Faceless Killers
Author: Henning Mankell
Publisher: Vintage Books, paperback, 298 pages
Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
The Author
Henning Mankell, at the time of this volume’s publication, was the prize-winning and internationally acclaimed Swedish author of the Inspector Wallander Mysteries, popular throughout Europe. Eventually, there were film and T.V. adaptations of his Kurt Wallander novels. He was a left-wing political social activist, and devoted much of his time to working with Aids charities in Africa, where he was also director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. He was married four times. His last wife, Eva Bergman, is the daughter of film director Ingmar Bergman. Mankell died on 5 October, 2015.
Kurt Wallander is the protagonist of this novel. He is a police inspector at Ystad, in southern Sweden. Wallander is separated from his wife Mona, and alienated from his daughter Linda. He comes across as a workaholic, and neglects his health—eating too much fast food, not getting enough sleep, and sometimes drinking too much. He feels guilty about not visiting his dad often enough, there is tension between them, and he communicates with his sister who lives in Stockholm only occasionally.
Wallander and other police officers work together to try and solve the brutal murders of a farm couple, Johannes and Maria Lövgren. The last word Maria uttered before she died was “Foreign.” Wallander questions Lövgren’s farm neighbours, the Nyströms. However, they are unable to share many helpful leads. Wallander and the other police team members are concerned that the media will blow things out of proportion if they discover the murderers are foreigners—they are worried that such information would play into the interests of far right political organisations and individuals opposed to immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
In the meantime, another murder is committed, someone has killed a Somali man. Wallander has a “hunch” about a former policeman who retired early. After Wallander’s surveillance of him, and his association with another chap, the Somali murder is solved relatively quickly. Both of them had connections with far right organisations. Once again the police are worried about how the media would cover the murder, and if their coverage would negatively stereotype the police as having far right political leanings.
Wallander continues his investigation of the Lövgren murders, with the assistance of other police personnel. They discover that Johannes Lövgren had lived a rather secret life unbeknown to his neighbours, the Nyströms. During World War II, he had made a lot of money selling meat to the Germans. He also had an affair with Ellen Magnusson. Eventually, the police discover, after continuous denials, that Ellen and Johannes had a son, Erik Magnusson. Later, after incorrectly suspecting them, they discovered that neither Ellen nor Erik had anything to do with the Lövgren murders.
Wallander and other police personnel spend more time hoping that the discovery of a Citroën car would lead them to the murderers. After coming to so many dead-ends in the investigation, Wallander is getting very discouraged and almost ready to give up. Time passes, and nothing significant happens. Then, working with a bank employee, a wee bit of information motivates Wallander that might help in solving the murders. I encourage readers to check out the novel in order to discover how it ends.
