Book Fair: Rossetti on Mankell

Sally Rossetti has known me all my life, but I haven’t known her all of hers: she’s my big sister, and was four years old when they brought me home (history does not disclose her response to the event, and it is just as well). Sally reads a lot more mysteries than I do, and I she has put me onto some good stuff I never would have found on my own. Here she joins the Underbelly summer Book Fair, with a good word for one of her favorite mystery collections:

A few years ago one of the Sunday supplements ran a piece recommending recently translated mysteries written by already established foreign authors. The name Henning Mankell caught my eye as he is Swedish, and I have Swedish roots. None of my reader friends had ever heard of Mankell then, but I went ahead and invested in one of his books: no library had them yet!! The hero, detective Kurt Wallander, is a complex, intriguing and brilliant man. Mankell just tantalizes his readers. Tell us more about what makes Wallander tick! I began with The Dogs of Riga , found it the most interesting of all the books, although I would suggest starting with the first in the series, Faceless Killers. Faceless Killers supplies the details about “who and why” that are supposedly known by readers in all the following stories.. (For instance Wallender’s artist Father,is a most memorable character. He paints the same picture over and over again. There are also recurring characters in most of the books)). All of the stories are pretty grim with layered intricate plots. There are wonderful descriptions of the southern Swedish countryside near Ystad mostly of course in bleak cold weather. Firewall is a challenge, unless the reader is computer educated that one might be almost beyond understanding, but all the others in the series are page turners. There are 12 , Wallender is the main character in most of them, but if not he is connected in some way. Start with Faceless Killers, and in the fall of 2008 you can read the final one in the series titled The Pyramid.

Afterthought: Wiki reports that Mankell is married to the daughter of Ingmar Bergman, the movie maker, and that he is a former Maoist. His grandfather, another Henning Mankell, was a composer of piano works. Recall that all the Book Fair posts here.