As a detective in a small Swedish town, Wallander likes things to be quiet. Happy and quiet.
Each book of the Wallander series deals with a different social issue which is breaking up Wallander's quiet and indicates a changing Sweden. First it was immigration. Second, smuggling. This time it is KGB renegades and South African assassination plotters taking refuge in a quiet country no one would think of as an assassination training ground.
Wallander gets put on the case of a missing woman. The reader knows Law & Order SVU style (at the very beginning of the book) that the woman is dead (I won't tell you how).
Piece by piece Wallander realizes that this murder makes no sense. Then a building is blown up. Then he finds a severed finger. And he is placed in the middle of a much larger crime.
What's really going on is a plot to assassinate a key figure in South Africa. The book goes back and forth between South Africa and Sweden and the reader is left feeling like chaos is attempting a coup. On the world.
For a guy who doesn't carry a gun, Wallander gets all Old Testament (thank you Fast Five) on the bad guys in the end. Like we knew he would. However, his psyche is going to pay for his violent decisions in upcoming books.
As with each Wallander book, I can't wait to start the next one. I have a feeling this series is the perfect summertime-I-want-something-fun-and-exciting-with-a-side-of-grit reading material.
"What breaks in a moment may take years to mend."
Swedish Proverb
Swedish Proverb
That's IT! There is now a sticky note stuck to the monitor that I am using to keep track of Claire Picks.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read a mystery in a while. It's about time.
Seriously. My mom is reading them as well. She called and was like: there are 9 Wallander books. NINE. I was like: I'm not sure if all of them are translated yet. She was like: FIND OUT NOW.
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