Article first published as Book Review: The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell on Blogcritics.
The Man Who Smiled (Mannen som log) is the fourth instalment in Henning Mankell’s highly acclaimed Kurt Wallander series. The plot revolves around three murders and the figure of Alfred Harderberg, one of the richest men in Sweden.
Chronologically the book is set between October and December 1993, it picks up one year after the events narrated in the third novel in the series (The White Lioness). In the early pages of the book we learn that the lawyer Gustaf Torstensson is killed for he has found out too many secrets about the origins of the wealth and power of his only client Alfred Harderberg. The Swedish author writes this chapter from the point of view of Mr. Torstensson and this expedient gives to the reader a crucial insight about the story. It also gives us an advantage of many pages on Wallander and his team with regard to the investigation. When we finally meet Inspector Wallander, at the beginning of the second chapter, he is strolling on the sandy beaches of Skagen, in the north of Denmark. We learn that Wallander has been on sick leave for over a year, after he killed a man while on duty. Burdened by the sense of guilt, Wallander has come to question his future as a police officer. After 25 years in the force, he is ready to resign and start a new life. This is what he tells Sten Torstensson, a good friend of his and the son of the dead lawyer, who has come to Skagen to ask for Wallander’s help in solving his father’s murder. The police has archived the death as a car accident, but Sten is convinced otherwise. Wallander however can do nothing for Sten, he already considers himself an ex-police officer. A week later Wallander is back in Ystad. He has to sign some paperwork, say good-bye to his former colleagues and officially retire. He is ready for it, but then something happens and it changes everything. Continue reading »
On a winter snowy day, a life-raft is washed up on the shore of the small Swedish town of Ystad. Two dead bodies with bullet-holes in their chests are found inside the raft. From the start it looks like one of those cases that promise nothing but a severe headache for the police officer that deals with it. Inspector Kurt Wallander is called in to investigate the murders. The post-mortem indicates that the two bodies might be Russian or at least from one of the Baltic States. The year is 1991, a time of political turmoil in the former Soviet bloc, Russia is on the brink of a coup d’état and the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are all pressing for independence. Major Karlis Liepa, an officer of the Riga’s police department, is sent to Ystad to work with Wallander on identifying the two bodies. The same day he returns to Riga, Major Liepa is murdered, soon after Wallander is summoned there to help with the investigation. This is what happens in the first part of Henning Mankell’s the Dogs of Riga. The remain of the book deals with Wallander’s attempt to solve the murder of Major Liepa.