The man who smiled

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After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself in a deep personal and professional crisis; during more than a year of sick leave, he turns to drink and vice to quiet his fears and anxieties. Once he pulls himself together, he vows to quit the Ystad police force for good - just before a friend who had asked Wallander to look into the death of his father winds up dead himself, shot three times.Far from leaving police work behind, Wallander instead must investigate a formidable suspect: a powerful business tycoon at the helm of a multinational company engaging in extralegal activities in the gross pursuit of profit. Ann-Britt Hoglund, the department's first female detective, proves to be his best ally as he tries to pierce the smiling facade of his prime suspect. But just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, the same shadowy threats responsible for the murders close in on Wallander himself.

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ISBN
9781565849938
9781400095834
9781483070759
9781595585806
9780786293193

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Also in this Series

  • Faceless killers: a mystery (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 1) Cover
  • The dogs of Riga (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 2) Cover
  • The white lioness: a mystery (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 3) Cover
  • The man who smiled (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 4) Cover
  • Sidetracked: a Kurt Wallander mystery (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 5) Cover
  • The fifth woman (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 6) Cover
  • One step behind (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 7) Cover
  • Firewall (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 8) Cover
  • The Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 9) Cover
  • The Troubled Man (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 10) Cover
  • An event in autumn (Kurt Wallander mysteries Volume 11) Cover

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Similar Series From Novelist

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Kurt Wallander and Dave Robichaux operate in vastly different landscapes, but the mood, descriptive writing, and dark views of human nature draw readers into these thoughtfully-paced investigations that feature complex characters and the contrast between evocative writing and the ugly violence and menacing atmosphere of the crimes. -- Katherine Johnson
The bleak and somber landscapes found in these Swedish mysteries reflect the mood of their main characters - police detectives with a dour outlook on life, who are well-acquainted with the darker side of human nature. -- Victoria Fredrick
The Millennium novels and the Kurt Wallander mysteries are both character-driven, intricately plotted series set in Sweden. -- NoveList Contributor
Though different motivations drive the investigative work of Irene Huss and the older, wearier Kurt Wallander, both detectives are aware of the changing nature of Swedish society, which is threatened by increasing racism, violent crime, and drugs. -- Shauna Griffin
These series have the appeal factors bleak, and they have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; the subjects "wallander, kurt (fictitious character)," "detectives," and "northern european people"; and characters that are "brooding characters" and "flawed characters."
These series have the appeal factors bleak, and they have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "detectives," "police," and "northern european people."
These series have the appeal factors bleak, and they have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; the subjects "detectives," "police," and "northern european people"; and characters that are "brooding characters" and "flawed characters."
These series have the appeal factors bleak, and they have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; the subjects "detectives," "police," and "northern european people"; and characters that are "brooding characters."
These series have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "murder investigation," "wallander, kurt (fictitious character)," and "detectives."

