"An accident rarely comes alone" and other things from Sweden

Imagine a world where police detectives don't have to carry a gun. That is the world Kurt Wallander lives in. Or at least did. Until people started shooting at him.


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

Crime mysteries solidifying their place in my heart and my bookshelf

Before the world became obsessed with all things dragon tattoo, I too had fallen in love with Nordic Literature. I was drawn to the mix of nonchalant depression and crime fighting - with a side of what-has-our-society-come-to.

Considering my obsessive watching of Law and Order (and cheering on of detective Stabler), I don't know how I didn't start reading crime fiction a long time ago.

Thanks to a karmic choosing of Peter Hoeg's The Quiet Girl, I was hooked (except for his book that has bestiality...). Then there was the Stieg Larsson madness.

But now things have calmed-ish, it's time for new Swedish love. I give you: Henning Mankell.



OK, so a lot of you probably already know him. Especially since Mankell's detective protagonist - Kurt Wallander - is currently being played by my boyfriend Kenneth Branagh (thank you BBC).

I sped through the first book - Faceless Killers (eek).

The plot centers around the gruesome murder of two seemingly innocuous elderly farming couple. The boss is on vacation and Wallander has to take charge of a volatile case (and subsequent murder). But don't worry, he still has time to try to patch things up with his daughter, stop missing his ex-wife, and start liking a new woman.

Overall, Wallander series - so far - is made up of quality crime mystery writing that keeps you turning the page even if you aren't happy because SERIOUSLY why would someone murder old people??

Wallander is a protagonist of the best kind: charismatic, on the verge of alcoholism, not afraid to get beat up, gets beat up a lot, and finally saves the day through brains and hard work.

Reading Mankell is like drinking a comfy cup of hot cocoa...if the cocoa was laced with crime and violence.

"Society had grown cruel. People who felt they were unwanted or unwelcome in their own country, reacted with aggression. There was no such thing as meaningless violence. Every violent act had a meaning for the person who committed it. Only when you dared accept this truth could you hope to turn society in another direction."
Henning Mankell

Is it a scary guy prequisite to be missing a finger?

Increasingly, I have been growing an affinity for the mystery novel. It is no secret that my version of trashy romance novels is trashy (and awesome) mystery novels (M.C. Beaton!!). For me, they provide similar entertainments. You know when you crack open a (quality) mystery there will be twists and turns, strong willed characters, surprises, and - best of all - a happy ending.

Mysteries are the milk chocolate of the book world.

And so I decided to give Libby Fischer Hellmann a chance. In general, she writes about Chicago and has baller female lead characters. Doubleback is her latest, and I decided to start with that.

It must be noted that the madre also read this one before me. I swear, I can't let that woman alone with my books EVER. And when I say she read it before me I mean she read it in ONE DAY while I was at work. I walked in my apartment to her huddled over the book ravenously devouring the last 10 pages.

There was no talking until she was done.

And then I read it. My full time job and house guests elongated my reading time, although my sentiment was the same. Over the weekend the madre asked what I wanted to do and I replied, "Ummm....read."

And read I did. Doubleback's content is a smorgasbord of plot including a kidnapping, elevator shenanigans, former military mercenaries, break tampering, border control, AND romance.

It's a page turner, in the best possible sense.

"The final mystery is oneself."
Oscar Wilde