| Title | : | One Step Behind (Kurt Wallander, #7) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0099448874 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780099448877 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 450 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1997 |
| Awards | : | Deutscher Krimi Preis 3. Platz International (2001), Svenska Deckarakademins pris för bästa svenska kriminalroman (1997), Corine Internationaler Buchpreis Belletristik (2001) |
One Step Behind (Kurt Wallander, #7) Reviews
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Kurt Wallander book No.7 sees Wallander and co. finding themselves always one step behind an appalling and apparently motiveless serial killer. Wallander himself is also struggling with his health and his future. Another great case, another great dollop of Scandi-noir. An easy Three Star, 7 out of 12.
2012 review -
This is another dense, intricately plotted crime novel featuring Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. Three young people, dressed in costumes and celebrating Midsummer's Eve, are brutally murdered. The killer buries the bodies and while they remain undiscovered, the victim's parents are led to believe that their children are off touring Europe. However, the mother of one of the victims refuses to believe this and insists that the police should be investigating the disappearance of the three. But the evidence, such as it is, suggests that the three are in fact alive and well, and the police do not take the mother's claims seriously.
The one official who does believe that something might be amiss, is Kurt Wallander's colleague, Svedberg. For some unknown reason, though, Svedberg does not share his suspicions with Wallander or anyone else. Rather, he takes vacation time and begins to quietly investigate the case on his own. Shortly thereafter, Svedberg dies under mysterious circumstances and almost immediately thereafter, it becomes clear that the three young people have indeed been murdered.
Kurt Wallander now faces the most baffling case of his career. He realizes that the death of Svedberg must be connected to the murders of the three young people, but how? And the deeper he digs into the mystery, the more elusive a solution appears to be.
This is not a break-neck thriller. It proceeds at a very stately pace, as a real investigation of this magnitude would. There's a great deal of soul-searching and second-guessing from practically everyone involved, Wallander most of all. The story takes place against a society that's in transition, and a lot of people are wondering if things are spinning out of control. Although the novel takes place during an unusually warm summer, the overall tone of the book could not be more dreary.
Throughout the book, Wallander suffers from what almost seems to be clinical depression. He has major health issues; he's not sleeping well; he has hardly any energy, and for all the world, you would think he was a man approaching seventy. It's almost jarring when the author reminds us on several occasions, that Wallander is not even fifty yet. He questions his own ability and we are left to wonder through much of the book whether he will be able to see this case through to a successful conclusion.
This is probably not a book that will appeal to readers looking for a bright, uplifting story to take them away from the cares and woes of their daily existence. But for those who enjoy dark, gritty, believable police procedurals, One Step Behind will be just what the doctor ordered. -
There's something to be said for knowing the answer to a mystery while you're reading a mystery. I watched the first season of Wallander, of which
One Step Behind was the last episode, before ever cracking a Wallander book, yet it didn't hurt my experience reading the book. Henning Mankell did that quite well on his own (but more on that later).
When the book opened, and Wallander's colleague, Svedberg, was found murdered in his flat, I was thrilled with knowing who the killer was and how the killer was related to his/her past and future victims. The myriad clues that Wallander, Höglund and Martinsson were missing were clear to me in a way they wouldn't have been if I was reading this without prior knowledge (though I am quite observant in a literary-Sherlock way); I had no investigative work to do, so I could just pick up the clues and move along.
What this allowed me to do, in turn, was pay more attention to the characters. I was able to settle into the rhythms of their work, their relationships and their problems, which pulled me deep into the story at a rapid rate. It started well. I was enjoying
One Step Behind more than any other Wallander I've read, then my enjoyment began to fall apart in the most unexpected ways.
I should mention, here, that while I was reading this Wallander I was listening (for the second time) to Sjowall & Wahloo's
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke. I've found the Martin Beck books to be superior to the Wallander books, so I shouldn't be surprised that
One Step Behind couldn't match its forebear, but the area in which Mankell's creation suffered most in comparison was the attitude towards the killer. Sjowall & Wahloo were not believers in the pure madman, the evil killer for the sake of evil -- nor am I. So Mankell's decision to cast his
One Step Behind killer with that mould, to let a dust mote debate float throughout the book about the nature of the killer, then end it with the killer being mad and evil, left me disappointed.
