Henning Mankell - The Pyramid

review by Maloclm on show 10th March
From the back cover: When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned forty, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night.

The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying; and learn the reason behind his difficulties with his father. These thrilling tales provide a fascinating insight into Wallander’s character, and demand to be read in one sitting. From the stabbing of a neighbour in 1969 to a light aircraft accident in 1989, every story is a vital piece of the Wallander series, showing Mankell at the top of his game. Featuring an introduction from the author, The Pyramid is an essential read for all fans of Kurt Wallander.

My review: I first started reading Henning Mankell’s Wallander books around the time the Steig Larsson Millennium Trilogy was released in English – the BBC were also showing adaptation of several of Mankell’s stories with Kenneth Brannagh as Kurt Wallander – and I was hooked on what has been termed the Nordic Noir genre. Henning Mankell decided after eight volumes of the gloomy, bad tempered, heavy drinking and depressive but of course brilliant detective – he sounds a bit like Rankin’s Rebus – to put together the ideas he had before the first novel – to show how Wallander went from a rookie to one of the leading Swedish fictional detectives.

Being short stories they are all a little different – but the style is similar – not surprisingly the first is Wallander’s First Case – set in Malmo – and he has just seen Mona, his future wife off on the hydrofoil ferry to Copenhagen – a short trip to the Danish capital. The story also introduces his eccentric father, a shambling artist who always paints the same picture, and who deeply resents his son being a policeman. In the entire series we never quite find out why but Kurt is left forever feeling guilty about not having given his dad enough time during his life – aren’t we all?

Wallander is in uniform in the story but eager to become a detective. As chance – or the author - would have it he is resting in his apartment when he hears a shot – his neighbour, a retired sailor, has apparently shot himself. The crime squad investigates and wonders what he, a uniformed officer, is doing there. He is almost brushed aside but after the apartment is burnt out in an arson attack he personally investigates the case and accredits himself well – his career as a detective has begun.

By the last of the collection of stories he has been married and separated from his wife Mona, had a daughter Linda and moved to the Ystad police department on the southern coast of Sweden and some miles east of Malmo. The Pyramid is the final story and is almost a full length adventure about a covert airplane flight which crashes on a drug drop. Wallander of course solves the crime despite carrying the emotional gloom, apparently of the entire nation on his shoulders!

Publisher: Vintage RRP £7.99 Amazon £4.90 Kindle £4.66
Malcolm Martland, Broadcast on Radio Scilly 107.9 FM Book Club, 10 March 2011.