Firewall

Henning Mankell

And yet another brilliant novel by Henning Mankell. I don't really know what it is with his Wallander (his Swedish police inspector) books. It's not the exitement of a strategically written whodunnit because in most of them that is not the case. It's not his way with words or litterate high standard, because they are very easy to read and fairly simple written novels. I think it is that he is an absolute master in creating a realistic atmosphere you get totally sucked into the story and mainly the way the characters feel and that in each and everyone of them. The weather is always cold, rainy or misty, Wallander is always a bit to very depressed, there is always something not going the way he planned things, whether it are problems with his colleagues or his bad to no love life. And you feel for him and all the other characters without getting that eery feeling I get when things are depressing and characters have problems, in other novels.

This one starts of with the aggressive murder of a taxi driver by two very young girls and a guy found death near a cash machine. Those two cases don't seem to be connected but ofcourse they are and ofcourse it takes Wallander and his team a while to get it. After a major power blackout things get even more complicated and everything seems to be connected one way or the other but it takes until the end of the book to unraffle. Wallander gets shot at, has an internal investigation against him because of slaping a suspect (one of the girls who killed the taxidriver), his oldest friend sells his stables to start over, he's got problems with his lack of love life, one of his colleagues is going around his back, he's making a few almost fatal judgemental errors in the investigation, his car breaks down and the weather is cold, rainy and misty in this Swedish October month. But believe me this is not annoying because it is brought in such an undercooled yet humane way you just believe it! Ok there are a few flaws and you sometimes wonder whether Wallander and his team are blind in seeing things which are clearly evident but who gives a toss it is just a great book. Maybe not the best in the series (for me still the The Fifth Woman) but again worth the read.