Not nearly so disappointed, however, as I was at Wallander's personal turn as Dirty Harry. He was every bad Hollywood cop cliché: he was the unorthodox but effective copper; he was the cop obsessed with catching his (wo)man, all else be damned; he was self-righteous and full of venom for everyone he judged; he took unnecessary risks, put others in danger, fought off meddling bureaucrats, broke laws, all in the name of justice. I had come to expect more from Kurt Wallander in
Henning Mankell's books, and the early stages of
One Step Behind had promised that I would get what I expected. But no. All I got was disappointment.
What started as potentially my most favourite Wallander book turned into my least. I think I will watch the BBC version again soon (I've not seen it in a long time), and see if Wallander is as Hollywood there as he is in Mankell's pages. I sure hope not. -
One Step Behind was my second Henning Mankell novel about Swedish policeman Kurt Wallander, and like Sidetracked, the first Wallander novel I read, I wanted to like it more than I did. One Step Behind concerns the investigation into the murder of a policeman, one of Wallander’s colleagues, who was himself involved in a secret investigation of a crime that no one else believed had been committed. How Wallander manages to catch the criminal despite constantly being “one step behind” forms the mystery here!
I do like the atmosphere of the novels and Wallander’s musings about how the world is changing, but sometimes the gloom-and-doom about how violent/bad Swedish society is kind of makes me laugh (given how much less violent Sweden is than the United States!) Plus, the resolutions to both mysteries ended up being rather far-fetched (and I never like the “inside the mind of the killer” stuff, because it has seemed a bit banal in both of the Mankell mysteries I read – someone like Ruth Rendell makes her psychopaths incredibly creepy and yet weirdly sympathetic, and Mankell doesn’t seem to have the skill to do that.) Also, and I don’t know whether this is just the translation, but the writing seems very flat and stiff in One Step Behind (it seems to be written in the style of my son’s board books.) Still, I’m a completist, and Wallander is an interesting enough figure that I probably will go ahead and read the rest of these mysteries (kvetching the entire time!) -
Wow. This is a must read for all Wallander-philes. The plot is very good. Even better though, Wallander is a mess. He has health problems, his father died in the last book, he doesn't have a girlfriend, his ex-wife is getting remarried, and his confidence is completely shot. It's classic, wonderful Wallander. Ups and downs and dog tired through a difficult case, it's just a lot of fun to follow along.
One of my favorite scenes is when Wallander learns that one of his coworkers considers Wallander to be his best friend. This rocks Wallander's world because he has no personal interaction with the guy outside of work. Is everyone as isolated as I feel, Wallander wonders. And what do the people I feel close to really think of me? It's a classic episode of Wallander self-doubt and over-analysis.
I have loved all the Wallander books, and this one may be the best. (BOLD!) It's 4+ bill-stars, and it took some late plot miscues to keep this book from being 5 stars.
Not a goodread(.com). A GREAT read!
he he... yow, bill -
3,5/4 sao. Thật ra trừ 0.5 điểm vì thanh tra Wallander oặt ẹo mỏi mệt lê lết thiếu ngủ kéo từ trang này qua trang khác chứ thật sự đây là một cuốn sách lạnh lùng và đen tối của Henning Mankell. Tức là vụ án hết sức hấp dẫn, tình tiết đan xen và gay cấn như việc người đọc được tham gia vào quá trình điều tra một cách thực thụ với mọi thứ bày đầy lên trên một chiếc bàn lớn để chắp nối với nhau.
Có những đoạn viết về xã hội Bắc Âu nói riêng, và xã hội loài người nói chung hết sức đặc biệt. Một cái nhìn thấu suốt và lạnh lùng về những con người trượt ngã khỏi xã hội, mất đi cái tôi riêng khi đi vào một tập thể chung. Đây là cuốn sách xứng đáng để tất cả người đọc nhảy vào trinh thám đen của Bắc Âu. Một tác giả đặc sắc, chắc tay.
