A #1 international bestseller: This “exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth” launched the acclaimed Wallander Mysteries and BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh (Los Angeles Times). Early one morning, a small-town farmer discovers that his neighbors have been victims of a brutal attack during the night: An old man has been bludgeoned to death, and his tortured wife lies dying before the farmer’s … dying before the farmer’s eyes. The only clue is the single word she utters before she dies: “foreign.”
In charge of the investigation is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a local detective whose personal life is in a shambles. His family is falling apart, he’s gaining weight, and he drinks too much and sleeps too little. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, he and his colleagues must contend with a wave of violent xenophobia as they search for the killers.
Winner of the Sweden’s Best Mystery Award and the first installment in the series that inspired the PBS program Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh, Faceless Killers is a razor-sharp, stylishly dark police procedural with searing social commentary that reaches beyond its genre to produce “a superior novel—and a harbinger of great things to come” (Booklist).
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I recommend any book written by Mankell. This is his first book. The second book in the Kurt Wallender series is the Dogs of Riga. The TV series is wonderful too.
I discovered this series by streaming Young Wallendar and really enjoying the characters. This first book is well written and exciting. Not crazy about his dad 🙂 but then we’re not supposed to be. Kurt is a wonderful, flawed human being who we root for. The descriptions are wonderful. I kind of wish it was read by someone with a Swedish accent, …
First time I read a Wallander novel and I really enjoyed it.
Wallander is such a relatable character. He’s flawed, fallible, uncertain, and still stubborn and driven. I loved how his messy personal life mixed with his strong professional life and never seem that the one got in the way of the other.
The mystery was interesting and logic in the …
This is the first in the Wallander series which hooked me immediately and I have read and reread them with pleasure. The main character is flawed and bad tempered, unwilling to accept the decline of his artist father and the silence of his daughter. Divorced and lonely he puts all his energies into solving crimes. Mankell mixes his strong social …
This is the first of Swedish crime author Henning Mankell’s Wallander detective series. I’m nearly ready to read them all a second time, I love them so much.
Great writing, character driven.
This is the first book in the InspectorWallander series (played on TV by Kenneth Branagh). Wallander is a middle-aged and divorced cop who can’t find his way to happiness. There’s a darkness to the novel, but that doesn’t prevent you from becoming attached to the protagonist. And the co-star is the stark and haunting setting outside Ystad, Sweden. …
7 January 1990: An elderly couple, Maria and Johannes Lovgren, are discovered after being viciously attacked in their farmhouse in Lunnarp, Sweden.
He has been brutally bludgeoned to death. She’s found bloodied, tied to a chair with a noose around her neck, barely clinging to life.
Ystad police inspector Kurt Wallander is assigned to the case. He …
Excellent police / crime story
Really intense. A couple brutally murdered at the hands of “foreigners.” The detective who has his own drinking problem and whose wife has left him. Racism. Secrets about the victim that come to light and contributed to his murder. Just a lot going on in such a short book. Page turning excitement. Loved it.
Emotive scenes and haunting main character, unpredictable and thought-provoking scenarios. One of my fall time favorite series.
This is the beginning of the Kurt Wallander series and for sure I am going to read all in order. I love the Nordic Noir genre and am always looking for more. The character of Kurt Wallander is a very sad character but you do form an attachment to him. He is always hurting himself or getting hurt and is a bit of a hypochondriac but you want to read …