The Pyramid by Henning Mankell

In the beginning, everything was just a fog.

Or perhaps it was like a thick-flowing sea where all was white and silent. The landscape of death. It was also the first thought that came to Kurt Wallander as he slowly began rising back to the surface. That he was already dead. He had reached twenty-one years of age, no more. A young policeman, barely an adult. And then a stranger had rushed up to him with a knife and he had not had time to throw himself out of harm's way.

Afterward there was only the white fog. And the silence. 

-The Pyramid 

When readers first met Kurt Wallander in Faceless Killers, he was already middle-aged and divorced, well on his way to becoming the sad sack that we know and love. Glimpses of his past have always been interesting, but few and far between. With The Pyramid, a collection of short stories by Henning Mankell, we finally get a better look at how Wallander became the detective and the man that he is.

In the first story, which I excerpted above, Wallander is still a beat cop in the very early stages of honing his instincts when he stumbles upon his first homicide investigation. By the last, he's within a month of embarking upon the Faceless Killers case. Needless to say, there's a lot that goes on in the meantime. As a pretty big fan of the series, I found it utterly absorbing to watch the way he grew, both as a person and as a detective. He makes mistakes--big mistakes, potentially fatal mistakes--and both learns and doesn't learn from them. I think that by reading these stories, I really began to appreciate the continuity in Mankell's work. Both Wallander's flaws and strengths were apparent pretty early on, and it's neat to see the way Mankell returns to and builds upon them, especially given what we already know of Wallander from the novels. I am more eager than ever to read the novels that I've missed so far.

I particularly found the evolution of Wallander's relationship with his father fascinating. In seeing the progression of his father's dementia from Wallander's point of view, we share his anger and frustration, but also his fears. This is captured especially well in the title story, in which Wallander's father fulfills the dream of a lifetime in going to Egypt, which has unexpected ramifications in Wallander's life as well as in the development of his case. I think I will be more tuned in to their relationship as I continue to read the series based on what I now know of their history. 

Interestingly, despite the fact that the events in this book proceed all other Wallander stories chronologically, I think it is best enjoyed after having at least one of the novels. This is not meant to be an introduction to the character; it's more of a reflection, with themes that will most resonate with readers who are already familiar with the series. I do think Mankell perhaps went a little heavy on emphasizing the Swedish anxiety theme--which he also makes a note about in the forward--but I can't actually disagree with him as to its importance to the character and the series. I could have probably done with one fewer pointed aside from Wallander or another character on the subject, though. That having been said, I enjoyed this book thoroughly and accordingly raced through it pretty darn fast. I have a lot of books in the lineup now, but surely another Wallander book will have to pop up in the near future.

Up next: Finally tracked down Dracula, which has been an interesting reread so far.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

He could feel his stomach churning. I'm repressing things, he thought. Along with everything else I don't have time for. I'm searching for the slayers of the dead and can't even manage to pay attention to the living. For a dizzying instant his entire consciousness was filled with only one urge. To take off. Flee. Disappear. Start a new life.

He stepped onto the little dais and welcomed his audience to the press conference.

-Faceless Killers

An elderly farmer wakes up in the middle of the night, struck by the sense that something is wrong. Gradually, he hears the faint cries from his neighbor's home. He walks into the horrific aftermath of violence - a man dead, his wife hanging on by a thread. She makes it to the hospital, where she utters her last word: "Foreign."

Inspector Kurt Wallander is lead on the case, in the absence of his superior officer, Björk, who is on holiday. It's a devil of a case, with virtually no leads besides the woman's last word, the meaning of which makes Wallander uneasy - there has already been local trouble with the refugee camps, and he hesitates to pursue a course of action that could stir up more unrest. Meanwhile, he struggles with a host of personal issues: his recent divorce, his terrible diet, his father's deteriorating mental state, and the distant relationship he has with his daughter.

Interestingly, despite these issues, Wallander is not quite as morose as I found him to be in the later stories I've read. Instead, he's angrier. The one time he gets teary, he notes that he can't remember the last time he's cried (which, boy howdy, simply cannot be the case in the later books unless he has a truly lousy memory). It made me feel a bit worse for him, honestly, to see that he has become so miserable - of course, I think he, like a lot of characters (paging Dr. House), would not be nearly so interesting were he content.

I'm now even more excited to read the intervening books, and see exactly how events shaped Wallander into the detective he has been in more recent years. I am going to have to start tracking down the original Swedish sequence of books (they weren't released in order here) and putting things on hold at the library.

Up next: I've started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. While it's obviously not as engrossing as a mystery, I'm enjoying it so far. I also checked out a real grab-bag of books at the library, but I'll save those for another day.

One Step Behind by Henning Mankell

Wallander stopped in his tracks on the narrow footpath. In his mind he went back to the moment when he had stood in the doorway of the living room and first witnessed the devastation. Martinsson had been right behind him. He had seen a dead man and a shotgun. But almost at once he was struck by the feeling that something wasn't quite right. Could he make out what it was? He tried again without success.

Patience, he thought. I'm tired. It's been a long night and it's not over yet.

He started walking again, wondering when he would have time to sleep and think about his diet. Then he stopped again. A question suddenly came to him.

What if I die as suddenly as Svedberg? Who will miss me? What will people say? That I was a good policeman? But who will miss me as a person? Ann-Britt? Maybe even Martinsson?

A pigeon flew by close to his head. We don't know anything about each other, he thought. What did I really think of Svedberg? Do I actually miss him? Can you miss a person you didn't know?