Cơ mà, ông thanh tra à, lạy chúa, ông ngủ đi hộ tôi với. -
Me gustó el libro pero siento que va a envejecer mal. Dicho eso: ay le sufrí mucho con las muertes de acá.
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The Man Who Never Laughs Hunted by The Cops Who Never Laugh
Book #7 of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series is a book of secrets. I think in many ways this is not such a memorable book, no amazing plot hooks, really, a 3 star book in terms of the story--a serial killer book, ehhh, high body count, ho hum, the guy kills because he doesn't like it that others are happy, huh, okay--but it is very well paced and plotted and ultimately compelling, in part because we very much like this sad vulnerable world Mankell has created. It's just very good storytelling about characters by this time we are very familiar with and like. Real people, good people we have come to care about, trying to do the right thing in a world that seems slowly to be going out of control.
So, secrets: Wallander secretly continues to mourn his father's death, secretly mourns the fact that his ex is getting remarried, mourns the fact that his Latvian girlfriend has finally dumped him and that he now has Diabetes and is really in worse shape than anyone knows. He's good, but deeply flawed as detective, too, more determined than adept; he forgets to take a notepad to interviews, he fails to take his phone and even his gun to The Showdown with The Killer. But he's like us, a regular guy, not Sherlock.
The Killer himself has plenty of secrets; he has disguises, even as some of his young victims also wear costumes for their (apparently too) happy, celebratory masques. Early on he kills (spoiler alert, sorry) Wallander's valued colleague Svedberg, who has a whole series of his own secrets (spoiler alert!) no one else on the force knew about: he had a long term relationship with the killer--yup, he was gay, and no one that he worked with knew it!--the guy whom he had begun to (secretly) investigate for the possible murder of three young revelers.
So, it's a grim view of the world, and humans, generally: Parents don't know their children, ad nvice versa, cops don't know their colleagues--one we find out is suicidal, one is getting a divorce, and no one knew anything about these things! Everyone has secrets they don't reveal to each other, we wear masks and costumes to hide these things. And the world is getting more violent, more racist, just getting worse, even in little provincial town Ystad. Sweden has the rep of having that happy, sexy Nordic vibe! But underneath, they harbor secrets about just how happy they really are.
One interesting departure here is that this particular entry to the series never ventures out of Sweden, and focuses on the health condition of Wallander and the state of the country rather than a particular global social problem as he always has done. It's basically a police procedural, but it really gets under your skin, it's a good one, finally. I like it that we see things occasionally from the perspective of the killer, so we know who the intended #9 victim is intended to be before anyone conducting the investigation. I like it that one of the very final scenes features the injured Wallander talking to a young boy about why he is a cop.
"Do you ever regret having become a policeman?"
"Yes, every day."
"Then why do you keep doing it?"
"I guess because I know I am good at it. I don't know what else I would do."
Oh, the high body count (that includes several happy people including even newlyweds taking wedding pics!) kind of irritates me in these serial killer stories, and I don't like it that we always have to resolve the crimes in typically dramatic thriller fashion, but I like it that Wallander is driven, even at the expense of his health and personal life, to do good in the face of a morally crumbling society. -
When I read the works of one author, and more emphatically when I read a series by one author, I feel that I almost go further than just the reciprocal relationship between text and reader outlined by Louise Rosenblatt in her transactional theory of literature. With Mankell (and also recently with the twelve volume 'Dance to the Music of Time' by Anthony Powell), it's as if I am in a dialogue with the author. I know that's impossible; the books have already been written. But my reaction to the fifth and sixth books in the Kurt Wallander series was positive on the character development of that detective and his colleagues and negative on the implausible villains in those books. In 'One Step Behind,' number seven in the series, I found the serial killer credible and real, which made action scenes that much more engrossing and the suspense that much more chilling and nerve-wracking. The murder of one of Wallender's colleagues and the skeletons in that person's closet added spice to the usual mix. Thanks, Henning. My interest was flagging (only slightly because Wallander is so interesting). Now you're back in the game!
