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Before the Frost: A Linda Wallander Mystery
Henning Mankell, Ebba Segerberg

New Press, 2005 - 383 pages

average customer review:based on 13 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





Linda Wallander's debut

Linda, daughter of the infamous Kurt Wallander, star of several Mankell novels, has just graduated from the police academy, and is a few days away from starting her job at the police station her father works at when her friend Anna disappears.

As she tags along with her father on an investigation, it soon becomes obvious that Anna's disappearance and a woman's murder could be linked, but the problem is in figuring out what that link is.

This well written novel is fast-paced and will keep you turning the pages late into the night. It shows us the tensions that exist between father and daughter, as well as the deep love that they have for each other. Also, the reader can see just how similar they really are: stuborn and determined. It is also clear from this book that Linda Wallander is here to stay, and should make an appearance in future Mankell creations.



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A Cerebral Detective Novel

In this the ninth of Henning Mankell's detective mysteries about Police Office Kurt Wallander, his daughter Linda has just finished policy academy when this extremely-well written novel that appeals equally to both the head and heart begins. It has so much going for it: a very complicated plot but one that is very timely, characters you care about deeply, good writing, thoughtful commentary on relationships, mortality, religious cults, and finally-- without giving away the story-- a tribute to the U. S. and the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Unlike many detective mysteries, this one is solved by police officers instead of, say, hairdressers or journalists or college English professors, making the story much more realistic. How many hairdressers in real life, for example, take time out from dyeing roots to avenge the dead?

There are beautiful passages here on a variety of subjects including death: "You only have so many races in your life. You just have to try to win a many of them as you can." And "Births and death are going on all around us all the time. But the dying seems more pronounced when you reach the front of the line. Now that my father [Kurt Wallander's] is dead there's no one ahead of me anymore."

This fine novel certainly rises about the genre of detective fiction. It is reminiscent of such first-class novels as Janette Turner Hospital's OYSTER and Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE, just to name two.


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Not as good as Mankell's others

Having read about eight of Mankell's previous novels, I was anxious to get my hands on this one. First I'll give a plot summary and then I'll explain my disappointment in this book.

Linda Wallander, daughter of Kurt Wallander, is eager to get her police uniform and begin her new position. Having just completed Police Academy she is sensitive to what goes on around her and when she is unable to contact her friend Anna, who has stood her up, she begins to fear for her friend's safety. Her Dad dismisses all of this as poppycock until a second friend, Zeba also goes missing. An event in Zeba's past offers a possible connection to two murders the police are currently investigating. Though she's not officially a police officer, Linda's Dad allows her to participate in the investigation.

And this is where things begin to go awry. Some of Linda's amateur tactics such as peeping through windows and going off on her own in a time of great danger seemed just plain dumb. I kept wondering why Mankell had chosen a plot in which his new heroine was not yet on the police force, and despite her training at the Academy still a rank amateur. And why at this late date make Kurt Wallander out as a complete jerk (in some ways) unless to invite sympathy for his daughter. Didn't work for me. I miss the old Kurt.

The book is very well written as are all of Mankell's earlier works, but this time I felt that the plot dragged a bit. Still, I look forward to Mankell's next book in this new series, and hope it will be better than this inauspicious start.


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Wallander Series Jumps a Generation

This novel begins with a short opening chapter in which a nameless narrator describes how he escaped from the bloodbath that culminated Jim Jones People's Temple cult in Jamestown, Guyana in 1978. The action then switches to southern Sweden in late August 2001. Inspector Wallander has to investigate an odd report of burning swans on a local lake. Soon afterwards in another strange incident a calf is burnt alive. Meanwhile Wallander's daughter, Linda, is in town, recently having completed her training to be a policewoman and now at something of a loose end until she starts up officially as one of her father's colleagues. Her old schoolfriend Anna surprises her with the news that her father, who had disappeared when she was a very small girl, has reappeared. Then Anna herself vanishes and Linda, unable to convince her father to take the matter very seriously, goes off to investigate by herself.

After eight instalments of Wallander Mankell seemed to get a bit fed up and gave us the engaging `Return of the Dancing Master' in which a new protagonist Stefan Lindman goes chasing fascists around rather more northerly parts of Sweden. Here we come back to the familiar territory of Ystad but the focus shifts somewhat to the next generation. Indeed `Dancing Master's apparent departure from the series is now worked in as here is Lindman newly transferred to Ystad after recovering from his cancer and maybe Linda starting to fancy him a bit...

The story resembles `Dancing Master' again in the way the main protagonist's life is complicated by a lack of clear official status. In `Dancing Master' Lindman was on sick leave, away from his home turf, offering the local cops some outside assistance they weren't particularly keen to receive. Here Linda is a rookie whose first day as a proper cop is imminent but hasn't quite arrived.

As we now expect with Mankell, it's a great read, intriguing and beautifully plotted with believable vivid characters. As again is usual for him the story is perhaps a bit to grandiose in its large global political themes to be altogether credibly foisted on this tiny rural police precinct. As always it's all such terrific fun we forgive him instantly and look forward keenly to the next instalment. (Though I did feel that Mankell's studied timing of his story of murderous religious fanaticism to end neatly on September 11th, 2001 was decidedly contrived and most definitely overdoing it.)



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Not Up to Usual High Standards

When Henning Mankell is in form, he is one of the best writers working in the crime novel genre. His book, "One Step Behind" is one of the finest crime novels I have ever read. On the surface, Kurt Wallander is not the most appealing of heroes. He is a middle aged Swedish detective with a gloomy disposition. However, his remarkable intelligence and driving energy make him a pleasure to know.

In this novel, the center of gravity switches from Kurt to his daughter, Linda Wallander. Linda is about to join the Ystad Police Force and becomes involved in her own mystery when a childhood friend dissapears. Linda Wallander has a lot of the negative aspects of Wallander's gloomy personality and none of the charm. For a crime novel to really work, the reader needs to sympathize with the protagonist. In the final analysis, I did not like Linda Wallander or her difficult relationship with her father.


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reviews: page 1, 2, 3



The internationally acclaimed crime writer introduces a new, young heroine with a familiar father.

Linda Wallander is bored. Just graduated from the police academy, she is waiting to start work at the Ystad police station and move into her own apartment. Meantime, she is living with her father and, like fathers and daughters everywhere, they are driving each other crazy. Nor will they be able to escape each other when she moves out. Her father is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a veteran of the Ystad police force, whom she will have to work alongside.

Linda's boredom doesn't last long. Soon she is embroiled in the case of her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the investigation proceeds, she makes a few rookie mistakes. They are understandable, but they are also life-threatening. And as the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more calculated and dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge.

Already an international bestseller, Before the Frost inaugurates Henning Mankell's new mystery series about Linda Wallander, and also features Stefan Lindman of The Return of the Dancing Master.


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