Firewall (Kurt Wallander Mysteries, No. 8) [Paperback]

Henning Mankell (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 9, 2003

Seventh in the Kurt Wallander series.

A body is found at an ATM the apparent victim of heart attack. Then two teenage girls are arrested for the brutal murder of a cab driver. The girls confess to the crime showing no remorse whatsoever. Two open and shut cases. At first these two incidents seem to have nothing in common, but as Wallander delves deeper into the mystery of why the girls murdered the cab driver he begins to unravel a plot much more involved complicated than he initially suspected. The two cases become one and lead to conspiracy that stretches to encompass a world larger than the borders of Sweden.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the sixth Kurt Wallander book to appear in English (One Step Behind, etc.), Mankell proves once again that spending time with a glum police inspector in chilly Sweden can be quite thrilling. In the small town of Ystad, a pair of seemingly random events take place within a matter of days: two teenage girls with no apparent motive brutally beat and stab a taxi driver to death, and a remarkably healthy man checks his bank balance at an ATM and then collapses dead on the sidewalk. After two more odd murders, Wallander becomes convinced that the incidents are all connected. The recurring clues demonstrating the vulnerability of society in the electronic age remain just outside of the Luddite inspector's understanding. But once he detects a conspiracy to collapse the world's financial infrastructure on a specific date, Wallander, whose position at work is already imperiled, ignores office politics and protocol to stop the would-be revolutionary. Although Wallander and his investigative team are forced to work at a dizzying speed, the pace of the book is just right, doling out new leads and intrigues right when they're needed. The only shortcoming in this otherwise smartly written mystery is that too many of the most perplexing clues discovered by Wallander are dismissed as red herrings or coincidence. Overall, however, Mankell's ambitious endeavor to combine large themes with small-town murder is a notable success.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Well-paced...a thinking man's thriller." --The New York Times Book Review

“Satisfying…. [Mankell's] Sweden, cold, isolated and brimming with disappointment--is as intriguing a landscape as Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles or Charles Willeford's Miami." --The Wall Street Journal

“Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture.” --Associated Press

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; REP TRA edition (September 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400031532
• ISBN-13: 978-1400031535
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Sjoewall & Wahloo, and that's saying something! March 17, 2004

By Celia A. Sgroi

Format:Paperback

Maybe it's not a coincidence that the best police procedural series since the Martin Beck series also comes from a Swedish author. These deliberate, dark novels are not to everyone's taste, but if you liked Martin Beck, you'll probably like Kurt Wallander.

Firewall starts with two seemingly random events-- a reclusive computer expert drops dead in front of an ATM machine, and two teenage girls bludgeon and stab an elderly taxi driver to death. At first it seems that there couldn't possibly be any connection between the two, but the police investigation into the murder of the taxi driver is like kicking over an anthill. It seems as if a dozen incomprehensible things happen in rapid succession, including the killing of the prime suspect in the murder case. Inspector Kurt Wallander leads a dogged team of detectives in a search for the key to the baffling series of events, even though he has been accused of brutality toward a juvenile suspect and seems to be harboring a traitor among the cops on his team.

These cops work long hours, drink endless cups of coffee, and stop for numberless hamburgers and pizzas. But they also have home lives, do their laundry, take care of their sick kids, and struggle with car repairs and getting their errands done. Wallander, a divorced man in his mid-50's with diabetes and an advanced case of loneliness, balances action with thought, not all of it pleasant or useful. His resemblance is Martin Beck is strong, but this cop and his colleagues operate without the black humor that made Sjoewall and Wahloo's novels so fascinating. If society looked hopeless in the 1970's, it looks much worse in the late 1990's, and Wallander and his fellow cops see enough brutality and senseless violence to make anyone a pessimist.

