No More Wallander

As it so happens whenever a new mystery in which I am looking forward to arrives, I have to immerse myself in its pages until the very end.  As the case may be, the pace in which I read is no longer the rapidfire of youth, but rather a slower one.   Nonetheless, three days for a book still seems a big too long for me- I much preferring to finish it all in one go.  Alas, gone was that fun night when I read Of Human Bondage (in small print no less!) in eight hours.   Even the miniscule type of the Modern Library edition of The Tale of Genji at over a thousand plus pages could not deter me from finishing it in seven days!  Those were the days.

After that digression, I have to say with some sadness that I finished the final book in the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell.  Having waited two years for this to be released in English (I not knowing how to read Swedish despite my seeming familiarity with its speech patterns), I did and did not want to go through this so quickly.  But it was and is a compelling book.  As I knew that the end would come in some form for the detective whom I had a good deal of fondness for, it was with great hesitation that I read the last few lines.   And read it a few times, those few lines.  I won't go into that here to give away the plot, but it is a good ending to a great series by a superior author. (The only negative comment I have is related to the book cover, which has absolutely nothing to do with the story and is an unattractive and extrenely amateurish use of metal type)

In the afterward, Mr. Mankell recounts how it is unnecessary to find similarities in the work with real life, and that at times these kinds of stories with references to people and places that are in the public eye and the periphery of one's vision (my interpretation of his words) is even more powerful (he uses the word "superior") to historic fiction.  I am inclined to believe him.