The Man Who Smiled (Kurt Wallander, #4) in Scandinavian Mysteries

Jul 13, 2010 Jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, fiction, read-2010, novel, from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I nestled quite happily back into the world of another aging detective/adventurer, but was surprised to see how much I'd missed by skipping (due to the book being unavailable at the library) the third Wallander book. This book opens with a depressed Wallander stalking the beaches outside Skagen, preparing to turn over his badge and call it quits forever. In fact, the very day that he returns to Ystad to retire for good -- his desire to be a policeman having died when he shot and killed a man in ...more

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Dec 30, 2009 Judi rated it really liked it

My first finish of the decade!

This is one of my preferred Wallander books. The action is local, clean, logical in progression and has interesting characters. I think this is one of the few Wallander stories where we don't hear from the antagonist's voice/POV. Mankell hasn't spent a lot of time on that in prior stories, but there are usually some segments told from the killer's POV in many of the other books.

Here are a couple things about the Mankell policiers that I find refreshing. First, not e ...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Lori rated it it was amazing

This is the first Kurt Wallander mystery that I've read and I can say with pleasure that we will have a long relationship as I eagerly read through the rest of this excellent series by Henning Mankell. Even more joy when I think that I can see these mysteries dramatized on PBS in "Masterpiece Mystery!" starring Kenneth Branagh. In this novel Kurt Wallander has just returned to the police force after a one year absence to deal with the emotional reprecussions of killing a man while on duty. Nobod ...more

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Apr 26, 2010 Karen rated it really liked it

Intricately plotted with plenty of personal angst from Kurt Wallendar, the Swedish policeman hero. Excellent!

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Aug 02, 2009 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries

This is the story that introduces ann Brit and gives us more background on Kurt's troubled past. ...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Marcele rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-copy, mystery, crime, fave-writers, read-in-2010, series, audiobook, read-2021

My love for Wallander only grows. Mostly because he a good character for being too human, have too many fears and doubts while, at same time, he's an excellent police officer because he want to be good in his job and mainly because he use his intellect to solve his cases.
This wasn't my favorite case, but this book marks the new Wallander and introduced one of my favorite characters in the series. Even if was a bad case this book would always have my love because of it.
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