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Una de las grandes novelas de Mankell.
Vemos al inspector Wallander abatido como nunca, con sobrepeso, diabético, sin haber resuelto los problemas con sus seres queridos.
A esa situación se le suma un caso policial de lo más entretenido.
Una lectura en segundo plano nos muestra los sentimientos de fracaso y exclusión de la sociedad sueca.
Que más pedir para una novela? -
Henning Mankel has proved himself to be a wonderful crime novelist. His books create a wonderful sense of atmosphere along with razor sharp plotting. The great pleasure in reading Mankell is the social commentary on Sweden's changing society. His fiction is at least as much about evolving mores in Swedish culture as it is about the classic "who done its."
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Mỗi lần đọc 1 cuốn hình sự xong lại thề là sẽ không tiếp tục đọc nữa vì hoàn toàn không có tính nghệ thuật và rất là u ám nhưng mà cái tính ưa tò mò cứ bị mê mấy cái truyện trinh thám hình sự khộ kinh khủng =))) Review thì truyện cũng được, đọc giải trí ok mỗi tội nhiều mấy cái vụ cảm giác này cảm giác nọ quá. Dài nữa. Lẽ chỉ tầm 300 trang là được. Tóm lại là đọc giết thời gian với thỏa mãn tính tò mò thôi chứ không được gì lại còn đâm sợ ra ngoài ban đêm.
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One Step Behind is the seventh book in the Kurt Wallander series and I can honestly say these books keep getting better and better. This is a 5 star read for me... interesting as I look back on the reviews and ratings I have given over the first six books. I started with 3 stars, worked up to 4, then 4.5 and now 5.
This book is quite dark and grisly and has a superbly crafted plot ultimately centring around one man’s intense hatred to see happiness. It’s an intriguing tale and author, Henning Mankell builds the suspense slowly as the storyline unfolds.
What I truly love about these books is the central character, Wallander. Mankell has delivered a totally believable, totally human protagonist. He makes the mundane, interesting and validates these human elements that actually give me space to embrace my own humanness. The fleeting thoughts that we are privileged to glimpse, the insecurities about health, wellbeing, and the wonderings about people and things somehow give the reader permission to be an ordinary human and actually still be quite extraordinary. -
This is an odd one. Three young people have been found murdered. The weird thing is they had been killed earlier and then dug up again. Svedberg is early on also murdered and also Wallander finds out he was gay. They were friends for 20 years and colleagues but he never knew. Mmmm not such a great reader of people!
Essentially and this is a big spoiler, his ex lover got jealous of Wallander who Svedberg secretly loved. A meticulous, tidy and sensitive man loved Kurt unbeknownst to him. The lover kills the three young people because he suspects Svedberg is in a relationship with one of them which he is not. Then another ex lover of Svedberg becomes a victim.
The finale is good but slightly unbelievable. What got me was the incompetence of the police. I also watched the Swedish tv version and it was excellent. -
The tension and the depth of the plot from each book become more and more interesting. In this we find Wallander looking for the killer of a fellow detective who was looking for three missing students. Simple yet terribly complicated and dark. Wallander's private life is the back bones of the series. We see him struggling with health problems, his emotional ups and downs. The plot keeps you reading but Wallander's personal turmoils makes you turn the pages faster.
