Coming in 2011: Wallander’s last case

God, Sweden sounds gruesome. After the rampaging success of the Steig Larsson thrillers, Henning Mankell, the Godfather of Swedish crime fiction, has written a new book. Kurt Wallander, Mankell’s morose and insomniac homicide detective, makes his first appearance for a decade. It will also be his last.

The Troubled Man is familiar ground for Mankell; familiar ground for Wallander. An unsolved disappearance, a savage murder and atmospheric Nordic woods, segueing into the themes of thoughtful detective fiction: friendship, betrayal and Europe’s gangrenous 20th century history. Kurt Wallander and George Smiley are fighting the same war albeit in different eras.

Unlike some Scandinavian writers, such as Per Pettersen in my opinion, Mankell’s stylistic poise survives translation. His prose’s quiet brilliance is reminiscent of Coetzee’s easy precision; and there is something persuasive and seductive about both at their best. Mankell’s plots aren’t too shoddy either. The descriptive passages and attentive structure provide long hits of suspense for those who won’t follow Mankell into demanding territory.