Kat with a K

Review: Faceless Killers

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 284
Rating: 9.4

As far as Nordic mysteries go, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is all the rage right now, but before Mikael Blomkvist came along, Kurt Wallander was already there, solving mysteries while drinking lots of coffee and miraculously not freezing to death. Faceless Killers was Mankell's first Wallander novel (although a book of stories, at least some of which were set earlier than this, came out later); it's the story of isolated elderly Swedish farmers who are brutally murdered. It's practically unrelentingly bleak, and I loved it. Couldn't put it down. (And not just because all the Swedish snow scenes made me forget it was hot out.) The plotting is intricate but very tight; Wallander is a human and sympathetic but very flawed protagonist; the setting is almost utterly alien but very appealing. And did I mention there's a lot of coffee? There is. Make sure you have some on hand before reading this. But definitely give it a try. (Note: The PBS/BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh is good too.)