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koisan's review against another edition
4.0
Al principio me ocasionó cierta desazón. Acostumbrada a la novela negra actual sentí que el ritmo era lento y que me estaba quedando a deber. Al final al con la reflexión que hace Wallander caí en cuenta de que la que estaba mal era yo. La novela es de principios de los 90, muchas cosas han pasado desde entonces, la novela refleja el cambio de época. Y la pregunta de Wallander lo define todo ¿estaremos a la altura? Lo recomiendo.
londonlisa's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
meghan111's review against another edition
3.0
Dark, spare, bleak mystery about an elderly couple murdered in their farmhouse in Sweden. The person charged with solving the crime is Inspector Wallander, a character with many personal problems. After reading this I wasn't interested in reading the other books in the series.
ankim's review against another edition
1.0
The one star is reserved for all the earnest and unintentionally hilarious 90s references, and the opportunities it fostered for reflection on the inner workings of police departments before the dawn of cell phones, and lonely divorcees before Netflix and Facebook stalking.
Hard to pinpoint exactly what I disliked most about this book. Perhaps it was the exhausting surly detective trope, or Wallander's depressing, defensive inner dialogue, or the two dimensional female characters described either in terms of physical attraction or capacity for errand completion, or the irritable shrug this novel ultimately offered in response to the question of immigration policy and refugees in Nordic countries.
Hard to pinpoint exactly what I disliked most about this book. Perhaps it was the exhausting surly detective trope, or Wallander's depressing, defensive inner dialogue, or the two dimensional female characters described either in terms of physical attraction or capacity for errand completion, or the irritable shrug this novel ultimately offered in response to the question of immigration policy and refugees in Nordic countries.
saroz162's review against another edition
4.0
Henning Mankell's first Wallander novel introduces us to the weary, self-doubting Swedish detective with a pacy double murder investigation. The crime is vicious, and the emphasis here is on Sweden as a changing world; Wallander constantly reflects on the horrific details that he would not have thought possible only a few years before. Wallander himself is slipping into a graceless middle age of divorce, bad eating and social anxiety, so both man and country are betraying their ideals. Mankell constantly infuses his writing (or, at least, the translated writing) with details that bring Wallander and his world alive as natural by-products of each other. The reader is invited to identify with the detective, not with sentimentality or pity, but with Wallander's own cold realization that all things fall apart. The mystery here is secondary, which for most of the novel isn't an issue; it does start to drag in the later chapters, only to very suddenly ramp up at the end. Taken as a crime novel, Faceless Killers isn't totally satisfying; there are mysteries out there that are simply constructed better, with a tighter grip. As the introductory portrait of a very believable man, however, it succeeds beautifully.
dantastic's review against another edition
3.0
An elderly couple is robbed and brutally murdered and it's up to police inspector Kurt Wallander to find the killer or killers. Can Kurt act on the meager information he has available and solve the case as his private life disintegrates around him?
On the heels of reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, I decided to branch out and try a couple more Swedish crime authors. Faceless Killers is the first such book to fall into my hands.
Faceless Killers isn't a happy book, much as its title indicates. It's bleaker than a visit to an insurance office, mostly due to poor Kurt Wallander and his life.
The mystery is an intriguing one and delves into the secret life of one of the victims. The mystery is not of the solveable variety but that's ultimately not that important. My main attractions to Faceless Killers were the glimpse into Swedish society and Kurt Wallander himself.
The fact that one of Wallander's clues is that the killer is a foreigner thrusts the reader into a world of refugees, racism, and red tape. There are false leads and I have to admit I wasn't sure what was going on in the investigation part of the time.
And that brings us to Kurt Wallander himself. He's no super-hero unless lonliness and not having anything go right in his personal life is a super power. He's getting older and fatter, his wife left him, his daughter is a stranger, his relationship with his father is strained, and all he has is his job. Instead of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, what I was primarily reminded of when I read this was John Lutz's Alo Nudger series starring a similarly sad character.
Faceless Killers is a good police procedural story. It's pretty bleak and moves a little slowly for my tastes but is still a good read. I'll give it a 3, possibly upgrading to a 4 somewhere down the line.
On the heels of reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, I decided to branch out and try a couple more Swedish crime authors. Faceless Killers is the first such book to fall into my hands.
Faceless Killers isn't a happy book, much as its title indicates. It's bleaker than a visit to an insurance office, mostly due to poor Kurt Wallander and his life.
The mystery is an intriguing one and delves into the secret life of one of the victims. The mystery is not of the solveable variety but that's ultimately not that important. My main attractions to Faceless Killers were the glimpse into Swedish society and Kurt Wallander himself.
The fact that one of Wallander's clues is that the killer is a foreigner thrusts the reader into a world of refugees, racism, and red tape. There are false leads and I have to admit I wasn't sure what was going on in the investigation part of the time.
And that brings us to Kurt Wallander himself. He's no super-hero unless lonliness and not having anything go right in his personal life is a super power. He's getting older and fatter, his wife left him, his daughter is a stranger, his relationship with his father is strained, and all he has is his job. Instead of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, what I was primarily reminded of when I read this was John Lutz's Alo Nudger series starring a similarly sad character.
Faceless Killers is a good police procedural story. It's pretty bleak and moves a little slowly for my tastes but is still a good read. I'll give it a 3, possibly upgrading to a 4 somewhere down the line.
kinnimomo's review against another edition
4.0
Almost 25 years separate my two reads and I must say, time have changed. I’ve always appreciated the slow pace of Wallander’s investigations but the sexism, racism and discrimination toward foreigners are quite blatant is this first book of the series. The 1991 original Swedish edition left me a bit jarred. Were those comments built in the story to represent the old generation or is it a representation of the author? I’ll have to continue my reread of the series to answer this.
brb_reads's review against another edition
3.0
He added a lot of detail throughout the entire story so it was interesting and easy to follow. However, both the main crimes they were trying to solve were committed by people who were not introduced throughout the entire story so it didn't really end how I had planned it. I guess not every mystery can be solved easily by a reader but it was by four random guys who were introduced and then found guilty not long after. I guess it's good that both crimes got solved but overall just not a favorite.
soy_sputnik's review against another edition
3.0
Como fan de la novela negra, sufría un poco por no haber leído a Mankell que es como quien marcó los detalles de este género en los 90's. Pero ya estoy aquí metida en la serie de Wallander, puedo decir que me gustó pero no mucho, quizás es porque ya estoy un poco harta de personajes masculinos que no saben entender sus emociones y hacen un cagadero (oh sorpresa) pero pues entiendo que a los escritorEs de novela negra esto les encanta, así que entiendo la intención pero no sé si seguiré aguantando esto en escritorEs más contenporáneos. Dejando de lado eso, sí me prendí con el crimen y anduve haciendo conjeturas sobre los asesinos, particularmente me gustó que tratara un tema tan delicado y violento como es la xenofobia en una país "de primer mundo", me parece que es una forma de entender cómo se ha venido gestando la creciente violencia contra inmigrantes en países europeos. En fin, a ver cómo me va con la que sigue.