just some things that would not work and at the time when everything looks hopeless, comes a spark of inspiration or a word, a phrase uttered by someone (in my case, my boss) that made me think: right, why did I not think of doing it that way? In Wallander's case, it was that (view spoiler)[ bank teller who has excellent memory of what happened that day in the bank when Johannes Lovgren was murdered. (hide spoiler)]

Except for Inferno (to-be-read), I read all Dan Brown books and Robert Langdon was okay in The Da Vinci Code (2 stars) and fascinating in Angels & Demons (3 stars) but ridiculously irritating in The Lost Symbol (1 star). He is alike rah-rah detective always running around going from one building to another and chasing killers. I just got tired of him. Here, Inspector Kurt Wallander is like you and me. He drives a car sometimes even drunk as he is missing his wife but dreams of other sexy babes. Hehe. Why, we men all do that, right? We love our wives but still have hots for pretty ladies we meet. I mean, Wallander is all too human for you not to relate to him. In the end when I repeatedly says to his dying friend, "I made too many mistakes" I would like to go to the book and hug him as I want to say: "Me too."

Easy read. Straightforward narration. Big font. No big words. All loose ends tied up tight in the end. Everything plausible. Human characters. No caricaturists. Not pretentious at all. Not trying hard to impress. Just plain wonderful storytelling.

First in the series and I will surely be watching out for the rest.