Detective Chen Cao – Qiu Xiaolong (Death of a Red Heroine and others) 24. Mike Hammer – Mickey Spillane (I, the Jury and others) 23. Dirk Gently – Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) 22. Lew Archer – Ross Macdonald (The Moving Target and others) 21. Arkady Renko – Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park and others) 20. Kurt Wallander – Henning Mankell (Faceless Killers and others) 19. Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford – Ruth Rendell (From Doon With Death and others) 18. The Continental Op - Dashiell Hammett (Red Harvest and others) 16. John Rebus – Ian Rankin (Knots and Crosses and others) 15. Perry Mason – Erle Stanley Gardner (The Case of the Velvet Claws and others) 14. William of Baskerville – Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose) 13. Harry Hole - Jo Nesbø (The Bat and others) 12. Jack Reacher – Lee Child (Killing Floor and others) 11. Chesterton (The Penguin Complete Father Brown) 10. Inspector Morse – Colin Dexter (Last Bus To Woodstock and others) 9. Maigret – Georges Simenon (The Yellow Dog) 8. Sam Spade - Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) 7. C Auguste Dupin – Edgar Allan Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue and others) 6. Philip Marlowe – Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep and Others) 5. And it becomes steadily more readable - by around the halfway or two-thirds mark I was hooked, and Wallander grew on me.Table of Contents The 30 Greatest Literary Detectives Of All Time 1.
It was published around 30 years ago, but hasn’t dated too badly. But stick with it … there are many cliches, but somehow it all works. The prose is a bit pedestrian, perhaps thanks to the translation, and the plotting arguably a little perfunctory. Wallander, with his boss away, has to handle this complex investigation and the fallout from it while wrestling with a catalogue of problems, from his ailing father to his divorce, while simultaneously trying to strike up a relationship with a married prosecutor. The suggestion that the killers were foreigners - based on the last words of the dying wife - provokes a storm over immigration, and racial discrimination. Wallander ticks most of the detective novel cliches, as the crime-fighter with a chaotic personal life who drinks too much, with a marriage in ruins, and a father rapidly succumbing to dementia, in the midst of a horrific double murder probe … A man and his wife have been butchered at a remote farmhouse.
#Faceless killers a kurt wallander mystery series#
I will undoubtedly read more from this series of books simply because they are intelligently written and Wallander is so determined and patient in solving the various crimes he's enrolled with that I found myself fascinated by him from the very atmospheric beginning. The writing manages to bring out heaps of atmosphere and enough detail to make the reader fully understand that although Wallander is a fictional character, there seems to be immense truth and realism shaping the story. Henning Mankell was obviously a talented writer and he brings out the various characters that Wallander works with well. I cannot stress too strongly how much I enjoyed reading this first-in-the-series novel. He's not a cliche but a very carefully etched human policemen based in Ystad in Sweden. Wallander has problems in his personal life but these events shape his character beautifully. This book is the first of the Wallander series, a brilliant introduction to Kurt Wallander who manages to inspire as well as any previous Investigator you may have come across previously. This is a writer who manages to convey massive talent and 'Faceless Killers' is an incredible debut novel from writer who sadly is no longer with us. He writes so assuredly and poetically that the result is sublime. Following his diagnosis in 2014, Mankell wrote a number of articles on his battle with cancer until his death in October 2015Īs an introduction to 'Nordic noir', you could miss out, by not reading Henning Mankell. Henning Mankell was born in Stockholm in 1948.
In 2008, the University of St Andrews conferred Henning Mankell with an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his major contribution to literature and to the practical exercise of conscience.
#Faceless killers a kurt wallander mystery free#
Mankell devoted much of his free time to working with Aids charities in Africa, where he was also director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. His books have been translated into over forty languages and made into numerous international film and television adaptations: most recently the BAFTA-award-winning BBC television series Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. His prize-winning and critically acclaimed Inspector Wallander Mysteries have featured in bestseller lists all over the globe for many years. Henning Mankell became a worldwide phenomenon with his crime writing, gripping thrillers and atmospheric novels set in Africa.
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