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Great to spend time with Wallander in small-town Sweden. My full review is here:
http://patricksherriff.com/2019/07/29... -
Kurt Wallander - He works tirelessly, eats badly and drinks the nights away in a lonely, neglected flat. Still, he tackles some pretty incredible cases --
Here are the titles in the series (with a few extras) -
Faceless Killers
Dogs Of Riga
White Lioness
The Man Who Smiled
Sidetracked
The Fifth Woman
One Step Behind
Firewall
Return Of The Dancing Master (a Stefan Lindman mystery)
Before The Frost (actually a “Linda Wallander” mystery)
An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, victims of violence beyond reason. . . a teenage girl douses herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day Sweden's former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped in a murder that has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer… four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman are found with their throats slit in an Algerian convent, while in Sweden, a birdwatcher is skewered to death in a pit of carefully sharpened bamboo poles… a Swedish housewife is murdered execution-style in a string of events that uncovers a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela involving the South African secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent… an old acquaintance of Wallander’s, a solicitor, who is tied to an enigmatic business tycoon hiding behind an entourage of brusque secretaries and tight security, turns up dead, shot three times after his father dies in a traffic accident (or was it an accident?). . . In woodland outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, the pages marked with handwritten corrections. A string of macabre incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, has been taking place, a group of religious extremists who are bent on punishing the world's sinners. … On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight, they don costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses… An unknown killer is on the loose, and their only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know…A life raft washes ashore in Skane, Sweden, carrying two dean men in expensive suits, shot gangland-style. It is discovered that the men were Eastern European criminals… A man stops at an ATM during his evening walk and inexplicably falls dead to the ground. Two teenage girls brutally murder a taxi driver They are quickly apprehended, shocking local policemen with their complete lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without a trace. A few days later a blackout cuts power to a large swath of the country When a serviceman arrives at the malfunctioning power substation, he makes a grisly discovery… a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden by the anonymity of cyberspace. . . and we haven't even gotten to Kurt Wallander's personal issues! -
Actual Rating: 4.8 Stars
Soundtrack: To Be Decided
“Normal people have nightmares in their sleep. We have our nightmares when we’re awake.”
A charmingly realistic portrait of the struggles of policemen,
One Step Behind follows the steps of a brusque detective and his colleagues, while begging the question: who or what can we truly put our faith into?
Detective Kurt Wallander returns as engaging as ever, with detectives Magnus Martinsson and Ann-Britt Hoglund strong, worthy companions and confidantes. Their story is rife with moodiness and tension, with a labyrinthine mystery masterfully woven throughout. It all brings to light a realization that knowing about someone and truly knowing someone are two completely different entities; there is never clear evidence to determine what goes on within even the most faithful individual.
Henning Mankell balances so many variables - action, intimacy, grit, suspense, desperation, agony - and they are all given power through characters' emotions, their actions, their relationships, and then their story, which is unfurled slowly and complexly. For a while, so many ends are kept loose, so many questions unanswered, and so little evidence unearthed, keeping interests high, but we still welcome the mundane. We still hold onto the moments of calm.
Chronicling the sacrifices, horrors, and rules of detection, while charging it all with feeling, this is a model for what crime writing should be.
Others in this Series:
1.)
The White Lioness - ★★★★
2.)
Firewall - ★★★★
3.)
The Troubled Man - ★★★★★/
Review -
Of the first seven books starring Swedish police detective Kurt Wallender, this one especially captures what makes the character so memorable. The plot is that he’s chasing a serial killer who targets happy people. Through it all, Wallender is short-tempered, self-pitying, jealous and forgetful but he’s also good-hearted, generous, romantic at heart and hard working. In short, he’s human through and through, a fact that’s made especially clear when he trips and falls during the big finale. And I love how he doesn’t solve the crimes so much as comes to the right conclusions by listening, truly listening, to everyone around him. Anyway, I don’t know if many Americans will like these books because they are not at all “thrillers.” But if you like Swedish noir, this is quintessential. Bechdel test: fail. Grade: A
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my first foray into the world of Wallander. Mankell takes the writer into the heart of the man whilst at the same time keeping the reader on the edge of the seat as the mystery unfolds. Mankell presents the human side of the detective - living alone, onset of chronic illness, failed marriage, connection with his daughter, his career, colleagues and an unwavering sense of searching for justice in the hope that he will find and redeem himself in the process..
