Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
Kurt Wallander is sent to a neighbouring rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been wandering all day in the movie Sidetracked. He arrives just in time to witness her ignite herself by dousing herself with gasoline. The following day, he is summoned to a beach where the previous justice minister of Sweden has been killed and scalped with an axe. The murder clearly fits the profile of a psychotic serial killer, and Wallander is desperate to catch him before he commits another crime. However, he faces a number of challenges in his inquiry, including a department preoccupied with World Cup soccer and upcoming cutbacks, a shaky long-distance relationship with the widow of a deceased cop, and a frightening obsession with the young girl who was killed.
Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
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A department distracted by the World Cup and the possibility of impending budget cuts, a shaky long-distance relationship with the widow of a murdered police officer, and an unrelentingly haunting obsession with the young girl who set herself on fire are a few of the challenges facing his investigation. Sidetracked is a gripping mystery that is sharpened by insightful social awareness. It is fascinating and perceptive.
Kurt Wallander is in charge of a team of detectives in an intriguing Swedish mystery as they work to investigate two crimes.
While the story’s mood is frequently melancholy due to the rain, personal concerns, suspicion that his girlfriend is seeing someone else, illnesses, old age, deaths, having to cancel planned vacations, lack of sleep, and Wallander’s new boss’s self-doubt, this atmosphere does not take away from the story.
Kurt Wallander is summoned to an old farmhouse at the beginning of the book by an older man who is upset about a young Jamaican girl who is loitering in his rape fields despite his repeated requests for her to leave. When Wallander tries to approach the young woman when he first sees her, she douses herself in gasoline and burned herself to death. There is arguably the no more painful way to pass away than by being burned to death, so Wallander and his team investigate why she seemed to want to kill herself and why she carried it out in the manner she did. This is why witches and Joan of Arc were burned, to cause them as much suffering as possible.
The farmer and Wallander are shocked, and Wallander is plagued by the memory of seeing this woman burn to death for the remainder of the novel. Who is she, and why would she murder herself in such a horrific way?
As if that weren’t enough, Wallander receives a call the very next day and goes to the beach where the body of Sweden’s former justice minister lies axed to death and scalped. The authorities are certain they are dealing with a deadly serial killer when they discover there has been another ax murder and scalping. To find out who is perpetrating these crimes and why the young woman killed herself, Wallander and the Ystad police will have their hands full.
One of the best thrillers I’ve read from Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series so far, this one is outstanding. It’s tense and eerie, and while the whodunnit may be obvious, then why isn’t always clear?
