Firewall

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Vintage September 9, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1400031532
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1400031535
• Book Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 10.6 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
In the sixth Kurt Wallander book to appear in English (One Step Behind, etc.), Mankell proves once again that spending time with a glum police inspector in chilly Sweden can be quite thrilling. In the small town of Ystad, a pair of seemingly random events take place within a matter of days: two teenage girls with no apparent motive brutally beat and stab a taxi driver to death, and a remarkably healthy man checks his bank balance at an ATM and then collapses dead on the sidewalk. After two more odd murders, Wallander becomes convinced that the incidents are all connected. The recurring clues demonstrating the vulnerability of society in the electronic age remain just outside of the Luddite inspector's understanding. But once he detects a conspiracy to collapse the world's financial infrastructure on a specific date, Wallander, whose position at work is already imperiled, ignores office politics and protocol to stop the would-be revolutionary. Although Wallander and his investigative team are forced to work at a dizzying speed, the pace of the book is just right, doling out new leads and intrigues right when they're needed. The only shortcoming in this otherwise smartly written mystery is that too many of the most perplexing clues discovered by Wallander are dismissed as red herrings or coincidence. Overall, however, Mankell's ambitious endeavor to combine large themes with small-town murder is a notable success.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Associated Press
Wonderful! Police procedural with personal texture. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
Henning Mankell is one the finest mystery writers in the world. He understands plotting, the building of tension and the pacing of a story. In terms of craft, he is right up there with P.D. James. Mankell's talent as an author explains why a series of books about a gloomy, middle aged detective from a small town in Sweden has developed an international following. The one problem with such a strong writing talent is that it sometimes allows an author to camoflouge a weak and unbelievable plot line. Kurt Wallander is a detective in small town Sweden and yet he stumbles onto a conspiracy with world wide implications. The scale of this conspiracy is far too great for Wallander's provincial world. For this novel to work, it requires more than virtuoso writing. The scale of the crime must fit in the scale of the hero's world. This is a very well written crime novel but in the end, I found it unbelievable. Comment | | (Report this)