Customer Reviews

The Man Who Smiled: A Kurt Wallander Mystery (4) (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Other reviewers said all that had to be said. I have one suggestion to readers that are new to Kurt Wallander Mystery Novels. Read them in sequence. Unfortunately, they were translated to English out of order. Here is the correct order: 1. Faceless Killers (1991 2. The Dogs of Riga (1992) 3. The White Lioness 1993 4. The Man Who Smiled 1994 5. Sidetracked 1995 6. The Fifth Woman 1996 7. One Step Behind (1997 8. Firewall (1998 9. Before the Frost (2002) and The Troubled Man (2009), the last case of Wallander. Also, consider another 'non-Wallander' mystery: The Return of the Dancing Master (2000) and The Man From Beijing (2010). I hope I didn't miss anything...

My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain:
At least I 'm sure it may be so in Denmark." Hamlet.

And I'm sure, after reading Henning Mankell's "The Man Who Smiled", that it may be so in Sweden as well.

"The Man Who Smiled" is the fourth book in the popular Inspector Kurt Wallander mystery series. An aging attorney has been found dead on a desolate strip of road. The local police think it is an accident brought about by the dense fog that surrounded the area that night. The man's son, also an attorney, seeks out is friend Kurt Wallander to ask for help. He thinks his father has been murdered. Wallander isn't really interested. He'd killed a man in the line of duty and has been on leave ever since. He has no taste for police work, is loaded up with antidepressants and drinks to excess. But when his friend is found murdered, the same guilt that drove Wallander away from police work compels him to return to help solve the murder of the friend and what may be the murder of the friend's father.

As Wallander returns to work he finds himself thinking that one of Sweden's richest men may have some part in the murders. He is very rich and very powerful. So powerful that he can afford to keep a smile affixed to his permanently suntanned face. It is a smile of condescension and smugness. It is a smile that says "I am untouchable." Wallander battles to put his life back together while he struggles to put together the pieces of a very complex crime puzzle.

Mankell's Kurt Wallander series is often compared to the Martin Beck detective mysteries authored by the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. Wallander, like Beck, is a police detective in Sweden. Unlike Beck, whose beat was Stockholm, Wallander works in the small southern-Swedish city of Ystad. Wallander's work performance is 99 per cent driven by perspiration and only 1 per cent driven by inspiration. He is not Sherlock Holmes but he is smart and he is persistent. As noted, "The Man Who Smiled" is the fourth in the Wallander Series. They have all been enjoyable to read even if the series has its ups and downs. As with any series the reader is either drawn to the main character or bored by the main character. Although Wallander is stoic and a bit plodding I somehow find him to be a compelling character. Mankell has also done a good job in fleshing out the characters of Wallander's police unit.

Ultimately, there is nothing new or unique about the structure of the Wallander books. However, the setting (southern Sweden) and the cast of characters created by Mankell makes these books easy to pick up and a bit harder to put down. If you like police procedurals "The Man Who Smiled" is well worth reading. L. Fleisig

Too late did I learn that the translator of this book is not the same as the translator of "One Step Behind." But as I was reading, I noticed a distinct difference in tone between then two novels. There were several instances in which the translation came up with idiomatic usage, such as the expression "fishy" that seemed out of place and jarring. Elsewhere, the novel suffered from an overall flatness that was strikingly different from other Mankell novels.

But there were other problems, as noted by some of the other reviewers. The lead up to the conclusion was too forced and strained credulity. The fact that Wallander would remain inside the mansion without calling for backup at any point did not make sense, likewise his partner's delay in calling for help herself. Also, the idea of a supremely wealthy man would utilize a land mine to murder a potentially troublesome witness seemed quite ludicrous to me. The bad guy, Harderberg, was also a big disppointment: extremely two dimensional and flat. The attempt to make him seem aloof by affixing a permanent smile to his face only added to the sense that he was more pastiche that person. It was as though Mankell had taken the attributes of several other characters and decided to utilize the most superficial of each. His language was stilted and pure cliche. This could also have been a result of the not so good translation.

For all of this, I read the novel to the end. Mankell is great at creating a dark and drizzly world where his characters try and figure out who they are, which at the same time trying to solve a crime. Wallander is a great character, flawed and human and consistent from one novel the the next.

As I have recently learned, there is a title for this type of book, "Swedish Noir". There are those who do not like this type of brooding, intense, emotionally wrenching story, but there are a lot of folks who do, and not just among Swedes. I have been following many of Mankell's book as well as other authors in the Scandianvian mystry genre, and have tried to read them in sequence. This one escaped me so it was taking place early in the author's series, but basically that does not matter, it is a terrific, detailed, intense story. Kurt Wallender is real and flawed and yet manages to be bigger than life despite it all. I have enjoyed all of Mankell's books that I have read, and this one ranks among the best of that bunch. A fine read.

Just as a point of trivia but in Europe and in Sweden, detective Kurt Wallander's home, the spelling is sometimes Wallender or Wallander. One encounters both spellings on amazon.

I thank fellow reviewer Leonard Fleisig for bringing this author to my attention. The writing is simply superb, and I am very interested in reading more books by the same author.

As done by Len, I gave the book 4 stars. I thought that "The Man Who Smiled" was a good book until near the end. Up to that point I thought that Mankell was doing a great job with the novel. The novel reminded me a bit of the Peter Robinson Inspector Banks series, but here the policeman is more involved; actually, he becomes too involved and that is what slightly spoils the book.

The book opens with a map of southern Sweden, and a second map of the town of Ystad. The latter is the primary setting, although the crimes are spread around the southern part of Sweden in this novel. The police station is located in Ystad, near the most southerly part of Sweden, south and east of Malmo, and on the Baltic. Malmo itself is just 10 km across water from Copenhagen. Part of the tale takes place in Denmark.