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BUENISIMO, ni te enteras que tiene tantas paginas. Muy recomendable. 10/10
Fue mi primer Mankell. -
Sve šta očekujem od dobrog trilera/krimića sa detaljno prikazanim policijskim radom i svim ćorsokacima i slučajnostima do kojih može doći u toku njega.
Nekad je previše banalnim detalja poput potenciranja koliko puta i gde je detektiv Valander otišao da mokri, ali božemoj, vredi nekad i to istrpeti :) -
Oh bloody sensational.
This is nearly as good as it gets. Perhaps Henning Mankell has written better, I don;t know. This is my first, and I am super excited.
I had a Louise Penny binge in early 2016. Seems like another binge could be on its way. Have already picked up 'Faceless Killers' next.
Review maybe next year, when I get some perspective. -
At the heart of the several mysteries that Kurt Wallander and his team must investigate in this seventh book in the Wallander series are secrets. The victims all have secrets which make it difficult to get a grasp on the motives and reasons behind their victimhood, and, of course, the perpetrator, a serial killer, has the biggest secrets of all. He is a cipher, an anonymous man, someone that you would never notice. People look right through him and never see him. How will Wallander ever be able to find this invisible man?
It begins with three young friends meeting in a nature preserve, dressed in elaborate 18th century costumes, in order to celebrate Midsummer's Eve. In the middle of their happy celebration, as they are lying on the ground, a gunman steps out from behind a tree and shoots all three in the head. He then hides the bodies in a temporary grave.
Afterward, postcards start arriving from various sites around Europe informing the young people's families that they are traveling and will be returning in late summer. The mother of one of the girls doesn't believe the postcards are real. She thinks something has happened to her daughter and she harasses the Ystad police to do something about the missing trio.
The police don't really take the concerned mother's fears seriously. As long as the postcards keep coming, they see no reason to open a missing persons case.
One policeman doesn't agree. Wallander's colleague Karl Evert Svedberg smells a rat and starts investigating privately without telling anyone. He takes his annual vacation time off and spends it working on the case. Then one day, when he is supposed to have returned for work, he doesn't show up. Another day goes by and there is no word from him. That night, Wallander gets one of his famous intuitions that something is wrong and goes to Svedberg's apartment. He finds him brutally murdered.
Sometime later, a couple goes out to the nature preserve for a Sunday of hiking and picnicking and they make a gruesome discovery - three dead and partially decomposed bodies.
All of a sudden, the Ystad police have four murders on their hands, and as Wallander digs into the cases and finds clues at Svedberg's apartment, he begins to suspect that all are related and were probably committed by one killer. Little does he know how right he is or that the horror will continue for four more killings before the madman is caught.
Meantime, while all of this is going on in his professional life, in his personal life Wallander is falling apart. Just about literally. He is overweight, approaching fifty, constantly thirsty, experiencing fainting spells and aches and pains throughout his body but especially in his legs, and he's constantly having to stop and urinate. Hmmm...could it be that our middle-aged, permanently depressed and often angry detective is suffering from Type 2 diabetes? He certainly has all the classical symptoms, and finally a trip to the doctor confirms it. He's going to have to change his lifestyle or he's going to be in big trouble. But how is he to change his lifestyle in the midst of an investigation of serial murders that keeps him working virtually around the clock?
I like to read series books in order but somehow I had picked up #8, Firewall to read first. Having read it just a few weeks ago, I wanted to circle back and pick up this one while the events in that book were still fresh in my mind. As I started reading this one, I realized that I had actually seen it dramatized on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery series. But, of course, that was over a year ago and I didn't remember all the details of the story. They came back to me slowly as I read but in no way dimmed my enjoyment of the book.
Mankell is very good on plotting and pacing which are always key to the construction of a mystery and this one is up to his usual standards. Moreover, little by little we gain insight into his characters which leads us to invest empathy in these stories. Hoglund, Nyberg, Martinsson are all characters that we can care about. And Wallander, even with his irascible nature and his sudden inappropriate outbursts of temper is someone we can admire for his passion and dedication to his job. A job that seems to be getting harder every day in a changing Sweden.
