The Man Who Smiled

By: Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson - translator

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

In this adventure from the pen of Sweden's master of crime and mystery, a disillusioned Inspector Kurt Wallander is thrown back into the fray when he becomes both hunter and hunted. Crestfallen, dejected, and spiraling into an alcohol-fuelled depression after killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Wallander has made up his mind to quit the police force for good. When an old acquaintance, a solicitor, seeks Wallander's help and later turns up dead, Wallander realizes that he was wrong not to listen.

Warily, he returns to work to head what may now have become a double murder case. A rookie female detective has joined the force in his absence, and he adopts the role of mentor to her as they fight to unravel the mystery.

©1994 Henning Mankell, translation 2005 Laurie Thompson (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Dark and moody, this is crime fiction of the highest order." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mankell is a master of the traditional arts of the crime novel, narrative pacing, and suspense." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
"Few of this genre's writers, few of any genre's writers, have been able to balance the ordinary and the grotesque with such literary dash and page-turning brio." (Boston Herald)

Obsessive Detective

I'm hooked on the Henning Mankell books about Kurt Wallander. The plot in this one is very complicated and touches on an evil practice that is probably more prevalent than most people realize. It's a good listen, even though the plot is a little too complicated for real life...or is it?

first reread of wallander

just brilliant to come back to Kurt w after finishing the series about 4 years ago and taking a break. it was better than I remembered, really wonderful to experience anew Mankell's natural prose and realistic inner monologues.

Confusion

For a while the detectives didn't know what they were dealing with. They hesitated to look into the higher ups of the town for any wrong doing. They found unbelievable cruilty.

Ridiculous

What bothered me to know end was the ridiculous loner trope near the end of the book. Whereupon the moderately intelligent protagonist suddenly stops using his brain during a crisis situation, and therefore, decides to leave his heavily armed team in the dark while he single handily goes alone into a a trap, or a situation where the odds are certainly stacked against him.

Wallander lives

Who decided that New York accents would work in a Swedish cop story? Otherwise: Nordic Noir. If I lived in the northern dark, I guess I’d be morose too. Funny how I’d never noticed before how often the male characters lose their tempers in Mankell’s books. It that autobiographical? But his police procedurals are great.

Good except for the end

It feels as if the author had had enough of the story and decided to finish somehow in the last few pages!

Good story, inadequate narrator

After watching the original Wallander series with Swedish subtitles and the Kenneth Branagh version and enjoying both, I decided to read one of the books. It delivered on the writing but not the narrator. His voice is lovely and modulated as the narrator and inside Wallander’s head, but his choices for some of the characters were almost unbearable. I had set it aside after chapter 7 a few months ago but took it up again,starting over, forgetting why I had stopped the first time. Ouch! I continued to the end but will avoid future titles with this reader. The translation seems a bit clunky too. I hate writing a negative review but appreciate them when trying to choose a title.

Another Great Mankell

An elderly lawyer is driving home in thick fog from a meeting with his most important client. He is anxious and upset. He has learned something for which he cannot keep silent. He fears the fog, he fears for his life. He reaches the crest of a hill and there in the middle of the road is what appears to be a man slumped in a kitchen chair...From there I was sucked into this great novel. I am listening to the Kurt Wallander novels in order. So far I have not been disappointed. They are masterfully plotted. The stories are complex and fresh, filled with commentary on a changing country and a changing way of life. Wallander is bruised and battered and brilliant. His supporting characters have flesh and they breathe. I am hooked. I cannot say enough good things about these excellent police procedurals.

Good story

Good listen. Well paced and interesting. Worth a listen if you can spare a credit.

A classic, mostly

Great characterization, strong Swedish setting, a convincing sense of the evils of the world and how weak we are when we try to change them. Although the plot structure sometimes exceeds the bounds of plausibility, this is storytelling of a high order. The reader on this recording tries too hard: characters tend to sniff, quaver and squeak. But when you get used to that, and begin to tune it out, the story comes through with steady hypnotic power. Highly recommended.