Wallander and daughter are revolting people.

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	• Before the Frost Henning Mankell Vintage, 2006 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wallander and daughter are revolting people.

I have read everything that Mankell has written.
The plot is very very suspensful. Wallandar and his daughter are portrayed as two of the most unlikeable, revolting people I have have come across as detectives. Everything about them is distasteful and their disfunctional relationship totally took away from my enjoyment of what is a fascinating mystery.

I'd give the book an A, the translation a C+

The plot is fab, and for the first 3/4 of the book, I couldn't put it down. The ending wasn't a disappointment, but the translation was just so wacky at some points, it really detracted from the story. An outbuilding, for example, is not the same as an outhouse, and while the explanation for the mysterious journal entry works fine in Swedish, in English it was completely ineffective. I think that the use of footnotes would be appropriate in pun-like things. But the book is a very good read regardless.

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Master of historical "What if..."

Henning Mankell uses a compelling technique in some of his novels in which he modifies historical events in a plausible but unverifiable way and then weaves a tale that incorporates that thread of historical difference. For example, consider if during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, one of the captives was a Swedish-American who stayed behind in Iran, converted to Islam, and then became peripherally involved in terrorism. 25 years later, he returns to Sweden when he learns of a plot against his prominent family. Happily, this clumsy and hackneyed example doesn't appear in this or any other of Mankell's books, but it is illustrative of the literary device.

Mankell is also good at illustrating how some of the world's horrors, e.g., the AIDS crisis in Africa, are linked through a long chain of events and practices to what is widely viewed as acceptable conduct by individuals and institutions. The lesson is that what seems proper and decent on the surface may be hiding something much more sinister underneath.

Finally, Kurt Wallander is the flawed, demon-plagued detective whose life always seems on the verge of ruin. We respect and admire him while we pity and sympathize with him. He is forever "shocked" at changes (prices, clothing styles, attitudes of young people, etc.) as if he is somehow the last to find out. But this is part of his makeup. He is an overworked detective who is single-minded when he is on a case. And because of rising crime rates and budget cuts, he is working nearly all the time. He ignores everything else. And he pays a dear price for this in his personal life. It's a bit tragic in that the very qualities that make him an admirable person and a highly effective policeman are the very same that make him a lonely and unhappy man who fears he may, in the end, not have made a difference. And he may be right. In terms of complex, compelling, believable characters, Wallander is up there with Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch and Ian Rankin's John Rebus.

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Unusual, Involving, Shocking

The small-town setting of Sweden, with occasional side-trips to Copenhagen and Jim Jones's Guyana, together with quirky characters and a relentless plot, make this a unique and surprising thriller.

Mankell has a firm grip on the psychology of religious mania, and a sly way of linking small, everyday events with large, shocking social shifts.

The Sinister World Invades Sweden

Henning Mankell's Before the Frost combines the sleuthing skills of its main protagonist, Kurt Wallender and his daughter, Linda, who has now joined the force. Mankell takes us on his usual gripping journey as Kurt and Linda try to discover the identity of a murderer before he can kill again. This time, however, the murderer is fueled by religious mania, thus making Wallender's job more frustrating and dangerous as he attempts to decode a series of strange clues. Along the way, we are entertained by Kurt's evolving relationship with his grown up daughter as well as his insightful commentary on the demise of Sweden's social democratic society.
Over and over, Mankell proves himself as one of the best crime novelists in the world. As always, he has written another gem.

Donald Gallinger is the author ofThe Master Planets

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree. Just graduated from the police academy, Linda Wallander returns to Skane to join the police force, and she already shows all the hallmarks of her father--the maverick approach, the flaring temper. Before she even starts work she becomes embroiled in the case of her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge. They soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

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