- This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
- ASIN : B01MY54W9Q
- Publisher : Vintage Digital, Publication date : October 5, 2017
- Marlaine Delargy (Translator)
- Print length : 401 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1473524903
- Book 2 of 2 : Fredrik Welin
Synopsis ((Amazon)
LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018
The final novel from the bestselling author of the Inspector Wallander mysteries
Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire.
Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself.
My Take
Coming into this book, I am already familiar with Henning Mankell as the creator of Kurt Wallander but I am not sure that, despite having seen two television series based on those books, I have read many of them.
I am reading this book for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction Reading Group.
I wasn't aware that this book was the second in a series, but the first was written 8 years earlier. What I have noticed is that his most recent book was written 3 years prior to this one, and that Mankell died from cancer in 2015 and this one was published posthumously two years after his death.
While I was reading this book, prior to knowing all of the above, I was constantly wondering why Mankell had written it. It is not really crime fiction although at least one crime had been committed. Fredrik Welin's house was burnt down and he escaped death narrowly. Later it seems that there is an arsonist at work, as other houses are also burnt down, The puzzle of who the arsonist is is eventually solved.
But there are other issues too: his relationship with those around him, how he survives now his house has gone, why he stopped practicing as a doctor, his strange relationship with his daughter.
If I was answering my own question, what is on the author's mind? I would answer that Welin is approaching 70, and he is thinking about life, death, effects of age, love and relationships, and I think Mankell is facing the same issues himself, but we now know that he was dying of cancer.
It is far from Henning Mankell's best book but it certainly make you think. Read more about him on Wikipedia.
My rating: 4.4
I've also read
THE PYRAMID
THE MAN FROM BEIJING
5.0, THE FIFTH WOMAN
4.5, AN EVENT IN AUTUMN
Books by Henning Mankell (Fantastic Fiction)
1. A Bridge to the Stars (1990)
2. Shadows in Twilight (1991)
3. When the Snow Fell (1996)
4. The Journey to the End of the World (1998)
0. The Pyramid (2008)
1. Faceless Killers (1991)
2. The Dogs of Riga (1992)
3. The White Lioness (1993)
4. The Man Who Smiled (1994)
5. Sidetracked (1995)
6. The Fifth Woman (1997)
7. One Step Behind (1997)
8. Firewall (1998)
9. Before the Frost (2004)
9.5. An Event in Autumn (2014)
10. The Troubled Man (2011)
Wallander's First Case (2014)
1. Secrets in the Fire (2000)
2. Playing with Fire (2002)
3. The Fury in the Fire (2009)
aka Shadow of the Leopard
The Return of the Dancing Master (2003)
Chronicler of the Winds (2006)
Depths (2006)
Kennedy's Brain (2007)
The Eye of the Leopard (2008)
The Cat Who Liked Rain (2008)
The Man from Beijing (2010)
Daniel (2010)
The Shadow Girls (2012)
aka Tea-Bag
A Treacherous Paradise (2013)
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