The much-anticipated return of Henning Mankell’s brilliant, brooding detective, Kurt Wallander.
On a winter day in 2008, Håkan von Enke, a retired high-ranking naval officer, vanishes during his daily walk in a forest near Stockholm. The investigation into his disappearance falls under the jurisdiction of the Stockholm police. It has nothing to do with Wallander—officially. But von Enke is his daughter’s future father-in-law. And so, with his inimitable disregard for normal procedure, Wallander is soon interfering in matters that are not his responsibility, making promises he won’t keep, telling lies when it suits him—and getting results. But the results hint at elaborate Cold War espionage activities that seem inextricably confounding, even to Wallander, who, in any case, is troubled in more personal ways as well. Negligent of his health, he’s become convinced that, having turned sixty, he is on the threshold of senility. Desperate to live up to the hope that a new granddaughter represents, he is continually haunted by his past. And looking toward the future with profound uncertainty, he will have no choice but to come face-to-face with his most intractable adversary: himself.
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Marilyn Stasio
Henning Mankell has spoken: Detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander has solved his last case. Making this news more bitter, the alcoholic, diabetic, antisocial and perpetually dour Swedish detective is at his gloomy best in The Troubled Man.
The New York Times
If you don't know anything about Henning Mankell, it's time to catch up. The works of this Swedish writer have been translated into forty languages and sold more than 30 million copies. The Troubled Man, his latest Kurt Wallander mystery, displays both his narrative powers and his gift of portrayal. On the surface, the story is simple: A retired naval officer disappears on his daily walk in a forest near Stockholm. Officially, Inspector Wallander has no part of the investigation, but the aging, irascible investigator thrusts himself into the hunt for a personal reason: The missing man is his daughter's future father-in-law. Haunted by his own memory losses and other problems, he wades ever deeper into a case which hints at Cold War espionage. A masterpiece.
Publishers Weekly
In Mankell's masterful 11th novel featuring Kurt Wallander (and likely the last in this internationally bestselling series, according to Sonny Mehta's note to the reader), the 60-year-old Swedish detective unofficially pursues a baffling case that's part mystery, part spy thriller. At the 75th birthday party for Håkan von Enke (the "troubled man" of the title), von Enke, a retired Swedish naval commander, tells Wallander about a 1980 incident involving an unidentified submarine that "invaded Swedish territorial waters." Von Enke was about to fire depth charges to bring the sub to the surface when higher-ups ordered him to abort. A few days after von Enke confides in the detective, he disappears; shortly after, his wife goes missing as well. As Wallander's quest for the truth leads him back to the era of cold war espionage, Mankell (Firewall) deftly interweaves the problems of Swedish society with the personal challenges of one man trying to understand what happened and why. 150,000 first printing; 5-city author tour. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
It’s an unforgettable finale . . . As satisfying for its emotional depth as its suspense . . . A gripping mystery.”
—People (four stars)“With his new Wallander novel Mankell ups his game and enters John le Carré territory. Not only does The Troubled Man widen the scope of the detective’s investigations into the world of international geopolitics and the relationship of Sweden to the U.S. and Russia, it is a work of genuine heft and substance, a melancholy, elegiac book that is thoughtful and perceptive about memory, regret and the unfathomability of human nature . . . Marvelously astute about behavior and motivation, Mankell has created in Wallander a shambling central character whose unconventional personality is at least as compelling as the crimes he investigates . . . We can feel Mankell consciously saying goodbye to these people [from Wallander’s past] and that he will regret not writing about them as much as we will miss reading about them. Which is more, really, than words can say.”
—Los Angeles Times
“An absorbing and exciting work . . . The unique nature of The Troubled Man is how its two concerns—the search for the missing ex-officer, and Wallander’s emotional history and physical health—run along parallel (sometimes conjoining) tracks . . . The resulting book is at once richer in personal detail and more suspenseful than either a work of strictly mainstream fiction or a simple police novel could be. Mankell remains in the vanguard of those writers taking the crime story back to its origins in the realistic novel.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Readers whose knowledge of Scandinavian crime fiction goes beyond Stieg Larsson know that it was Henning Mankell who jump-started what has developed into a twenty-year Golden Age. Mankell’s latest novel, the final volume in his Kurt Wallander series, represents a landmark moment in the genre comparable to the swan songs of Ian Rankin’s John Rebus and John Harvey's Charlie Resnick . . . Moving and oddly inspiring. An unforgettable series finale.”