We can only hope that at some point Wallander will find some peace and happiness in his life and that he will finally get a good night's sleep and be able to make the lifestyle changes his doctor recommends. It could make a whole new man of him.
I wonder if we would still find that man as interesting. -
One Step Behind is a bit of an abnormality in the Wallander series, though not to its detriment. The plot does not concern issues of the third world, or the economics of the post-Soviet era. The central murder is particularly gruesome (to the extent that the corresponding Masterpiece Mystery series does not recreate the crime scene as it was discovered). Wallander's typical family issues are a footnote, and the detective inspector, himself, is particularly physical in his pursuit of the killer.
Instead, this installment of the series looks inward at Ystad and the investigative team, almost as if the necessary personal care deprived by their chosen profession comes to a head. Nearly the entire staff of the Ystad police central to these stories are in some stage of personal crisis, and now they are confronted with the death of one of their own. Faced with this loss and the seemingly connected and rather macabre murder of three teenagers, the weight of responsibility is at an all-time high. And with the absolute minimum of evidence, the investigation seems to be dead before it begins, much like the spirits of Wallander and his team.
Kurt Wallander remains one of my favorite characters in literature, and a welcome iconoclast in the pantheon of serialized detectives. He is more persistent than clever, more obliged than brave. He is forgetful and clumsy. He is an anti-hero, not for his lack of moral character, but for his inherent emotional and physical delicacy; his greatest villain is his own sense of self-neglect. Where many authors of serialized characters seem to idolize their heroes, Mankell seems more to sympathize with Wallander, perhaps even pity him. His existence is a testimony to Mankell's own regard for human suffering, and Wallander endures as an unusually human portrait of middle-aged masculinity. The older I get (I've been reading these books for the better part of 15 years), the more I understand him, and the more I find myself in him.
Which brings me back to One Step Behind. I've seen other reviewers criticize the more physical, perhaps even cliched, Wallander that exists in the final pages of this book. But I don't think that's a fair criticism. In this, the seventh novel of the series, I believe we see Wallander's personal dissatisfaction—with his health, with the nature of police work, and with Swedish culture at large—boil to a typing point. His "action" is characteristically clumsy and irresponsible and serves to paint a portrait of a man at the end of his road—at least as far as he can see.
If there is a large criticism due to this book, it is the translation, perhaps the poorest in the series up to this point. When you read any book in a translated language, the translator will inherently impart their own sense of style and narrative. And while this still reads like Mankell, the exposition and language felt particularly redundant and sloppy. It's not an obstacle to enjoying the book, just something more noticeable than in previous installments (at least to my memory).
In the chronological narrative of Kurt Wallander, two novels remain. One Step Behind begs the question, what will remain of the man? Mankell is clear that the choice is Wallander's. And as fan of character, that concerns me. -
Quando un libro non ti piace, lo trascini con noia riservandogli il tuo ultimo tempo libero, imponendoti di arrivare alla fine magari per il solo desiderio di non lasciarlo incompiuto. Ma se un libro ti piace, e ti piace veramente, lo coccoli, lo cerchi al primo minuto libero che hai, ti ritrovi a leggerlo a tarda notte con le palpebre cascanti realizzando che la cosa non ti pesa affatto, lo pensi quando lo chiudi, e lo ricordi, lo ricordi sempre. Ecco, questo è un libro che mi è piaciuto immediatamente, totalmente, dalla prima all'ultima pagina: mi si è infilato sotto alla pelle, con tutta la sua angoscia, e non se n'è andato più via. Sopra le mie aspettative tra l'altro, perchè tutto avrei immaginato tranne che questo Mankell mi avrebbe fatta impazzire così!
