The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallander Mystery

My interest was piqued when I read on the audible just released lists about Swedish author Henning Mankell. I read the publisher's summary and thought they looked interesting. I'd never read a Swedish author before, that I know of anyway, and thought why not give it a try. I've always found the Baltic history intriguing so decided to give Dogs of Riga a try as my first one. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and getting to know Kurt Wallander. It was a fun listen with with plenty of plot twists and turns. Henning writes a good story. I enjoyed hearing the descriptions of life in both Sweden and Latvia. You wonder sometimes what the citizens of both countries think about life there and it appears to have its challenges. I will look forward to listening to the other Mankell books on Audible.

I really enjoy the Kurt Wallander mysteries. This one was was a bit, okay WAY, overwrought at times. Happy I listened to it, but it had its weaker moments.

I can't wait to read Mankell's books. I would have liked to listen to them but Dick Hill's reading is awful. I'm sure the books are infinitely richer that what they seem.

Not sure if I will follow up with other books by this author. This was an ok story & kept my interest fairly well, but just not a grabber.

This is my second of the first three in the Henning Mankell / Kurt Wallander series. This one is actually the best of the first three by a decent margin.

I went ahead and purchased one of Audible's package deals which included the first three books in this series all at once.

As I said with my first review of "Faceless Killers", while this is definitely an improvement, it's still nothing great. Likewise, the narrator, Dick Hill was good, but he is so "white-bread", he's not the perfect fit here.

Granted, overall, this one is not bad, three Mankell / Wallander books is enough for me.

As a dedicated Kurt Walllender fan, I felt I knew what to expect in this book, just another in the excellent series. Wallender introspective, police procedure grindingly glacially, Sweden bleak and foggy. I was not expecting Latvia. Wallender is out of his never-very- comfortable comfort zone and spends much of the story in horror at getting himself embroiled in an illicit trip behind the iron curtain. Unlike some of the other, more procedural books, in this one he finds a depth of his own bravery and capacity for heroism that astounds him, and us.By the way, the trip to Latvia is off!! At least the treacherous cold war era Latvia Wallender navigates in The Dogs of Riga!!

Any book in this series is an excellent listen. Narrator Dick Hill adds a dimension to the character of the Swedes who people the books without endless annoying overacting and bogus accents. His reading of Wallender captures the world weariness and indecision of this very human character.

I used a credit for this book for reason of the other reviews written about it. It does have an excellent plot which moves well, although definitely not "fast." This book is not a "cliff hanger" nor a "page turner" but does an excellent job of providing the listener of a birds' eye view of police establishments in other countries. There seem to be more similarities than differences between our American culture and that of Sweden and Lithuania. The story opens with good action and the author proceeds well through the novel to the action which happens at the end. Well thought out plot that moves well. My personal preference is for more "action" and more "cliff hanger" events; however, I rated the story relatively highly for the reason the author has written a quality novel and the reader does an excellent job in the narration. On a personal note, I had some difficulty keeping the characters straight for reason of their strange sounding names; however, the listener does become acclimated to the foreign names. All in all there is good value for a book credit.

Among the top.

None

Vollander's father---

Volllander falling in love with the dead major's wife and couldn't tell her.

Almost didn't finish this book. It's a genre work, but much less happens than in better works, the protagonist's character is wishy-washy and inconsistent, his love interest not credible.

The action sequences are weak, the suspense (Which Colonel is the bad guy?) insufficient and dully wrought.

The title is the best part.

"Snowman" is a much better work of the genre.

Mankell is one of my favorite detective writers and audiobooks are my favorite medium for novels. I may be driven to paper or eBooks by the awful decision to have Dick Hill read them. Hill's voice is perfect for the brutal, raw emotion if Lee Childs, but totally wrong for the ironic European Mankell. Mankell neeeds a European-sounding voice.

For American noir, Hill is the greatest. For other genres, he is totally wrong. Don't the tim eared decision to have him read this put you off this superb writer.