The Man Who Smiled
After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself spiralling into an alcohol-fuelled depression. He has just decided to leave the police when an old friend approaches him for help investigating his father's suspicious death. Kurt doesn't want to know. But then his friend is found shot dead. Against his better judgment, he returns to work to head what may now have become a double murder case. But while Wallander is on the trail of the killer, somebody is on the trail of Wallander, and closing in fast.

"Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended."
Observer

"The real test of thrillers of this kind is whether you want to spend more time in the detective's company. I certainly do."
Independent

"Mankell is a powerful writer."
Independent

"Absorbing, chilling and dripping with evil atmosphere."
The Times

The Fifth Woman
Inspector Kurt Wallander is home from an idyllic holiday in Rome, full of energy and plans for the future. Autumn settles in, and Wallander prays the winter will be peaceful. But when he investigates the disappearence of an elderly birdwatcher he discovers a gruesome and meticulously planned murder - a body impaled in a trap of sharpened bamboo poles. Then another man is reported missing. And once again Wallander's life is on hold as he and his team work tirelessly to find a link between the series of vicious murders.

"Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended."
Observer

"Sweden's lord of criminal misrule."
Independent

"By far the best writer of police mysteries today."
Michael Ondaatje

"The real test of thrillers of this kind is whether you want to spend more time in the detective's company. I certainly do."
Independent

Faceless Killers
One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. Wallander's life is a shambles. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, and even his ageing father barely tolerates him. He works tirelessly, eats badly, and drinks his nights away in a lonely, neglected flat. But now Wallander must forget his troubles and throw himself into a battle against time.

"An exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth and suspense."
Margo Kaufman, Los Angeles Times

"Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended."
Observer

"Mankell is in the first division of crime writing."
The Times

"The novels become a compulsion - one reads them all."
Daily Telegraph

Sidetracked
Midsummer approaches, and Wallander prepares for a holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his ageing father will cope without him. But his summer is ruined when a girl commits suicide before his eyes, and a former minister of justice is butchered in the first of a series of apparently motiveless murders. Wallander’s hunt for the girl’s identity and his furious pursuit of a killer who scalps his victims will throw him and those he loves most into mortal danger.

"Wallander's investigations are perfectly judged to create a thrilling mood of growing tension culminating in a satisfying climax."
The Times

"Wonderfully bleak thrillers...somehow unremitting and gripping at the same time."
Sean French, Independent

"Mankell could turn you to crime."
Daily Telegraph

"Mankell is one of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended."
Observer

Firewall

Stopping to use a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead. A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenage girls. Quickly apprehended they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without trace. Soon afterwards, a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery. Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked - somehow. Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to loose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace. Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move and Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them.

"Henning Mankell is in the first division of crime writing."
The Times

"Kurt Wallander is right up there with Ian Rankin's John Rebus."
Waterstone's Books Quarterly

"A master of atmosphere and suspense."
Los Angeles Times

One Step Behind
It is Midsummer's Eve. Three young friends meet in a wood to act out an elaborate masque. But, unkown to them, they are being watched. Each is killed by a single bullet. Soon afterwards, one of Inspector Wallander's colleagues is found murdered. Is this the same killer, and what could the connection be? In this investigation, Wallander is always, tantalisingly, one step behind.

"Perfectly judged to create a thrilling mood of growing tension culminating in a satisfying climax."
The Times

"The real test of thrillers of this kind is whether you want to spend time in the detective's company...I certainly do."
Sean French, Irish Times

"Mankell could turn you to crime."
Daily Telegraph

"By far the best writer of police mysteries today."
Michael Ondaatje