Wallander is the archetypal loner, who drinks too much and has a screwed-up family life. As usual with Mankell you get a large helping of drab Swedish landscape, lots of morose people, and fairly slow-moving action. The book's beginning is so spooky that it made me look over my shoulder for a week or so when I drove along dark lanes. It also introduces us for the first time to Ann-Britt Hoglund and we find out what made her join the police. THE MAN WHO SMILED has Wallander's father still alive. If you've been keeping up with this series, you'll already know that for some unfathomable reason, they're appearing out of order both in the States and the UK. Within a week, though, the son is also dead. But a bizarre case gets under his skin, following a meeting with Sten Torstensson who tells him he is sure his lawyer father was murdered. Wallander's colleagues assume he'll quit, and he's all set to sign the relevant paperwork. He appears to be drinking and bonking his way round Sweden and all points east. He's on long-term leave from the police, having shot a man in self-defence. The book opens with Wallander on a path to self-destruction. Once you read the book, though, you'll discover the sinister overtones there as well. And the title of the latest to be translated into English - THE MAN WHO SMILED - is the nearest you'll get to humour. No one reads Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series for levity and wit.
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