Dogs of Riga (Harvill Panther S.) [Paperback]

Henning Mankell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2002 | Series: Harvill Panther S.

A few days later what they have been warned of comes to pass: a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead.The dead men were Eastern European criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears in Sweden to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea to Riga in Latvia, a nation experiencing the massive social and political upheaval that will lead to its independence from the Soviet Union. There Wallander is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues , he comes to understand what it is to live in a nation in which democracy is still only a dream. Only his dogged, almost subconscious desire to se that justice is done brings the truth to light.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set against the chaotic backdrop of eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mankell's intense, accomplished mystery, the last in his Kurt Wallander series (Firewall, etc.), explores one man's struggle to find truth and justice in a society increasingly bereft of either. Here the provincial Swedish detective takes on a probably fruitless task: investigating the murders of two unidentified men washed up on the Swedish coast in an inflatable dinghy. The only clues: their dental work suggests they're from an Eastern Bloc country; the raft is Yugoslavian. But their deaths mushroom into an international incident that takes Wallander to Riga, Latvia, and enmeshes him in an incredibly dangerous and emotionally draining situation, battling forces far larger than the "bloodless burglaries and frauds" he typically pursues in Sweden. In Riga, Wallander must deal with widespread governmental corruption, which opens his eyes to the chilling reality of life in the totalitarian Eastern Bloc: grim, harrowing and volatile. Wallander's introspection and self-doubt make him compellingly real, and his efforts to find out what happened to those men on the life raft makes for riveting reading. There's a pervasive sense of Scandinavian gloom, in Wallander and in the novel, that might be difficult for some American readers, but this is a very worthy book-a unique combination of police procedural and spy thriller that also happens to be a devastating critique of Soviet-style Communism.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Kurt Wallander has touches of Dexter's Inspector Morse about him, while remaining an original and highly likeable creation" Marcel Berlins, The Times; "It is not hard to see why the Wallander books have made a particular impact. They are tightly plotted, but even more importantly, as in most good crime fiction, the character of the detective and the atmosphere surrounding the action are what give that extra edge to the performance" Hugh Macpherson, TLS

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Panther (September 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860469590
• ISBN-13: 978-1860469596
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander mysteries are global bestsellers and have been adapted for television as a BAFTA Award-winning BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh. Mankell was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's Macallan Gold Dagger and the German Tolerance Prize, among many others. He divides his time between Sweden and Mozambique.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frighteningly Real, May 28, 2003

By 

Judith Lindenau "dulcie22" (Traverse City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallendar Mystery (Hardcover)

One of the previous reviewers mentioned that "Dogs of Riga" might be difficult for Americans because of its pervasive 'Scandinavian gloom'. True, I think, but what makes this novel even more unsettling is the thick, murky atmostphere of mistrust and suspicion depicted in the countries of Eastern
Europe in the early 1990's. It is difficult for Americans to empathize with the fear and suspicion of those times, which is the setting of this novel. The repressive and grim background is indeed the leading force in the novel: it is a force which still impacts life in much of the Eastern Bloc today, accompanied by suspicion and corruption.

Against that setting, then, the characters assume heroic proportions. The desire of Wallander to do his job well and bring closure to the deaths, the courage of Major Liepa to confront corruption, and the passion of Baiba Liepa to revenge the murder of her husband--all assume epic dimensions when viewed against the social backdrop. The plot is thickened by the lies, fear, and deceit by which even the ordinary citizen must survive. The labyrinth is constructed with masterful prose and an observant eye, hallmarks of Mankell's craft as a writer.

"Dogs of Riga" is a classic of the genre. More complex and better crafted than the typical police procedural, it is a 'must read' for the epicurean mystery reader.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wallander In Love, February 20, 2006

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallander Mystery (2) (Paperback)

In THE DOGS OF RIGA-- both four-legged and two-legged--Inspector Kurt Wallander is back with another difficult crime to solve. Two dead men, dressed to the nines, wash ashore in Ystad in a life raft. As usual, initially there are practically no clues. This crime takes Wallander away from Sweden into Latvia, a place he finds colder-- if that's possible-- than his homeland. He warms up, of course, when he falls in love with the widow of another murdered character, Major Liepa of Riga. Inspector Wallander remains the character fans of Mankell have come to love. He doesn't always get along with his father and daughter or his police superiors, he on the best of days bends the rules of conducting an investigation, on other days he breaks them, he doesn't eat well, he has trouble with the opposite sex and he's a tad hypochondriacal but still loves opera. Does he sound like someone you know?

I found myself not liking this novel as much as previous ones I have read by Mr. Mankell. It may have been that he was writing about locales and people very foreign to him. On the other hand, a B novel by this most talented of writers is better than those of dozens of his contemporaries.

As always, Mr. Mankell writes about big issues, in this instance "the revolutionary events that took place in the Baltic countries during the last year" as he says in a rare "Afterword" written in 1992. He remains one of our very best crime writers.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime and politics in the Baltic, April 13, 2004

By 

Celia Redmore "Celia Redmore" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallander Mystery (2) (Paperback)

"The Dogs of Riga" is one of the earlier books in Henning Mankell's series about his somber fictional Swedish police Inspector Kurt Wallendar and the plot is darker and jerkier than in later stories. I first read the book when it was published in German in 1993 and it's the only one of the series that I regularly enjoy re-reading. There's nothing slick about the story telling: it has a very raw edge to it.

The story follows the traditional Wallendar plotline: an exotic foreigner arrives in the peaceful coastal town of Ystad, accompanied by a slew of violent acts and connections to powerful people that shock the overworked local police force. In this case, the foreign dogs who wash up on Sweden's shore are two very dead businessmen with drugs in their systems.

Wallendar follows the trail back across the Baltic Sea to Riga, the capital of newly independent Latvia. There he involves himself more in local "affairs" than is politic or safe. Mankell kicked up some dust with this book. The Latvia described is a chaotic mix of gangland crime and corrupt officialdom. Some Latvians took exception to that bleak picture. (Latvia became independent in 1991 and "Hundarna i Riga" was published the following year.)

Kommissar Wallendar is often compared to Georges Simenon's Inspecteur Maigret or Colin Dexter's Chief Inspector Morse. In this book, he also shows traces of John Le Carré's Smiley. Mankell has been extremely popular in Europe for a long time. Maybe his books are better read in a cold, damp climate like that of Sweden, but I can't see anything that makes them "difficult for some American readers" as Publishers Weekly advises.