The Pyramid and Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries

By: Henning Mankell

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The Pyramid is the long-awaited addition to Henning Mankell's critically celebrated and internationally best-selling Kurt Wallander mystery series - a book of five short mysteries that takes us back to the beginning. Here are the stories that trace, chronologically, Wallander's growth from a rookie cop into a young father and then a middle-aged divorcé, illuminating how Wallander became a first-rate detective and highlighting new facets of a now canonical character.

Kenneth Branagh will play Kurt Wallander in a new PBS Masterpiece Theatre Mystery! series this summer.

More mayhem? Listen to all of our Kurt Wallander mysteries.

©1999 Henning Mankell (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Like the Wallander novels, these stories rank among the finest police procedurals being written today." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great early Wallander insight!

This is a great collection of stories. I was a little put off by the short story setup, but it works really well. I thought it started a bit slow with his first case but once ensconced in the mystery, I was hooked.

Five different cases over the years for Wallander

Any additional comments?

I chose this because it seemed to be among the most highly rated of the author's books. I am not sure whether these stories were written throughout Mankell's career and are being collected here, or whether they were written specifically for this volume - my guess, given how the style improves and the sophistication increases, is the former. The book presents 5 stories of varying lengths, closing with the novella-sized title piece. It shows Detective Kurt Wallender at various stages of his life and sketches the development (and collapse) of his marriage to Mona, although this is never the focus of the narrative. This appears to be part of Mankell's technique - he shows us the ordinary, and often difficult, relationship issues in his detective's life, and goes back and forth between them and the extra-ordinary criminal cases he is confronted with.

The first story is not one of his best, and it seems to show both Mankell and Wallender early in their development, as the 20-something sleuth, a recent addition to the police force, begins going his own way by pursuing an unauthorized investigation into the mysterious murder of an uncommunicative neighbor. The second story is more of a vignette than a detective story, and brings in the issue of immigration to Sweden. "The Man on the Beach" takes a look at the unexpected disappearance of an ordinary man as he goes to pay a mysterious visit to someone. This seems to be a recurring circumstance in Mankell's fiction - a seemingly normal, colorless individual is shown to be unexpectedly involved in something criminal or in some way twisted. This occurs in "The Death 'of a Photographer", a more involved piece in which a comfortable, married town photographer is found murdered one evening while engaging in his favorite hobby - making weirdly distorted prints of famous people and others. Like the previous story, this also has a "pull the string" structure - as Wallander begins to investigate the victim's life he begins to discover unusual things which lead to an eventual solution.

The title piece is the most complicated and interesting. An unmarked, unreported small plane crashes in the Swedish countryside. Shortly afterwards, a couple of spinster sisters are found murdered in their sewing shop. While Wallander begins looking into these two seemingly unrelated cases, he must struggle with his increasingly erratic and impulsive artist father. The old man spontaneously goes to visit Egypt and ends up in custody there after trying to climb up one of the pyramids.

Mankell appears to be very popular. I would not call myself a fan, but I do enjoy his stories and respect his work. The writing can be plodding at times, and it is hard to get a good grip on Kurt Wallander's character (which is often the case with fictional detectives). He is practical, undemonstrative, persistent, low key, and relies on his gut feelings. In his personal life he usually seems to be reacting to someone with more emotions and more personality than he has (i.e. his father, his wife, his daughter). This was a good collection of tales, and I am sure his many fans will like it. I listened to an audio version of the book, which was read by an actor who indulged in some odd voice modulations, thus making things stranger than another presenter would have made them, and who sounded a bit like Willem Dafoe.

Anything by Henning

I can't get enough Wallender. The reader is excellent. These stories fill in the life details. I resisted short stories but am so glad I got this.

Great read

Loved it, classic Wallender and read beautifully as always. Highly recommend to those who love this genre.

Wallander's Beginnings

Where does The Pyramid and Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is wonderful! How often do you find a character you admire and want to read everything about, but always wonder how his life and career began. Henning Mankell has given us a gift by telling us of Wallander's early years as a sort of bumbling beginning peace officer until his maturity into a lead detective.

I believe this book was written after he wrote what he claims will be his last book about Wallander. I certainly hope he will change his mind because this is an unforgettable character and I certainly want more...and more.

Good title story; the others are OK

If you like the series, you'll like these five novellas that take place before the first book in the series — but probably just like them. You finally learn the full story of Detective Wallander getting stabbed as a young cop. The title story is memorable; the others not so much. And why Kurt and Mona ever married, I'll never understand. Bechdel test: Fail. Grade: B

Excellent narration as usual from Dick Hill.

Reader sounded angry

The fact that the reader sounded really angry and annoyed through much of the narration detracted from my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps that is his interpretation of the characters but it was off putting to me.

Fabulous. More, please.

I liked the detective series with Kenneth Branaugh (I believe it was BBC) so bought the audio book despite the fact I've never been much interested in reading detective stories. Silly me. I've been missing out on so much.

From what I read in reviews this series is a hit with the well-versed mystery readers as well. I want to find more like this!

Likable stories, good performance

Could tell the stories didn't have the normal Wallander zing but was a short listen that wasn't too bad.

What is up with this narrator???

The stories are very slow-paced, and as other reviews have noted, there is no joy in these books. The setting is bleak, the characters have little depth, and you don't really root for anyone. The translation is incorrect in a couple of places, but nothing too distracting.

But the narration is absolutely inexplicable. Most of the male characters other than Wallander sound like a slightly drunk, old Jewish New Yorker. I keep waiting for one of them to say the old "take my wife, please" joke. I don't need perfect Swedish accents, but this particular choice makes no sense, and is just incredibly annoying.

If this wasn't free, I would've returned it 5 minutes in. As it is, I played it as background, because it relaxes my cats. They don't seem to mind the Henny Youngman accent.