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Title: The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallendar Mystery by Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson ISBN: 1-56584-787-3 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Bit different from a normal Mankell
Comment: Henning Mankell is the author of a number of police procedurals set in Sweden with a hero called Inspector Kurt Wallender. Most of the books are slow moving with most of the interest arising from the sub plots related to Wallenders life. Generally unexciting stuff, his conflicts with his irritating father, and the general problems and anxieties of a middle aged man. The strength of the books is the sense of their Swedishness and the realism of police matters.
This book is odd in that instead of the usual rather dull plot the hero heads of to Latvia, enters the country illegally on a false passport, steals car, assaults the local Lativian police, falls for a local damsel in distress and we have the plot elements which would normally be associated with an American film starring Tom Cruise. In the rest of the books the most action one would expect is for Wallender to be slightly overcharged for some herrings.
The feeling after reading the book is rather like buying the New York Review of Books and finding that it has suddenly got pictures of page three girls from one of Rupert Murchoch's publications through it. Quite disconcerting.
Never the less like any mystery thriller, one is looking at entertainment rather than emerging with a new vision of the world so that such things matter not. Still probably not as good as his other books which one reads with a sort of solid comfort.
Rating: 2
Summary: most disappointing of the series
Comment: This is the weakest of the six books I have read in the series. The translation into English is flat and the language drab. Usually, the element of mystery and suspense is stronger as is the character development of the detective Kurt Wallender and those surrounding his life. Here, the mystery lacks tension and at the end I hardly cared about the resolution. Also, there was little depth in the portrayal of Wallender or his personal circumstances. If you want to read two first rate Wallender mysteries, choose either One Step Behind or Sidetracked [they are quite similar in plot --and both are extraordinary mysteries].
Rating: 4
Summary: Eastblock mafia
Comment: The book is interesting partly because Mankell suggests that the roots of the present mafia lie in the blackmarket network of the old communist system, and partly because the text was written before the total collapse of the USSR.
It's a powerful book, the scene where the fascist police storm in and kill the opposition is frightening, realistic, and bloodthirsty. So is the difficulty of making contact with Baiba, since both are watched. And the ending: who are the good guys, and who are the bad ones?
But Mankell strains the the will to believe too often. Why should Wallender, with a fake Latvian pass, go so far south and then enter the country illegally on foot? Not very likely that Wallender would have survived the massacre and escaped the building, either. Nor can I believe that Wallender could have found his way through the police headquarters, into the archive, and out again so easily. In the end, Mankell gives away a bit too soon who the bad guys really are.
One thing is puzzeling. Wallender did not connect with Baiba in the end. So, in later novels, is it only in his imagination that Baiba is his distant girlfriend? Mankell, realistically enough, does not present us with a happy life for the Commissar!
This review is based on the German translation "Hunde von Riga".
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Title: Firewall by HENNING MANKELL ISBN: 1400031532 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Fifth Woman by HENNING MANKELL ISBN: 1400031540 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 13 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The White Lioness by Henning Mankell ISBN: 1400031559 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Sidetracked by Henning Mankell ISBN: 1400031567 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell ISBN: 1400031575 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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