Another good Kurt Wallander mystery!

books:


	• The Man Who Smiled (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) Henning Mankell Vintage, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A real page turner

Reviewed by Laura Langer

Scandinavian crime literature is steeped in landscape and geography, and infused with melancholy.

The Man Who Smiled begins during the self-imposed exile of Kurt Wallander, adrift and alone on an isolated, windswept island. He is waiting for his leave from the police force to pass and for his mind to make itself up about returning to his home and his job as a homicide detective. Just before he must return, he is visited by a lawyer from his hometown who tries to convince him to take on the investigation of the death of the man's father. Wallander turns him down, and within days, the son is also dead.

Wallander comes home, walks back into the office to retire, and instead takes up the case of the two dead lawyers. He quickly takes over the leadership of an investigation that preceded his return--dogged, sometimes careless of his safety, and determined to solve the case. His determination exists in the face of considerable outright opposition and even greater warning that comes under the radar-and with a long slow look of bland menace.

In the course of the investigation he rediscovers how much he loves what he does, and at the same time, that he consciously cultivates a recklessness in himself. He almost dares the man he knows to be behind the crimes to come after him. He is, at heart, outraged both by the callous disregard for human life shown by the criminal, and by his own indifference to the plea of the lawyer who sought him out so carefully. The lawyer had pleaded for his help in learning about his father's death, convinced that it was murder when no one else was. Wallander had turned him down in life, but he pursues justice for both father and son after their death.

Mankel has crafted an admirably complex plot with a strong main character and vivid supporting ones. He drives the story forward relentlessly and so the reader can willingly suspend suspicion of how it might all come out closer to home, in an ordinary investigation in the real world where justice is a different sort of commodity.

Armchair Interview says: Be sure you have time to finish this novel because once you start, you won't want to put it down anytime soon.

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Disappointing

I have read most of Mankell's other Kurt Wallender books. I thought the others were excellent. I was disppointed in this one. The killer was a rich and powerful villain. The author revealed to the reader and to the detective the villain's identity very early in the book. Instead of a whodunit, this book was about how Wallender gathered evidence to prove the villain's guilt and how he brought him to justice. This formula can work in a mystery story (see, for example the old Columbo TV mysteries that relied exclusively on this formula) but it is tricky to do it well. Since the mystery of who is the culprit is eliminated from the story, the reader's interest in the story must come from other things such as social commentary, humor, and the characters. While this book was still better than the average mystery story, I didn't find enough of interest in it to make up for the lack of suspense about the indentity of the criminal.

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Great Swedish mileau; silly ending.

After 2 Mankell novels, I'm wondering about Swedish "style" of good mysteries. The climax of "The Man Who Smiled" is so silly, after a very interesting book--so far--asks the reader to practice suspending disbelief to the max. Kurt Wallander, the cop, discovers his agent dead, has every reason to call the cop waiting outside the walls of the estate and tell her to send for extra police help, but chooses to lie to her, repeatedly, time after time. The "reason" for this is so weak, it's laughable. Inside the castle, he sits talking with the ultimate bad guy with the radio and a gun in his pocket, continues to contact the other detective and say nothing other than, "Everything's okay." No gun to his head, no threat at all, just advice to cooperate. And his brilliant co-hort outside seems to think it's just dandy that he stays inside the whole night--til dawn. Just bizarre. Then he's being led to a helicopter to be discarded from high up and his solution is to throw concrete pieces at the rotor. Later, at the airport (he has hooked up with the female detective, but has called only the local chief, who doesn't want publicity!) he draws his gun. Toooo much! Surely Mr. Mankell can think of a more logical way out of that problem. 4 stars for the body of the book; 0 for the climax chapters.

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Another good Kurt Wallander mystery!

Henning Mankell is a master at setting a scene and at characterization, and this work is no exception!!! I wish we could also get the movies made from these books in the U.S.!

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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