≡ PDF Gratis The Man Who Smiled Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell Laurie Thompson 9781565849938 Books

The Man Who Smiled Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell Laurie Thompson 9781565849938 Books

Download As PDF : The Man Who Smiled Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell Laurie Thompson 9781565849938 Books

The Man Who Smiled Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell Laurie Thompson 9781565849938 Books

How to Read Henning Manekell: Think Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)

These are not so much police procedurals as slow ruminations about changes in Swedish society after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the nature of crime in the new European order. These changes are recorded and assessed through the prism of Detective Kurt Wallander, the main character. The books are also deliciously constructed story and character arcs, drawn out over time.

The tone, pace and thought processes of Ystad Chief of Detectives Kurt Wallander are noir, constructed around the idea that age 50 is old. OMG! Mankell has never met perky Californians, for whom 50 is the new 30. Really. Cue the sound track to Wallander/Mankell's ruminations on old age, vicious, clever crimes, excessive drink, a wasted life, a critical father, fog fog fog, the ex-wife, unrequited love, understaffed police. Dum ta dum dum.

Friends have been appalled at the violence and dark tone (that would be the "noir") of the Swedish series on Netflix, similar to what's in his books, but there's a joke in the midst of all that angst, mayhem, evil and dysfunctional family relations -- and the actions of a depressed, mostly unarmed detective who habitually lies to his colleagues. Think Eeyore from "Winnie the Pooh," ever pessimistic. Then chalk up Eeyore points as you read (or watch). OMG! Fog! A blizzard like a hurricane! Wallander gained a few stones! He is depressed! He can't afford a new stereo system! OMG! Wallander's detective work is compelling and elegant, nonetheless ... and pretty soon, you start laughing. There's only so much middle age that one can take.

The author is brilliant, as are his books. Insights about the collapse of the Soviet Union, transformations of criminal activity in the post-modern world, etc. are striking, plus the guy can write. Mankell disclaims in interviews any resemblance to his main character, but the actual resemblance is between the author and Wallander's father, the critical, grumpy guy who could no more stop painting the same landscape over and over than Mankell could quit imagining and writing scenarios of stunning gloom.

The slow, slow, sloooow pace of "The Man Who Smiled" is enough to have you on the edge of your chair. When the action picks up at the end, you fall off. Having moved on to "Sidetracked," the next book in the series, I personally am smiling as the painted stranger sinks an ax into the spine of of a bureaucratic bad guy whose tastes run to very young women. Payback, Swedish style.


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The Man Who Smiled Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell Laurie Thompson 9781565849938 Books Reviews

After seeing the Wallender mysteries on TV, this is the first book in the series that I read. The writing is quite good, the character development is well above average, and the plot, though quite engaging, seems, like a lot of other mystery novels, a bit far-fetched (though I'm aware that such things do actually happen).

I will probably read other novels in the series and, readers of this review should know, I seldom give five stars. So four stars is pretty good.

The reason I didn't give five stars is that unlike some mystery writers such as Dick Francis, Michael Connelly, CJ Box, Paul Doiron, and William Kent Krueger, where I really come to enjoy the "company" of the main characters and can't wait until I can spend more time with them in the next novel, after finishing this book I didn't feel like I was "missing" Wallender and anxious to "spend more time with him."

Still, a pretty good book.
Okay, my fiancé in Sweden told me to read Mankell because his books are amazing. Well, I’ve been struggling for two months to get pulled into this book but it’s torture. I know he is supposed to be such an incredible author and maybe I picked a bad book of his to start with? Wallander just floats around this story popping in here and there and not really energetic or committed to doing anything but feeling depressed. It’s a real downer. I don’t have the heart to tell my fiancé though because he was so excited for me to read the Wallander series. I don’t see what makes Mankell more special than other crime writers. I was hoping for a real brain teaser like Christie or a crime adventure like Grafton or Peters... sigh.
I first became acquainted with Kurt Wallender through the BBC ‘Mystery’’ TV series starring Kenneth Branaugh. At first I found the central character dour and unappealing, and the setting, a stretch of Sweden coated with nothing but miles of wind-stirred sea grass, was equally depressing. A reviewer called it Eeyore’s Gloomy Place, a reference to the Winnie-the-Pooh books of my childhood, and I knew just what he meant.

But appearances are deceiving. Wallender, in contrast to his American and British counterparts in their police settings, is distinctly a horse of another color. For one thing, he is quiet, and contemplative to a fault. He is a long-time veteran of his profession – in his fifties – and his associates are similarly seasoned. They therefore approach their crime-solving chores with a minimum of fuss. They take the clues as they appear, and attempt to fit them together in a succession of scenarios, seeking always for consistency, but ready to entertain sometimes awkward leaps of logic. Mr. Mankell helps to keep us confused by occasionally making Wallender aware of wispy little non-sequiturs which he instinctively knows are of significance but remain outside the logic of his constructions. There are enough flashing lights and screaming sirens to remind us that this is, underneath, just another police procedural, but the gradual drifting together of the bits and pieces of the crime(s), as with the solution to a big jigsaw puzzle, is what maintains our interest.

In short, a thinking man’s mystery, and most refreshing.
How to Read Henning Manekell Think Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)

These are not so much police procedurals as slow ruminations about changes in Swedish society after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the nature of crime in the new European order. These changes are recorded and assessed through the prism of Detective Kurt Wallander, the main character. The books are also deliciously constructed story and character arcs, drawn out over time.

The tone, pace and thought processes of Ystad Chief of Detectives Kurt Wallander are noir, constructed around the idea that age 50 is old. OMG! Mankell has never met perky Californians, for whom 50 is the new 30. Really. Cue the sound track to Wallander/Mankell's ruminations on old age, vicious, clever crimes, excessive drink, a wasted life, a critical father, fog fog fog, the ex-wife, unrequited love, understaffed police. Dum ta dum dum.

Friends have been appalled at the violence and dark tone (that would be the "noir") of the Swedish series on Netflix, similar to what's in his books, but there's a joke in the midst of all that angst, mayhem, evil and dysfunctional family relations -- and the actions of a depressed, mostly unarmed detective who habitually lies to his colleagues. Think Eeyore from "Winnie the Pooh," ever pessimistic. Then chalk up Eeyore points as you read (or watch). OMG! Fog! A blizzard like a hurricane! Wallander gained a few stones! He is depressed! He can't afford a new stereo system! OMG! Wallander's detective work is compelling and elegant, nonetheless ... and pretty soon, you start laughing. There's only so much middle age that one can take.

The author is brilliant, as are his books. Insights about the collapse of the Soviet Union, transformations of criminal activity in the post-modern world, etc. are striking, plus the guy can write. Mankell disclaims in interviews any resemblance to his main character, but the actual resemblance is between the author and Wallander's father, the critical, grumpy guy who could no more stop painting the same landscape over and over than Mankell could quit imagining and writing scenarios of stunning gloom.

The slow, slow, sloooow pace of "The Man Who Smiled" is enough to have you on the edge of your chair. When the action picks up at the end, you fall off. Having moved on to "Sidetracked," the next book in the series, I personally am smiling as the painted stranger sinks an ax into the spine of of a bureaucratic bad guy whose tastes run to very young women. Payback, Swedish style.