Wallender comes out of his depression

books:

	• The Man Who Smiled Henning Mankell ISIS Publishing, 2007 - 488 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews
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highly recommended

A prodigious talent continues...

Although this is the fourth book in the Inspector Wallander series (that now numbers nine, I believe), it is the most recent to be translated and published in English. I'm not sure why it was withheld but I think I can guess. In this book, the dour Swedish Inspector Wallander has suffered a fairly complete and debilitating breakdown after having shot and killed a murderer in the line of duty and in self-defense. Perhaps it was thought that American and English readers wouldn't resonate with such a complete breakdown in character over something that we accept as a fact of police life. In truth, most police officers have never fired their guns in self-defense and, like most people, would recoil at the thought of taking a life. But a greater truth in this book may be that the killing was the crystallizing event in a life that was already off the rails. There is no joy in watching Wallander hit bottom and, after more than a year in increasingly disability, no surprise that he will quit the police force and probably drink himself to death. But redemption comes in a very small package. A man seeks him out to ask Wallander to look into the death of his father, a death that has taken place in the first pages of the book and has been called accidental. When the son is killed, the accidental death comes into question and Wallander has his first stirring of a life and purpose outside his own self-destruction.

From this beginning, we follow parallel stories as a totally fragile Wallander tries to rebuild his professional relationships at the same time as he tries to regain his life. As trust is reestablished in fits and starts and the facts of the potential murders are teased into meaning, we meet a man who is the complete antithesis of Wallander: an industrialist named Harderburg, aka "The Man Who Smiled". We assume without being told that this man could mow down anyone who stood in his way and still get a good night's sleep. But is he a killer? Wallander must take great personal and professional chances to figure out the answer.

It is hard for me to sufficiently express my appreciation for the storytelling of Henning Mankell. I smile a little when I think of how I didn't really care for his writing so very much when I first started reading him. The simple, declarative sentences don't necessarily flow like some of our more prosaic writers but behind the slightly awkward structure (to English ears) is a powerful conscience and social commentator who also tells a whopping good story. Mention should also be made of the skill of the translator, Laurie Thompson, who retained so many important nuances.

This may be the best book in the brilliant Wallander series. For my money, The Return of the Dancing Master is his very best book and it is a standalone, whose main character, Stefan Lindeman, joins the Wallander series in Before the Frost.

P.S. I just found out this past year that Henning Mankell is the son-in-law of the late Ingmar Bergman. I guess talent attracts talent!

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Wallender comes out of his depression

Begins with a depressed Wallender taking a 'Kur' on the beach in north Juteland, he plans to quit police work. Why he's depressed was developed in Mankell's previous book 'The White Lioness'. Wallender is drawn against his will into a new case, and ..... . As usual, Mankell is entertaining, worth reading.

This review is based on the Norwegian version 'Silkeridderen' ('The silk rider').

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Redemption for Wallander

Having gone into an eighteen month (he's on sick leave) depression after killing a man on the army base in the fog at the end of "THE WHITE LIONESS", Wallander has been wandering around the world seeking some internal redress. Wallander has decided that he will resign from the police when he returns home, he feels he has nothing to contribute anymore.

While staying in Jutland (Denmark) he meets an old friend (Sten) who comes to him with a troubling situation. His father (Gustaf) was killed in a car crash that he thinks he was murdered. Coming back to Ystad, Wallander finds out that Sten has been murdered in his office by three shots to the body. Nothing was taken or disturbed, so how can it be a robbery gone bad? Wallander decides to stay on with the police and help find out who killed his friend and why.

So begins the 'snowball' or this mystery. Slowly, very slowly at first, our little friend is rolling down the hill, picking up little speed or size, but none-the-less, moving inexorably to the bottom of the hill. To continue the metaphor, there are many flat areas on this hill except near the end where it seems to drop off almost like a cliff. The ending comes faster than you would expect.

More to the point this is about as well plotted a story as you will ever find. There's no backtracking and the back-stories follow exactly like you would want it to. Just enough to keep things from getting too confusing. In the end, it's reasonable, if not just a little over-the- top, but that's OK it's a novel.

In addition to the story line, Mankell spends a lot of time working on Wallander's character and characteristics. We learn some more about his childhood, and his pain at the loneliness of his life. He has come to a better understanding of his relationship with his father and his father's new wife (who is thirty years his junior) and the difficulties of his daughter. His revived relationships with some of his colleagues and the newest member (Ann-Britt Hogland) of the team, give a man facing fifty a better view of where he life has been and where he wants it to go. Just a very well done and compelling novel about greed, corruption and the all out pursuit of money.

Zeb Kantrowitz

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Another winner

Another very good mystery - since reading this book I have finished the entire series on Kurt's crime solving adventures in Sweden

So far my favorite Wallander mystery

Other reviewers complain that the writing in "The Man Who Smiled" is too flat, the story tedious and uninteresting, the characters two-dimensional and contrived, and the ending too outlandish. I agree with only one of those complaints: the murderer Harderberg wasn't believable. His smiling was an absurd conceit. Were he fully developed, the superficial distinguishing feature wouldn't have been necessary.

The Wallander novels are a contrast to many American and British murder mysteries. American mysteries often feature serial killers with bizarre imaginations (Jeffrey Deaver, John Sanford). British police procedurals are dark and intense, with strong characterization of all the detectives (John Harvey, PD James).

Mankell's Wallander novels, as well as Arnaldur Indridason's Erlendur mysteries from Iceland, are like the British novels: atmospheric, with convincing characters and plots. The detectives rarely carry guns (though Wallander's experience in "The Lioness" has devastated him). There are none of the typical American cop vs murderer cat & mouse games. Rather, "The Man Who Smiled" focuses on the detectives' interaction as they work to solve the crime. Furthermore, it's intriguing because of the detailed descriptions of Sweden - a country I've never visited.

I especially like "The Man Who Smiled" because we see Wallander's growth as he overcomes his despair to return to his job. Despite his frequent feelings of futility, he proves he's still the successful and well-respected cop he always was.

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

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