Cosa manca a "Delitto di mezza estate?" Risposta semplice: non manca nulla! C'è una paurosa storia thiller in primo piano, che si apre con tre giovani ritrovati assassinati all'interno di una riserva naturale in un bosco della Scania, prosegue con l'assassinio di un collega del protagonista, (fatto fuori perchè sapeva qualcosa che non avrebbe dovuto sapere) e di altri personaggi e si conclude con...meglio non dirlo. Ma quel filo di sottile tensione, di angoscia papabile, di agguato dietro l'angolo è sempre presente. C'è un'ottima caratterizzazione dei personaggi, a partire dal commissario Kurt Wallander, un duro infaticabile, sague freddo, memoria infallibile, coraggio inesauribile, e senza tralasciare l'assaassino, un lucido pazzo il quale colpirà le persone che gli sembrano felici e appagate dalla vita...perchè? C'è il tentavo di porre l'accento e di puntare il dito contro una società, quella svedese, deprimente e insoddisfatta, una società dove sempre più persone hanno la sensazione di sentirsi inutili, dove la violenza sta diventando gratuita e inevitabile, dove la corruzione pare penetrare in maniera spicciola in ogni ambiente. C'è quell'atmosfera, tra il bianco e il grigio, di pioggia triste e di malinconia malcelata, o al contrario di un'apparente tranquillità sotto il sole d'agosto, dove nulla sembra accadere e in realtà accadono molte cose. Cose pericolose. Con quella onnipresente viscida sensazione che a Wallander sfugga sempre qualcosa, qualche frase ascoltata e considerata poco importante, qualche dettaglio essenziale ma fuggito alla mente. C'è una buon dosaggio fra parti dialogate e parti narrate, fra passaggi di riflessione e passaggi di azione, c'è uno stile fluido che rende la lettura scivolosa e piacevole (ad eccezione del "lei" tradotto sempre col "tu" per mantersi fedele all'orginale, dato che in Svezia tutti si danno del tu...forse avrei adottato una scelta traduttiva diversa ma questo aspetto non è da ostacolo alla lettura, ci si abitua presto).
Nemmeno il fatto che l'assassino non sia uno dei personaggi noti (come di solito piace a me) ha reso meno il mio amore per questo libro. E il finale è stato una vertiginosa corsa all'ultima riga, esaltante, appagante, bellissima!
Insomma, thiller d'ottima portata e angoscia a portata di mano. Lettura gustosissima! -
Außergewöhnlich
Mankell ist mit diesem Buch ein ganz großer Wurf gelungen. Einerseits steht Kurt Wallander, der irgendwie liebenswerte und gleichzeitig unerträgliche aber immer 100% einsatzbereite Polizist. Fast ist man versucht zu sagen, wie üblich steckt Wallander in seiner Midlife Crisis. Und wie üblich steht er einem Verbrechen gegenüber, das eigentlich über Wallanders Grenzen hinausgeht.
Wer Mankells Wallanderreihe kennt, weiß dass dieses Strickmuster zwar immer wiederkehrt, dass die Bücher dennoch unterschiedlicher kaum sein könnten. In diesem Buch wird die Ystader Polizei von einem Geisteskranken auf eine harte Probe gestellt. Minutiös plant dieser kaltblütige Morde die abscheulicher kaum sein könnten. Wie findet man einen Menschen, der offenbar darauf abzielt Menschen in deren größter Freude den Garaus zu machen? Und was wusste Wallanders Kollege Svedberg, der ebenfalls Opfer dieses Täters wurde. Was hatte dieser herausgefunden, das ihn das Leben kostete? Dies sind die zentralen Fragen die es zu klären gilt.
Unschwer kann man sich ausmalen, dass es eine unglaublich gute Story ist. Ebenso schafft der Autor es in diesem Werk sprachlich absolut zu überzeugen. Die Darstellung des Antagonisten ist sehr gut gelungen. Es gibt rein gar nichts an diesem Werk auszusetzen, außer vielleicht, dass man das Buch nicht aus der Hand legen kann. Seien Sie gewarnt, wer damit beginnt, hört nicht auf, ehe er den Umschlagdeckel zuschlägt weil das Buch fertig gelesen ist.
Mankells bester Wallander-Roman. -
Hacia tiempo que no disfrutaba enganchado así a un libro. Recomendado a los que les guste la novela negra