—Booklist (starred)
“Wallander makes a riveting [11th] appearance . . . Though shivering in the winter of his discontent, Wallander will grip the reader hard . . . He is that rare thing: a true original.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“Masterful . . . Mankell deftly interweaves the problems of Swedish society with the personal challenges of one man trying to understand what happened and why.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
International praise:
“A magnificent finale . . . Wallander finds himself embroiled in John le Carré–style cold war machinations . . . It’s to be hoped that Mankell may be persuaded to revive his grumpy Nordic inspector . . . He’s far too good to lose.”
—Ian Thomson, Financial Times (UK)
“The Troubled Man delivers in full as a whodunit, as all the Wallander books do . . . [It] brings in all the elements his fans would hope for . . . The Troubled Man is a sorrowful—how could it not be?—but fully satisfying conclusion to a great series. No Mankell reader will think of missing it.”
—David Sexton, Evening Standard (UK)
“The best of Mankell’s books, without a doubt . . . A magisterial farewell.”
—El Periódico (Spain)
“By far the most touching Wallander novel.”
—Brigitte (Germany)
“The anchor of Wallander’s personality ensures that The Troubled Man operates as a good, gritty procedural . . . Mankell is undoubtedly a skilled writer with plenty of breadth, but it’s clear that his subtleties of character, plot, and pace achieve greatest expression in the Wallander series.”
—James Urquhart, Independent on Sunday (UK)
“With The Troubled Man, Mankell must have known he had to deliver something really special and that is precisely what he has done. This is a perfect valedictory novel if, that is, we believe Mankell won’t find some way to reactivate his hero . . . Fears the final appearance of a beloved character would be an anticlimax are quickly banished and it seems Mankell has worked hard to ensure his customary storytelling engines are firing on all cylinders, delivering one of the richest tomes in the Wallander canon.”
—Barry Forshaw, Daily Express (UK)
“Mankell has created a singular character with this policeman named Kurt Wallander, with whom he has reshaped the history of the European crime novel.”
—La Razón (Spain)
“The curtain falls for Kurt Wallander and it’s time to give him a standing ovation. If anyone doubted that he would become a classic, this final act proves it.”
—Qué Leer (Spain)
Library Journal
After his stand-alone historical Daniel, Mankell returns to his beloved detective Kurt Wallander in this tenth and possibly final installment of the best-selling series. Wallander delights in the birth of his first grandchild and enjoys the company of his daughter, Linda, but struggles with his role as an older and increasingly forgetful investigator for the Ystad Police. When the parents of Linda's partner go missing, Wallander finds himself deep in a decades-old mystery involving foreign spies, submarines, and Cold War politics. He strives to understand the complexities of the case while also dealing with the loneliness of old age, the sadness of friends' passing, and an alarming tendency to forget where he is and what he's doing. VERDICT Wallander might be aging, but Mankell is dead on in crafting an intricate plotline equal to the skills and insight of his famous detective. This is essential for fans of the series, and it succeeds as a stand-alone in the crowded field of dark, psychological Scandinavian thrillers. [150,000-copy first printing; see Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/10.]—Catherine Lantz, Morton Coll. Lib., Cicero, IL
Kirkus Reviews
Swedish detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander (The Pyramid, 2008, etc.) makes a riveting 10th appearance in the strange case of the spy who was and wasn't.
Wallander is 60 now. He's a diabetic, conceivably bipolar, and possibly on the cusp of Alzheimer's—though he's scared stiff to find out for sure. He's also terrified of dying and obsesses about it in a way that's both debilitating and downright self-abusive. And yet the core of him remains indestructibly, unalterably Wallander: brilliant, honorable, quirky and, above all, dogged. His daughter Linda, a policewoman now, is in a long-term relationship with a young financier, the son of a retired naval officer, whose sudden disappearance has caused official as well as familial consternation. No one can understand it. Von Enke was highly placed and deeply respected in Swedish military circles. Investigation, at first intense, proves unproductive and after awhile slides inexorably toward cold case status. But not with Wallander. In characteristic fashion, he continues to forage, unearthing a morsel here, a tidbit there, until he fashions some sort of bare-bones meal to chew on. Intermittently—attacked by the bleakness of what he construes as a future in which all that's left to experience is growing older—he's overwhelmed: "He would lie there in the dark and become panic-stricken." Being Wallander, however, he fights through to equilibrium. Could it be true, he begins asking himself, that national-security issues are involved? Could what happened to von Enke really be linked somehow to the bad old days of the Cold War? It takes a long time for Wallander to fully digest the information he's painstakingly gathered—and for one troubled man to finally understand another.
Though shivering in the winter of his discontent, Wallander will grip the reader hard. Flawed and occasionally exasperating, he is that rare thing: a true original.
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