The White Lioness (Kurt Wallander Series #3)

by Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson (Translator)

Overview

Inspector Kurt Wallander returns in the second of Henning Mankell's award-winning, internationally best-selling detective series, this time to investigate a horrific crime in his Scandinavian homeland somehow linked to a troubled apartheid-era South Africa. When the tenacious sleuth's search for the truth behind the execution-style killing of a Swedish housewife uncovers a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela, Wallander finds himself in a tangle with the South African secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595586117
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	09/01/2018
Series:	Kurt Wallander Series , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	58,941
File size:	790 KB

About the Author

Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander mysteries are global bestsellers and have been adapted for television as a BAFTA Award–winning BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh. Mankell was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association’s Macallan Gold Dagger and the German Tolerance Prize, among many others. He divides his time between Sweden and Mozambique.

Hometown:

Mozambique, Africa

Date of Birth:

February 3, 1948

Place of Birth:

Stockholm, Sweden

Education:

Folkskolan Elementary Shool, Sveg; Högre Allmäna Läroverket, Borås

Editorial Reviews

Like his countrymen Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Mankell writes mysteries that connect crimes in Sweden to the rest of the world. Faceless Killers (1997), the first of his books about provincial police inspector Kurt Wallender to appear here, involved Turkish immigrants and Eastern European villains. This novel, written in 1993, links the murder of a real estate agent in Wallender's town of Ystad to South Africa, where Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison, and to Russia, where the KGB is busy planning Mandela's fate. Wallender is a classically dour but dedicated policeman whose progress through his cases is a combination of hard slogging and lucky breaks. But several factors render this effort less compelling than its predecessor. The first is the Day of the Jackal syndrome: we know that Mandela wasn't killed by KGB agents or white Afrikaner terrorists, and that knowledge makes the suspense writer's job even harder. Second is the book's length--560 pages is a long haul, even with three exotic settings and dozens of important characters. Third might be Thompson's translation, which--unlike Steven T. Murray's work on Faceless Killers--often seems excessively deadpan. But Wallender is still a solid character, whose strengths and weaknesses are utterly credible, and Mankell (who now lives in Mozambique) knows how to make the most of his virtues. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The second in a series chronicling the adventures of Sweden's Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander (Faceless Killers, 1997), and a Viking-sized saga it has grown to be. An ordinary Swedish housewife suddenly disappears. Her neighbors, friends, husband, all are mystifiedþespecially since she led such an exemplary life. But sure enough, a few days later, she's found brutally murdered, her body stuffed into a well. There's no obvious suspect at first, but then Wallander learns of a stalkerþan excitable type whose interest in the attractive young woman was apparently not discouraged in the slightest by several firm admonitions to get lost. Now that she's dead, he can't be found in his usual haunts. The cops go after him, fully confident that it's a crime of passion they're dealing with, to be resolved only once the heavy-breather is taken into custody. Soon enough, they do catch himþcatch up with him, actually, since it turns out that he's only been away on holiday. He also has an alibi, one so iron-clad that Wallander has no choice but to write him off as a suspect. And so, what had seemed simple becomes complex and murky. Moreover, the international ramifications of the case just won't quit. Unexpectedly and uncomfortably, Wallander finds himself locked into an unsettling competition with the apartheid South Africa's secret policeþthe story is set in 1993þand also pitted against an ex-KGB agent. Wallander personifies the charmingly melancholy Scandinavian of lore and tradition. But 560 pages of this would hobble the pace, and dim the charisma, of just about any protagonist.

Kirkus Reviews

A first-class thriller.” —Margo Jefferson, The New York Times Book Review

“It is Wallander’s voice . . . that captures us.” —New York Times Book Review

“Mankell joins the worthy ranks of such past masters as Georges Simenon [and] Nicholas Freeling.” —The Wall Street Journal

“It is not hard to see why the Wallander books have made a particular impact.” —Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

Henning Mankell is a master of using the bleak landscape of Ystad, Sweden, to illuminate the temperament of his depressed and cautious detective, Kurt Wallander. Here Wallander is confronted with the murder, execution style and with no apparent motive, of a young realtor and pillar of the Methodist church. Wallander soon finds himself in a confusing tangle involving a ruthless ex-KGB agent and racist South Africans determined to prolong Afrikaner rule. Dick Hill translates Mankell's minimalist narrative style without flashiness and generates tension at the same time, an impressive feat. Hill seamlessly switches viewpoints and accents among Swedish, Russian, and South African characters with absolute believability, despite the clunky plot. A.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 07 - AudioFile