The White Lioness

A Kurt Wallander Mystery

By: Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson - translator

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The execution-style murder of a Swedish housewife looks like a simple case, except that there is no obvious suspect. Wallander follows a lead on a determined stalker. But when his alibi turns out to be airtight, Wallander begins to realize that what seemed a simple crime of passion is actually far more complex and dangerous. Eventually, his search uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander soon finds himself in a tangle with the secret police and with a ruthless foreign agent.

A riveting tale of international intrigue with compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life, The White Lioness will keep you on the knife edge of suspense.

©1998 Laurie Thompson; 1993 Henning Mankell (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A first-class thriller." (New York Times)
"[Wallander is] a solid character, whose strengths and weaknesses are utterly credible, and Mankell knows how to make the most of his virtues." (Publishers Weekly)
"The action is skillfully grounded in human rather than political concerns....[Mankell's] stature as a major voice in international crime fiction remains undisturbed." (Booklist)

Narrator

Hate the narrator. Scott Brick would been a much better choice.
Hill is hard to listen to.

superb writing and reading

An intriguing story. wonderful reader. I am looking forward to the next Kurt Wallander novel.

Suspenseful

Very enjoyable suspenseful story. I enjoyed how the author came full circle with all the characters.

Great boo.

What a great book. The story is well constructed and is arranged against a backdrop of the political landscape of South Africa in 1990's. What a fantastic detective story. Cannot wait to hear the next "Kurt Volander" story.

Like this series

This one sometimes became bogged down in some details. But overall well written and thought-provoking. The first two were even better and looking forward to the rest of the series.

Needed to be shorter

This needed about 6 hours cut out. I have enjoyed the previous Kurt Wallander books, liking his character, but this was too much. And it's a murder story combined with South Africa political history. That's fine in a book, but this got a little pedantic. It won't stop me from reading more though.

This is one of Dick Hill's barely-past-his-prime narrations, with mere hints of the wheezing out the last molecules of air from his lungs that is to come in later books. I think he was an odd choice to voice this Swedish detective story, and I found his "fawg" pronunciation of "fog" jolting every time.

Sophisticated Interesting Story

The South African part of the story was well done and plausible. The Swedish part was strange with to me bizarre random actions that were not so interesting or plausible.

In many ways the best and worst of Mankell

I am a huge fan of Kurt Wallander and the first 100 pages or so of this book are really great at allowing the reader to see the world as Wallander sees it.

Unfortunately the author is determined to make a political point with the rest of the book and puts together a long - way too long - convoluted - way too convoluted - tale that is hard to believe and paints the bad guys as caricatures - not real villains - but evil symbols

Disappointed

To counter my review of the first novel!!

This was one of the best books I've listened to ever. So my apologies for my "juvenile" review of the first book. I'll try it again.

,Evil

Interesting story plenty of twists held my attention and enjoyed the narrating. It was a good read