A review by gabmc
The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell

3.0

I enjoyed this book and it was quite different from Mankell's Wallander series. The book opens with a horrible mass murder where every inhabitant of a small village in the north of Sweden has been killed. Judge Birgitta Roslin hears about it on the news and realises that it's the town her (foster) grandparents come from. She needs to take leave because of very high blood pressure but instead of resting, decides to investigate. She finds some diaries in her grandparents' house and then a lone red ribbon at one murder scene. She realises that the ribbon comes from a lamp in a Chinese restaurant in the nearby town where she's staying. She talks to the hotel owner in the town and he produces a photo of a possible suspect.
The story actually starts in 1863 in China where three brothers are forced to flee their homes after their parents die. The brothers are shanghaied to work on the railway in America under a very brutal Swedish foreman.
Ultimately it's a story of revenge, politics and family.