128 of 142 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wallander's last case?, March 1, 2011
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I've enjoyed the Kurt Wallander series of books for many years, and have read as Kurt went from a young patrolman to, now, a 60 year old man with various illnesses. Being older than that myself, I can sympathize with him over his debilitations, and his fear of looming death. These things are all part of this excellent book.
The plot concerns the future in-laws of his daughter Linda, who both disappear, apparently without any particular reason. Even though the disappearances are not within his police jurisdiction, because of the family ties Kurt gets involved in trying to find them, and what happened and why. The past history of Sweden and the Cold War plays an important role in the plot, one of the more intriguing plots Mr. Mankell has devised for his detective.
I don't want to give anything away for the sake of future readers, except to say that the big "shock" when it comes near the end wasn't really a surprise to me, and shouldn't be to anyone who's paying close attention to the plot. The fact that it took Wallander months to determine what was happening may be traced to his age and illnesses.
This appears to be Kurt's last case about which we will read, but I hope not, although the author seems rather adamant that it will be so. I'm sorry for that, and I will miss these excellent novels, and the characters I have grown to know and like, very much.
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65 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A tired end to a fine series, April 7, 2011
It's hard to write a comment without including some spoilers.
Like so many others, I yearned for another Wallander story, and when it finally came, I could not wait to read it. However, when I closed the covers of what appears to be the last of the Wallanders, I was disappointed. In this book, Wallander is a tired, dispirited 60 year old man with serious health issues, who dreads a future of loneliness. He acts and thinks like a far older man. There was some meanspiritedness in the way that former important characters were dealt with, including some views about his own father's paintings. What glimmers of optimism and hope that can be gleaned, are found in his new grandchild. The plot was not very solid and there was a lot of traveling back and forth (there has been a lot of that in Mr. Mankell's recent novels). Just as you were getting into the rhythm of the story, he'd be off on another journey. I came to feel sorry for his dog, Jussi, always being left with the neighbors.
The story was touching and there was much of the fine writing that had propelled the series to international fame. Of course people age and life's disappointments accumulate and weigh a person down. One expects this. But the mood of the book was sad and almost unrelentingly hopeless. Did Mr. Mankell himself become tired of his hero? Did he resent the clamoring for yet another Wallander book and decide to punish his character and his readers all at the same time? I don't insist on a happy ending, but I can't help but think that the readers who came to love these stories and who liked and admired the character, deserved a better finale than this.
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56 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wallander is back, he's more moving and memorable than ever, March 5, 2011
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A better title for Henning Mankell's newest mystery might be "The Troubled Men." The novel, the series' 11th, is the first Kurt Wallander story in more than a decade and according to a note at the beginning it is likely to be the last investigation for the Ystad, Sweden, Detective Chief Inspector.
Set in the present day, the story has not one but two very worried old men struggling to resolve their past while facing an uncertain and, for them, frightening future. The first is a retired Swedish naval commander Hakan von Enke, who at 75 is the "troubled man" of the title.
Von Enke's son Hans and Wallander's daughter Linda are living together and have given Wallander his first grandchild, a girl. At a birthday party he has thrown for himself, the elder von Enke confides to Wallander details of a maritime incident in the 1980s involving a foreign submarine, suspected to be Russian, invading Swedish territorial waters.
Von Enke commanded the Swedish destroyer given the order to launch depth charges to bring the foreign sub to the surface. At the very last minute someone high within the military or Swedish government, perhaps the prime minister, contravened those orders.
For the ensuing three decades von Enke has been doggedly determined to find out who was responsible for aborting the action and allowing the foreign sub to slip through the net. Now, he tells Wallander he may be closing in on answers, which may have implications that rock international relations and threaten the Swedish government. Shortly afterward he vanishes, leaving behind everything but clues. A few months later von Enke's wife Louise also goes missing without a trace.
The second troubled man is Wallander, now 60, who is distressed by the infirmities of age and of being alone. He experiences frequent memory lapses where "whole chunks of time disappear. Like ice melting away." A tooth falls out while he's interviewing someone involved in the case and, a diabetic, he blacks out in the shower when his blood sugar level falls dangerously low. Normally a reticent figure, in this book he's expressive. He's terrified of death, more so of becoming decrepit and unable to dote on his granddaughter.
"I feel old. I wake up every day feeling that everything is going so incredibly fast. I don't know if I'm running after something or away from something. I just run. To be completely honest, I'm scared stiff of growing old."
Mankell makes Wallander's plight poignant. "The Troubled Man" also manages to be an exciting thriller, fast paced and filled with all the plot twists and turns we expect from Mankell. His style is to be straightforward and very logical in the telling, but without all the blood and mayhem found in other Scandinavian storytellers such as Jo Nesbo. Mankell is more in a league with Ian Rankin.
Carefully constructed, "The Troubled Man" also is very melancholy. The novel can be as dark and somber as the Scandinavian winter, but I think every reader, especially Boomers who fall into Wallander's age bracket, will remember the book as being almost elegiac. Wallander is portrayed eventually as someone feeling "as if everything has fallen silent. As if all colors had faded away, and all he was left with was black and white."
Late in the novel, when the loose ends and questions are still hanging, it's left to Wallander to figure out the truth and dig deeper to find answers. That's when he remembers something a former lover said, "behind every person there's always someone else."
By the end, we've learned all the answers and we've come to know Wallander in all his complexities, hopes and fears. We have learned all about the inspector there is to know. We have the answers solve the mystery and we've also seen deep into Wallander's soul in a way that makes "The Troubled Man" the most satisfying book in the series. It's moving and memorable.
[4.5 stars]
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