Scan barcode
sbrice's review against another edition
Although written later than the first Wallander series, this book is 4 short stories starting when Wallander first joins the police force.
bernardino's review against another edition
3.0
No aprendo. Nueva oportunidad a Wallander. Está claro que él tampoco aprende. Sensación de haberlo leído ya (por cansino)
storymi's review against another edition
3.0
Wallander is leuk, omdat hij zo menselijk is. Ik houd van zijn mijmeringen midden in een moordzaak, over welke trui hij vandaag eens zal aantrekken.
eleganthedgehogs's review
People didn’t really like this book. Apparently it turned out not to be a representative example of his books.
judyward's review against another edition
4.0
What a downer Swedish society must be if the atmosphere evoked by Henning Mankell is even close to accurate. Sometimes I have to put his books aside for an hour and go outside and stand for a while in a patch of sunshine. This book is a collection of four stories and a novella that follow Kurt Wallander from hsi first stab at detective work (and I use that term literally) when he was 21, and covers a 30 year period as he matures into a divorced man who misses his wife (and seems unsure why the divorce occurred--it's something she did obviously, he was content to just coast along for another 20-30 years), wants to be closer to his adult daughter, and for the entire 30 years is being driven crazy by his eccentric father (who is arrested in Egypt while trying to climb up the outside of a pyramid). Haven't we all been there?
jskell911's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cissi_fitz's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
redsoxjedi's review against another edition
4.0
I have really enjoyed the Wallander series. These 5 stories fill in his background well. A few times it felt like connections were plugged in a little too conveniently but overall it was a good way to explain how Wallander evolved into who we met in book 1.
ffir's review against another edition
2.0
Mankell is normally fantastic, but the short story is clearly not his genre. Each story felt rushed and abrupt. I can't help thinking of the superb short story writers who can condense a life into 30 pages, whilst Mankell struggled with individual investigations. Reading four outings of Wallander one after the other made his character quirks seem repetitive tropes- I'm amazed he survived for such a long series considering the number of times he is knocked out and hospitalised in these stories!
kiramke's review
Interesting, although his 'what is the world coming to' attitude makes me uneasy at times.