The best thing is, however, that the story really works.... After pages of relentless police work, including much attention to the efforts of a young hacker coopted to help the police break into a seemingly impregnable computer, the pieces start falling into place. The pace quickens, and the police keep getting closer, but
Wallander continues to make mistakes, not knowing how complicated the plot he is investigating really is. One realistic touch is that the book doesn't end with the climax, when the puzzle finally finds it solution. Instead, it meanders on for a bit to let the reader see the let-down at the end and the chance for Wallander to re-focus on his own life and priorities. The traitor on his team is still there. The mistrust of his superiors has not abated. But Wallander decides to continue to do his job because he hasn't any other option. It doesn't get much more real than that. Read more ›

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thriller with psychological depth September 29, 2003

By M. A Michaud

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

What a relief it is to read a modern thriller/police procedural whose characters seem real. Mankell's protagonist, Swedish police officer Kurt Wallander, is not a super-hero who outwits and outfights legions of bad guys. Nor is he as phenomenally lucky as the heros in many American thrillers. Wallander, a dedicated cop, has a believable internal life. His real-world personal problems include loneliness, distance from his adult daughter, and a threat to his position from an ambitious younger officer. His horrendously long hours make him feel exhausted; he gets frustrated with baffling evidence and failed plans. Yet he persists in trying to understand the connections between the deaths he is investigating. Different pieces of the puzzle appear at well-paced intervals during the story. There are surprises that don't fit theories. The conspiracy that emerges turns out to reach far beyond local events. Though the chief villain gets nailed at the end of the book, Mankell does not wrap things up in a neat package. The threat is still out there.

Subsidiary themes of the book include the vulnerability of our technological society, and resentment of the growing concentration of wealth. There are a few problems. Many of the Swedish names sound alike, making it difficult to separate some policemen and policewomen from others. Mankell's writing, translated from Swedish, sometimes produces short, choppy sentences. There is a peculiar fixation on checking the time. Nonetheless, this book rises far above most mysteries.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Problem of Scale July 18, 2006

By Marco Antonio Abarca TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Henning Mankell is one the finest mystery writers in the world. He understands plotting, the building of tension and the pacing of a story. In terms of craft, he is right up there with P.D. James. Mankell's talent as an author explains why a series of books about a gloomy, middle aged detective from a small town in Sweden has developed an international following.

The one problem with such a strong writing talent is that it sometimes allows an author to camoflouge a weak and unbelievable plot line. Kurt Wallander is a detective in small town Sweden and yet he stumbles onto a conspiracy with world wide implications. The scale of this conspiracy is far too great for Wallander's provincial world. For this novel to work, it requires more than virtuoso writing. The scale of the crime must fit in the scale of the hero's world. This is a very well written crime novel but in the end, I found it unbelievable.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweden? February 14, 2007

By David Chacko

Format:Mass Market Paperback

If you like police detective novels that have a dose of realism in plot and setting, the obsessions of Mankell's Inspector Wallander provide a fine antidote to the usual run of serial/maniacals. The mystery is composed of subplots that come together slowly until they quicken as the end nears. What drives the plot is a larger-than-life, computer-enhanced doomsday clock, but Wallander's family in and outside the office give a strong sense of the man who makes it all come together. The brooding and well-realized town where the story takes place seems like the home you always wanted to run away from.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book You Cannot Put Down October 19, 2005

By H. F. Corbin TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander is back with another crime puzzle that demands that he use all his experience in police work as well as take chances, bend the police department rules a bit and depend on his own intuition. (Would he like the recently published book in the U. S. called BLINK I wonder?) Wallander is altogether likeable-- at least for me. He is bright, complex, vulverable and sensitive. He listens to "La Traviata" and Jussi Bjorling, misses the companionship of a woman, wishes he had a better relationship with his grown daughter and thinks a lot about his own mortality. At the age of 50, Wallander has no more life-altering decisions to make. And in a particularly poignant moment he thinks of an old friend who will soon be moving away. "Their friendship had come to an end. Or rather: they had finally discovered that it had ended a long time ago. . . Widen [his friend] was going to disappear from his life. Who was left who connected him to his earlier life? Soon there would be no one." The inspector has hit on a melancholy universal truth that most of us will experience if live to see middle-age-- and all this coming from a police officer in a mystery story. Wallander behaves the way we expect from characters in literary novels; but that is essentially what we have here-- in addition to a story about betrayal, rape, murder, international intrigue, terrorists, computer hackers et al that is no engaging that you literally cannot put it down.

The only thing cold about this thriller is the Swedish autumns.