The Fifth Woman

A Kurt Wallander Mystery

By: Henning Mankell, Steven T. Murray - translator

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

In an African convent, four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered, and the death of the unknown woman is covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is baffled and appalled by two strange murders. Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and bird watcher, is impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch behind his secluded home, while the body of a missing florist is discovered strangled and tied to a tree. The only clues Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men.

What ensues is a case that will test Wallander's strength and patience, for in order to solve these murders he will need to uncover their elusive connection to the earlier unsolved murder in Africa of the fifth woman.

©1996 Henning Mankell (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The darkest of Swedish noir." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Intricate plotting, chilling psychological divination, and thrilling police procedural." ( Library Journal)

First Swedish Adventure

Somewhat anticlimactic ending. First time reading about Wallander and Sweden. Had to acclimate to Swedish towns and personages. Indicates a great difference in lifestyle and characters. Toooo long!

excellent!

This was not Poirot, not my usual mystery read. But I gave it a chance not to be a bloody, mean, foul-languaged story. It was not one of those things. It caught me, and I really didnt want to put it down!

Make sure you are tuff enough to endure

Story was good but the author is relentless about presenting information overload. After getting into the story I felt like the author was pretty sure I couldn't process information so he fed the story to me in baby bites guided by s sledgehammer. Reminded me of why I don't enjoy Russian writers for the most part....but I will say the story was good and Dick Hill did his usual good job.

A good story told well.

Dick Hill's reading, reminds me this is a Swedish novel.It is not English or American. It is translated. A lot of nuance is lost in language translation. It is not 2009, but 1994. Think of policing outside mobile phones and DNA testing and computer profiles. Policing at the beginning of information available on computers, policing in a relatively small community, policing by people who still have a life outside policing, are explored in this story
The pace alters from the start where many avenues are considered to the closing very fast action..
The fast pace at the end had me going back, to listen again, because I had missed a piece. Without knowing, I tend to think in many ways that this story reflects the reports that police have to write. Often as I hear the story unfold, in my minds eye I see a written report. More I have the contact with the officer's thoughts and feelings as the case gathers momentum.
It is provocative, not only in questioning Justice, but also in questioning changes in society values.

Great story, delivery a little wanting

What made the experience of listening to The Fifth Woman the most enjoyable?

Henning Mandel weaves a complicated but enjoyable story into a mystery, not because you don't know whodunnit, but because you wonder how on earth Inspector Wallander is going to figure it out.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dick Hill’s performances?

After listening to Sean Barrett, who is brilliant, Dick Hill was very off-putting at first, but as the story developed the quality of the narration seemed less important than the excitement of the narrative.

Any additional comments?

Highly recommended.

The Fifth Woman

I am enjoying this book so much. its so interesting and the reader is brilliant. Thank God for good books.

Intriguing story

Good story' well paced and well written. Characterization is good plot is suspenseful. It makes. You want to read more by the same author.

good and bad

I have read all of Mankell's books years ago. I'm revisiting them via audio books and find the writing annoying in places, like the repetition of Wallander's thoughts and the police team meetings.. Reading the hard copy allows you to skim over the less interesting parts. This narrator takes some getting used to. His cadence is strange. And in some books, it sounds like he has a New York accent, which gives a strange tone to the story. All that said, The Fifth Woman is a very compelling story.

Very interesting - slow paced thriller

I concur with one if the other reviewers that the pronunciation on the Swedish names was a but challenging. And the pace was quite slow and deliberate. But I still wanted to know how the police figured it all out.

I disregarded the negative feedback

I’m glad I didn’t take to heart the negative comments of the story and of Mr Hill’s narration. I enjoy the Wallander series. I prefer Wallander pronounced with the “v” sound instead of the English “w”. The story was engaging and the reading easy on the ears. I am sorry that Mr Mankell isn’t alive to write more Wallander stories.