-One Step Behind

Poor Wallander. At the start of One Step Behind, he's battling constant fatigue; he goes to the doctor only to be diagnosed as diabetic. He's ashamed by this diagnosis, disgusted by his own bad habits. He vows to make a change, only to have his plans for healthy living derailed by his discovery of a colleague's murder. Suddenly he's heading up the investigation, fantasizing about those little clumps of sugar floating in his blood and struggling to keep moving forward despite his ever-deteriorating health and subsequent gloominess. Of course, this is Wallander - gloominess seems to suit him.

Wallander realizes that his colleague's murder is tied to the disappearance of three young people, and from there things get complex. Mankell invents quite the intricate tale of murder and mayhem, and I enjoyed seeing Wallander having to suss the tiniest of details as he doggedly pursues answers in a case that presents question upon question. I think this story worked even better as a book rather than in televised form, and not only for the usual reason that the book presents a more detailed story. The plot of One Step Behind hinges on an important photograph, and I think things are much more mysterious if one can't actually see this photograph - otherwise it's much easier to solve the mystery, which in turn makes Wallander & co. look a bit thick.

Although One Step Behind was less ambitious in scope than the globe-spanning adventures of The White Lioness, I enjoyed it just as much. I am quite looking forward to reading more Wallander mysteries - not too much more to say as I hesitate to spoil any more of a mystery's plot than I have to. Also, I'm on my second day of winter break and I feel a bit too scattered to write up anything properly. Apologies for the brief and less-than-elegant post.

Up next: Flannery, by Brad Gooch, a biography of one of my hands-down favorite writers, Flannery O'Connor.

The White Lioness by Henning Mankell

He sat down on a rock, even though it was damp. All of a sudden his weariness and depression threatened to overwhelm him. With a sigh even he thought was pathetic, he decided he was as much at sea with his own life as he was with the search for Louise Akerblom's murderer.

Where do I go from here? he said to himself. I don't want anything to do with ruthless killers, with no respect for life. I don't want to get involved in a kind of violence that will be incomprehensible to me as long as I live. Maybe the next generation of policemen in this country will have a different kind of experience and have a different view of their work. But it's too late for me. I'll never be any different from what I am, a pretty good policeman in a medium-sized Swedish police district.

-The White Lioness

Those are the thoughts of Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander, a detective operating out of Ystad, Sweden. At that point in The White Lioness, poor Wallander has no idea how involved he will become in the ruthless violence of the story's villains, making decisions that cause him to even question his status as a "pretty good" cop.

It all starts as a missing persons case. Right away, just in his reaction to those circumstances, I realized that Wallander was a different sort of cop. He's not jaded, for one, not one of those world-weary policemen with a chip on his shoulder who's too smart for his own good. He's sick with worry over the case, especially because he has a hunch that it's not just a missing persons case - he has a gut feeling that it's murder. And he really, really doesn't want it to be.

Perhaps it's because he's Swedish, or perhaps it's just his personality, but Wallander is a remarkably human, relatable detective. He's not a genius, but he works hard and cares a lot - perhaps too much, for a cop. His work overwhelms his life, and he's crushed by the unrelenting strain of pushing through one terrible event after another. He cries a lot.

Not that I blame him, and that's part of the reason that I love him as a character. If I were handling a missing persons case turned murder investigation, which went on to have ties to ex-KGB agents and a South African hitman, I would be pretty upset as well. Wallander is a provincial cop, and he's really not equipped to deal with all of that. He does the best he can, which involves making quite a few mistakes. I found the novel all the more compelling for it.

The novel also goes for long stretches that don't involve Wallander at all, and focus more on characters navigating the political unrest of early 1990s South Africa. I found this part interesting as well - I studied that period in one of my favorite college courses - although I did miss Wallander during first extended passage set outside of Sweden. Mankell does an excellent job tying it all together, and I really was unsure how the good guys would be able to save the day.

I am absolutely looking forward to more Wallander books. I would definitely recommend them to mystery fans - although I know some people are not wild about sad sack characters, in which case you might want to steer clear. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, the BBC/Masterpiece Theatre Wallander series is also worth checking out - it definitely helped me to picture the Swedish seaside (which looks absolutely lovely). I myself am part Swedish, though I know next to nothing about the culture, so I appreciate Wallander for that reason as well.

Up next: I have quite a bevy of books to choose from at this point, but I think I'll go back to the YA well and try The Mysterious Benedict Society.

I Want To Read: The Wallander Series

I have been on a huge British mystery television kick recently: Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Cracker, and, most recently, Wallander. Wallander, which is has been the featured program on PBS's Mystery! these past two weeks, stars Kenneth Branagh (above) and is based on the books by Henning Mankell.

Wallander is a morose detective - he's gotten teary in both episodes so far, overwhelmed by the senselessness of the violence he's seen - operating out of Ystad, Sweden. He's not the sort of the detective who solves cases through brilliant epiphanies, but rather through steady, thorough policework. Accordingly, Wallander is not a fast-paced show. It's slow, and a bit sad, but quite engaging.

This is mostly due to the character of Wallander himself (and the wonderful, understated way Branagh has played him); accordingly, I'd love to start reading the Wallander books. Of course, the public television and public library demographics seem to overlap quite a bit, so they're on a long wait there. I'd love to buy them, but at thirteen bucks a pop, I think I'd be better off being patient. However, if your community has not caught on yet or you're interested in stimulating the economy, I think they look good.