Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers is the first book in the Inspector Wallander series by Henning Mankell. It is like no other crime novel that I have read. It is set in Sweden and this is integral to the book; Mankell is describing the deterioration of the Swedish culture throughout his story. Wallander is shocked at the violent murders that have taken place; in many other crime novels these would have seemed expected and run-of-the-mill almost.

Wallander as a character is a brilliant creation. In many ways he is the stereo-typical overweight, divorced police inspector. However, he is much more complex than that; you feel that his career has taken over his life yet he is still struggling to decide what life is all about and what he wants out of it. You get a real sense that he is not a detective that merely wants a result; he wants to try and understand why these brutal crimes are committed.

I will definitely read the other books in the series, Mankell really draws you in but the book is so much more than a mere page-turner.

It does not look nice outside!

I am up bright and early this morning; we still have to get up to let Alfie out for the toilet as he's still too small to last too long! Having fewer accidents though! So I am sitting in the kitchen on the lap top and the weather outside the window is horrible! The wind is howling and the rain is really heavy; the kind of weather that just makes you want to stop in all day! Unfortunately I have promised Mr S that I will take him out for breakfast this morning and we need to pop and get a couple of Christmas presents; so unfotunately we will have to go out in the rain!

Our area is really winding down for Christmas; there are a lot of students where we live, with the odd young couple and then people that have lived here forever. I love this time of year as all the students start packing up and going home for 4 weeks and it becomes lovely and quiet! On the whole it is not to bad living in an area like this but I do really love it when they all go home for a few weeks!

I have started Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell and it is really good; it is the first book in the Detective Wallander series and I am gripped already. I have been watching the new tv series with Kenneth Brannagh playing Wallander and that led me to investigate the books. I have to say that the series is really good but the books are much better; you get a much better sense of Wallander's character which you can't get from an hour long programme.