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Title: The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
ISBN: 1400095824
Author:
Henning Mankell
Publicate Date: 2009-10-06
Publish: 2009-10-06
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.71
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.87
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.96
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Advantage of Vintage
In just five short stories (some shorter than others) we get time capsules of early Wallander. The first is in 1969 when Wallander is still a new police officer and he stumbles his way into becoming a detective and into a suicide that proves, of course, to be something more. The next story jumps ahead to 1975 and a Christmas Eve crime he suddenly finds himself involved in. The next story jumps ahead as well so that we're finally catching up with the Wallander and his lack o a personal life we've come to know.
More than that you get an interesting view of Sweden and how the world's problems begin to find their way to its shores with protests against the Vietnam war; the far reach of Apartheid, stolen cars in Poland and glimpses of some of the stoic attitudes and lifestyle flavors usually found in (Ernst)Ingmar Bergman films.
Translated by Ebba Segerberg and Laurie Thompson Henning Mankell's The Pyramid is well worth the read and helps fill in some of the much needed gaps in Wallander's history.
If I wasn't of Danish heritage I probably would have given the faen Swede five stars. It's a ya'sure, ya betcha thing.
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2: The Wallander Saga Begins
This is a collection of five stories set before (to quote author Henning Mankell) "January 8, 1990" when the first full-length Kurt Wallander novel, Faceless Killers, began. So, these tales, (ranging from 26 to 153 pages in length) provide back story for the whole series. And I feel that each segment in The Pyramid is a gem.
The first is "Wallander's First Case." At this point our hero is only twenty-one, "a young policeman, barely an adult." It seems he doesn't like the kind of work that makes up much of his job as a beat patrolman: hauling in drunks and dealing with rowdies. So, Wallander aspires to be a detective, who, he feels, can more effectively fight "real" crime than a street cop. In this novella (102 pages) we get to know Wallander as he handles his first detective case. I have recently finished Mankell's The Man Who Smiled. And it's the same Wallander: self deprecating, essentially honest, and determined to catch dangerous criminals.
In the next story (26 pages), "The Mask," Wallander encounters a desperate armed man in a remote grocery story on Christmas Eve. The man is not looking for a last-minute gift fruitcake. In "The Man on the Beach," 34 pages, it looks like a heart attack when a man suddenly dies after boarding a taxi.Wallander thinks not. His investigation hinges on a split-second glance.
Simon Lamberg is the title character in "Death of the Photographer" (74 pages). Lamberg dies when his skull is crushed from behind by a mystery murderer. Wallander discovers a bizarre collection of photos in the victim's shop. He learns that Lamberg had both a wife and a secret girlfriend. Are these clues?
The final story, "The Pyramid," (153 pages) is the longest and the best. Two elderly women run a small sewing shop in Ystad, in Wallander's district. They are murdered "execution style." A plane that is flying at a dangerously low altitude nearby mysteriously crashes. Wallander is on the cases. Meanwhile, he is distracted when he has to deal with his cold, grumpy, and eccentric father, who takes a trip to Egypt. A couple of days later, Wallander is forced to follow his father to Egypt and gets to see the pyramids up close and personal. The story of Wallander's brief Egyptian adventure, is, in my opinion, a modern classic.
In these works, Wallander does not come off as the kind of flashy superhero/detective that appears so often in novels and films. Wallander is afraid when things heat up; his hands shake and he can't shoot straight. He has a modest income and lives a simple life. He is unhappily divorced. He has to deal with a Swedish public that, in general, only grudgingly respects the police. Indeed, many that Wallander encounters hold the police in contempt, viewing them as something like domestic servants who might be useful when the bullets fly.
I can only give this book my highest recommendation.
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3: Recommended for Wallander fans, but opportunities are missed
Recommend these stories to Wallander fans, as they nicely close the loop. Not recommended for newbies. Plusses in this volume include: details of Wallander's often-referred-to stabbing as a rookie patrolman, a glimpse of how his marriage to Mona was doomed from the start, and the way that the title story ends with the beginning of the first novel, Faceless Killers. Problems that I have with Mankell's writing style (or maybe the English translations?) are all in evidence here, e.g., still too many pages of Wallander eating, sleeping, driving around, and blundering in alone when he knows he shouldn't, followed by rushed solutions to complicated crimes through external forces in the last few pages. I'm giving it only 4 stars because Mankell missed opportunities in this volume to show Mona as anything other than a 1-dimensional b***h, to give us any new insight into daughter Linda (didn't she attempt suicide a couple times?), or to show us, instead of constantly telling us, why Wallander's partner-mentor Rydberg is so brilliant an investigator. And that visitor chair in his office has been broken since 1989? C'mon, isn't there an IKEA in Malmo?
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4: hugely disappointing
While I know what I read is a translation, I am still at a loss to explain the poor writing. Simple sentences, subject, verb, subject, verb, throughout. Boring in the extreme. And overwritten, where he relentlessly states the obvious. The stories themselves lack punch or drive. I enjoyed the PBS series and so picked up these short stories. I will not be reading any of the novels.
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5: Well Written Introduction to Mankell's Wallander
This book provides a good introduction to Kurt Wallander and background to his character. The writing is true to the Wallander series and can be read alone, without reading the other Wallander books. Mankell gives good insights into Wallander's psyche on both a personal and professional level. Sweden is described in detail and becomes a part of each story while the characters are interesting. I recommend this book to people who enjoy well written mysteries and those who read the Rebus series by Ian Rankin.
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