I will not give away the plot and the essential plot elements are outlined by the publisher: a police inspector on a stress leave is drawn back to work by the murder of a friend. The policeman, Kurt Wallender, takes a personal interest in the death of two lawyers, one who he knew professionally, and who had approached him about a case a week before his death.

This is a great and a fast read that I was able to read with a great deal of enjoyment in less than a day. I read it while staying at a hotel in southern Sweden, not too far from the crime scene, and that the details and descriptions of the places, people, and other details are made to seeme authentic.

This is a book that I highly recommend, but because of the ending it merits 4 stars. The writing is smooth and flawless.

I am a big fan of Mankell's Wallender mysteries, thus I was excited to see that this had finally made available in English. I was struck before I started reading that the gap between its publication in Swedish and its translation into English was very long, several later books that refer to events in this one were actually translated before this. After reading it, I suspect that the delay was because somewhere along the line, people were aware this book was flawed.

In particular, there are several plot elements that simply make no sense. I won't go into the details since they would constitute spoilers. But there were several developments that played key roles in advancing the plot that simply made no sense whatsoever. I thought I was missing something and I talked to some friends and family who are also fans of the Wallender mysteries after they read it, and they had the same reaction.

The writing itself is good, as is the dialogue, so if nonsensical plot developments don't bother you, go ahead and read it. But if you like to follow things consistently, there are several developments that simply don't make sense. Also, this is one of a few Wallender mysteries where I think Mankell pushed too hard to create a climactic and tense ending and ended up creating a situation that was artifical and strained credulity.

If you are a Wallander fan, this is probably worth reading, if only because there are several developments in Wallender's personal life that some of the later books that were translated earlier refer to.

If you are interested in the Wallender books and are looking for one to start with, don't start with this one.

I read three or four mysteries a month. I am very critical. Lots of mysteries start off well but fizzle, some writers never come through with believable plots, characters or dialogue. Henning Mankell is so thoroughly enjoyable, I am just in awe. Truly. In this case, it's not necessarily the plot that's good but the way he tells the story. I enjoy learning about Sweden, its police culture, etc. Very thoughtful writer. Very rewarding.

I found the book hard to put down so there are a lot of positives. The pacing is good. It is a very good police procedural. Wallender is an fascinating creation. Wallender is a middle-aged guy with self doubts, but who is a good investigator. The author also does a great job of the atmosphere. He is also great in showing how Wallender guides his team in the investigation.

There are a few negatives. I find the translation quirky. Some of the idioms seem out of place. Wallender makes some incomprehensible decisions. He finds a mine and decides to explode it rather than calling for backup. (Another thing, why would the bad guys use a land mine? It so obviously a bad choice of weapon here.) His forensic guy does give him a hard time. He invades a castle alone with only radio backup. A man invades his home and he does nothing but hides. This also has the some of the same problems as other mysteries. The first murder is so clever, but the following cover-up murders are so obviously murders. For example, Michael Clayton has this problem. The first murders are nigh undetectable, but the bad guys try to kill Clayton with a car bomb.

In summary, this is a typical Wallender mystery. The plot doesn't quite hold together, but the characters and the atmosphere make the book worth reading.

It is occasionally tempting to wonder why a small town in Sweden would have such a run of horrific murders ever since Henning Mankell began writing his deliciously thrilling Kurt Wallander novels. The Man Who Smiled is a page-turner like its predecessors with a well-twisted plot, the usual cast of police characters with the moody backdrop of coastal Sweden's gray skies, rain and wind. Wallander's interior dialogues often mirror the gloomy scenery as he picks his way through the maze of the criminal mind. I am not much of a mystery reader but each of Mankell's books is a gem and The Man Who Smiled is no exception.

Henning Mankell's captivating "The Man Who Smiled", while written about 12 years ago has just been recently been translated into English. Mankell's style has great appeal resulting from an abilty to use the realistic immorality existent in society to fabricate his plots. His protagonist Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander is a believable character, with a plausible array of human foibles. Years of police work has taken its toll and both his health and emotional state.

We find Wallander in the midst of a leave of absence fueled by the psychological baggage he's carrying after killing a man in the line of duty. A year long drunken binge finds Wallander in the throes of depression and ill health and pondering retiring from the police force. He's attempting to dry out in the Danish seaside town of Skagen when he receives an unexpected visit from a lawyer friend Sten Torstensson. Torstensson had sought Wallander out to seek his help in investigating the circumstances of his father Gustaf's death. The death had been ruled an accident but the son had serious doubts. The father, also a lawyer had been working exclusively for an Alfred Harderberg. Harderberg, a self made multi millionaire was a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist with extensive connections. Harderberg was ensconsed in Farnholm Castle as if he were royalty coming and going in absolute secrecy. Farnholm Castle happened to be the destination from which Gustaf Torstensson had been returning when he become involved in his fatal auto accident.

Wallander eventually made his way back to his home in Ystad. While canvassing the local paper is his apartment, he came across an article that would set his life back on the right path. His friend Sten Torstensson had been found murdered, shot in his office. Right then and there Wallander decided to rejoin the force much to the relief of his beleaguered colleagues, under the stipulation that he lead the investigation into the murders of the Torstenssons. He now set his sights on the man he suspected, the man who always smiled, the untouchable Alfred Harderberg.

Mankell in his brilliantly utilitarian fashion chronicles the plodding and tortuous police procedural orchestrated by the irrepressible Wallander as he tries to unravel clues to ensnare his prey.