My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ouch, I hate to say this BUT...
A very hard hitting and exceptionally violent murder story. OK, that will draw the reader in straight away. It is set in Sothern Sweden and the year is 1990. Inspector Wallander of Ystad Police Department must find the savage murderers of an old age couple on their isolated farm. The whole thing is very compelling.
As Wallander digs deep into the mystery we go on all sorts of twists and turns. It is splendidly written and I would advise anyone to read these Wallander stories.
I do, however, have one big axe to grind with this particular story. I obviously can’t say too much because of spoilers. The writer Henning Mankell focuses on a very emotive and much-discussed subject. It is commendable and brave to do this. However, I also wished the plot was not watered down by a counterplot of the opposite angle. It always happens that this type of subject must have a compulsory or secondary issue. It has to be brought in. It spoilt the story for me. I felt it was trying to appease the PC brigade. It is just a personal opinion of what was a rather well-written story. That is why I only gave an average mark despite the superior writing ability of Mankell's very good stories.
