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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.7374
EAN num: 9781400031573
ISBN number: 1400031575
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: January 14, 2003
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: January 14, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 20600
Studio: Vintage
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
First in the Kurt Wallander series.
It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.
Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.
Amazon.com Review:
If you remember with pleasure those dark and gloomy Martin Beck mysteries by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, you'll be glad to plunge into the very first of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallender mysteries to appear in English. Wallender's personal life can occasionally seem more depressing than even a provincial Swedish detective should be asked to bear, but his investigative skills are strictly very first rate. And Mankell's story of the brutal murder of an elderly farm couple uncovers an unusual aspect of life in modern Sweden--a streak of fear and prejudice against the many newcomers from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe who have sought asylum there.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Faceless Killers is a mystery book about the investigation of a brutal double murder. Kurt Wallender, a Swedish police officer, is responsible for managing the search for the killer or killers. Recently divorced, with an estranged daughter and a borderline senile father, and a pretty severe drinking problem, Wallender tries to separate his personal struggles from the murder investigation.
Author Henning Mankell is a master of the detail. A murder investigation can be a dull, plodding affair. In Faceless Killers, the reader will sense the required doggedness of a successful homicide investigator. That is the unique feature of this book. Wallender is not a perfect man, nor is he cruel or haphazard. But he has to uncover the clues of the crime, inch by inch, lead by lead, until there is a conclusion.
Rated by buyers -
I liked the main characters and the story was interesting.
However, the last 20% of the book was not as creative and there wasn't any more character development. It seemed like a mad dash at the end to tie up the plot.
Rated by buyers 
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I really expected better, but I'm willing to give Mankell the benefit of the doubt. The language and pacing of Faceless Killers was so pedestrian that - for no other reason - I'm moving on without a pause to The Man Who Smiled. I'm moving on and hoping for a less plodding narrative.
With any book translated from another language, there's no way to be sure that the voice you hear is the one the author intended. However, my husband, whose grandfather came over from slightly north of Malmo, has actually studied the language. He tells me that Swedish has many less words in the dictionary than does English, where we've adopted words from every other language. This offers us far more subtlety in expression, but it doesn't quite explain the flat-affect, non-descriptive prose style that makes this book ultimately so unsatisfactory.
The pacing - which can't be attributed to translation - is also disturbing, in that the actual solution to the crime is presented as a virtual deus ex machina in the last ten pages.
Not my favorite. Hoping for better.
Rated by buyers 
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FACELESS KILLERS (1991) is a crime novel set in Sweden. At this time, many immigrants swarmed into the country without restiction. There were too many to be absorbed and temporary camps housed dozens of nationalities- many from recently freed Eastern Europe. Some abided by legalities for immigrants, but many disappeared and got by as aliens do. This book was translated to English some time ago, but its recent promotion in American bookstores is timely, given our own immigration debacle.
This Swedish detective story is barely recognizable subsequent to its American or British cousin. Police detective Kurt Wallender is so human- so recognizable- so without ego- so incapable of prominence- that the crimes seem to be solved by marginal characters and bits of luck. Most of my attention was focused on the anti-hero Wallender. He works very hard for few results. He's always doing rash things and getting hurt or falling ill. He gets caught driving drunk. He makes a pass at his married D.A. He admits his own father hates him. He's emotionally estranged from all family members. When his wife leaves him, he bursts into tears and begs her return. Even his action in arresting the murderer will make real cops shake their heads. He is no James Bond, but maybe he does represent a present day Euro-officer. The book isn't badly written. If you're looking for a real slice of life crime novel, this may be to your liking. However, I am so used to detectives being spectacular, I am unlikely to read another in the series. Kurt is just too underwhelming.
Rated by buyers 
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It's hard to solve the mystery. But, it's even harder to put the book down...
Imagine waking up during the middle of the night. You're awakened by a bad dream that tells you something is terribly wrong, awfully strange. You check your house and everything appears to be normal. You notice something peculiar about your neighbor's house- the same neighbor who is your best friend you share tea with every day. Once you enter the house, you wish you never entered. That's exactly what happened to one elderly Swedish farmer in Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers.
He discovers the scene referred to as a "slaughterhouse." His best friend Johannes Lovgren is dead and Lovgren's wife Maria is left to die. She is found tied to a chair with a noose around her neck.
It's a double murder mystery that is impossible to solve. There is no evident motive. Both Maria and Johannes are said to have no enemies and not much money. But, the victim has been brutally tortured and killed, while he wife has been left to die. The crime seems way too personal and gruesome to have been a random robbery.
When Maria eventually dies in the hospital after being in a coma, she gives detectives one clue with her last dying breath. "Foreign." Mankell's Faceless Killers addresses political and national issues that extend far beyond a murder mystery of country couple. In a country full of foreigners, Maria's clue doesn't help much. Mankell takes a murder from the domestic space to a national "international" realm. In a country with increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and crimes by "foreigners," the Lovgren murders touch a sensitive issue that parallels political problems in Sweden.
The detective called to scene is Kurt Wallander, a man with just as many personal troubles to solve. Although Wallander is a miserable man with horrible relationships, he gains the reader's sympathy and oftentimes empathy. Faceless Killers is not just a detective fiction with a murder to solve. It is an interactive work. Wallander takes the reader inside the workings of his mind and into his world of crime-solving as he tries to balance bumpy relationships with his father, ex-wife, and daughter.
Reading Faceless Killers, the reader is more inclined to learn what happens to Wallander than the answer to the murder mystery. Mankell's Wallander comes to life. He undergoes not only relationship problems, but also the struggles of everyday men. Wallander's journey through aging and weight-gain is equality a roller coaster as solving the murder. Mankell takes the reader into the mind of a police detective. Through very first person narrative and self-reflexivity, Wallander directly tells his readers how he is thinking. The minds and workings of a detective and a middle aged troubled man are puzzling as investigating the crime.
Going back to the action-packed murder plot, the investigation process takes a deep turn when Maria's brother comes forth with secret information no one knew. The truth of Johannes' double life comes forth. It is revealed that Johannes was not the faithful husband and modest neighbor everyone thought he was. His secret "other" life brings light to valuable clues that further Wallander's investigation of the murder.
Unlike Sherlock Holmes who is a know-it-all detective with surprising conclusions, Wallander lets the reader join in on the investigation process. The reader is included in details and each piece of the puzzle. The puzzle is the answer to who committed the horrendous crime and the answer to Wallander's quest for a better life.
Faceless Killers is a must read for those curious minds who want more than a simple murder mystery. Mankell provides a smooth effortless reading that provokes the intellect (solving the crime) and emotion (empathizing with Wallander).
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