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "wallander, kurt (fictitious character)," "detectives," and "police."
These books have the theme "small town police"; the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; the subjects "northern european people" and "european people"; and characters that are "brooding characters."
These books have the theme "small town police"; the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "northern european people" and "european people."
These books have the appeal factors melancholy, strong sense of place, and intricately plotted, and they have the theme "small town police"; the genre "police procedurals"; the subjects "detectives" and "police"; and characters that are "introspective characters" and "complex characters."
NoveList recommends "Dave Robicheaux novels" for fans of "Kurt Wallander mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Irene Huss mysteries" for fans of "Kurt Wallander mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
These books have the theme "small town police"; the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "northern european people" and "european people."
These books have the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; the subjects "wallander, kurt (fictitious character)," "northern european people," and "european people"; and characters that are "brooding characters."
These books have the theme "small town police"; the genres "translations -- swedish to english" and "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "northern european people" and "european people."
Character-driven and melancholy in tone, both noir crime stories immerse damaged heroes -- and by extension, readers -- in complex situations with growing menace and intensity. True to genre, both stories have a bleak outlook and memorable, sympathetic characters. -- Jen Baker
NoveList recommends "Millennium novels (Stieg Larsson)" for fans of "Kurt Wallander mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
Roseanna - Sjowall, Maj
NoveList recommends "Martin Beck mysteries" for fans of "Kurt Wallander mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Henning Mankell and Asa Larsson are among the leaders in Nordic noir read in English translation. They write mystery and suspense novels marked by heinous crimes and frozen, Scandinavian landscapes. Complex and troubled investigators and violently shocking crimes fill the pages of these books. -- Becky Spratford
Henning Mankell and James Lee Burke set their mysteries in vastly different landscapes, but the mood, descriptive writing, and bleak views of human nature draw readers into these thoughtfully paced investigations featuring complex characters and the contrast between evocative writing and the ugly violence and menacing atmosphere of the crimes. -- Katherine Johnson
Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell both write character-driven, intricately plotted, and compelling mysteries set in Sweden. -- NoveList Contributor
These Scandinavian mystery authors write deliberately paced, intricately plotted, and darkly atmospheric procedural crime fiction. Their haunting, character-driven books feature intimate and psychologically detailed depictions of intelligent yet personally troubled protagonists dealing with seriously disturbed criminals. -- Derek Keyser
Leif G. W. Persson and Henning Mankell write Swedish police procedurals that feature deeply flawed policemen whose honesty and determination put them at loggerheads with their superiors. The bleak, cynical books focus on the problems of Swedish society. The gritty stories are complex, violent, and slower-moving. -- Merle Jacob
Henning Mankell and Ian Rankin portray similar aging, anxious police detectives who are so committed to police work that they screen out other parts of their lives. Their landscapes feature miserable weather, and their investigations focus on horrible crimes of the dark side of modern society. Mankell's non-mystery novels may also appeal to Rankin's readers. -- Katherine Johnson
Like Henning Mankell, John Le Carre's suspenseful, complex, character-driven books feature plenty of introspection and wrestle with complex moral issues. While Le Carre's novels are spy fiction, Mankell's readers will appreciate the vividly described, varied locales that serve as the background to these intensely moral tales. -- Katherine Johnson
Both Arnaldur Indridason and Henning Mankell bring their respective settings to life, even when their characters' outlooks are extraordinarily bleak, and readers come to empathize with them. Mankell writes both police procedurals and more literary standalones; readers of each author will want to try the other. -- Katherine Johnson
These authors' works have the genre "scandinavian crime fiction"; and the subjects "northern european people," "european people," and "danish people."
These authors' works have the subjects "murder," "small towns," and "twelve-year-old boys."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Swedish crime writer Mankell has taken U.S. publishing by storm over the last decade, launching a genre-altering invasion of his fellow Scandinavian mystery authors and (with other Europeans such as John Harvey and Andrea Camilleri) reinterpreting the notion of the hard-boiled hero. No longer the strong, silent, stand-up guy of American fiction, the new European hero, led by Mankell's Kurt Wallander, faces the horrors of the modern world with a sagging spirit, nearly overwhelmed. Lately, though, Mankell has rested Wallander, focusing instead on other cops in and around Ystad, Sweden, including Wallander's daughter, Linda, the star of Before the Frost (2005). Now the series returns to Wallander but backtracks in time. The Man Who Smiled, written in 1994, was the fourth in the series but is only now appearing in the U.S. It finds Wallander on the verge of quitting the Ystad police force; then a friend who had asked for his help is killed, and the would-be retiree is compelled to go back to work. The case that unfolds, involving a the head of a multinational corporation who traffics in the selling of human organs, opens yet another window on the unimaginable horrors of modern life, but this time Wallander responds with new resolve. Devotees of the series will be thrilled to pick up this missing chapter in the ongoing saga, but it is a bit disconcerting to keep the chronology straight. Still, any new Wallander novel--in whatever order--constitutes a major event in crime fiction. --Bill Ott Copyright 2006 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

First published in Sweden in 1994, Mankell's terrific fourth Kurt Wallender mystery opens with the kind of startling image typical of this internationally bestselling series (Firewall, etc.): a lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees "a human-sized effigy" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was "dead before his body hit the damp asphalt." The police accept the assailant's claim that it was an accident, but when Torstensson's son, Sten, is shot dead just two weeks later, the brooding Wallender, who's on sick leave and vowing to retire from the Ystad police force, decides to pursue the killer and resume his career. The chief suspect a powerful, globe-trotting Swedish businessman who's the smiling man of the title leads Wallender on an exquisitely plotted search for motive and evidence. Dark and moody, this is crime fiction of the highest order. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

Detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander, on sick leave for more than a year after killing a man in self-defense, is drinking too much and contemplating resigning. Then a lawyer friend, questioning whether his father's death was accidental, appeals to Wallander for help. When this friend is murdered just days later, Wallander's investigative juices get flowing, and he's back on the job, zeroing in on title character Alfred Harderberger, a wealthy businessman. But only painstaking police work-a keynote of European writer Mankell's thrillers, this time involving complex financial dealings-can confirm Wallander's suspicions. While any Kurt Wallander appearance is a pleasure, this volume is out of sequence: published in 1994 as the fourth in the series, it includes Wallander's father, whose death he grieved in previously translated books; a colleague murdered in One Step Behind; a woman whose relationship with Wallander is long over; and Ann-Britt Hoglund as a rookie (causing the inspector to ponder the future of police work). An essential purchase for mystery collections, this may disappoint Mankell fans who enjoy the changes and character development of a sequential series.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Will Ystad, the midsized Swedish city that never thaws, have to bid farewell to the brilliant/vulnerable/Maigret-like Detective Chief Inspector who's kept it law-abiding all these years? His colleagues, his boss, his doctor, his dad, everyone--including himself, Kurt Wallander (Before the Frost, 2005, etc.)--is certain he's packing it in. He's killed a man--justifiably, in defense of his own life, but with shattering emotional consequences. For the first time in his long career, Wallender feels useless, "like the clockwork man who had lost the key that normally stuck out of his back." Returning to Ystad after months of sick leave, Wallander fully intends to hand in his papers, but then something unpredictable, or perhaps exceedingly predictable, rouses the dormant copper in him: a meaty mystery that provides an irresistible opportunity to add luster to the Wallander name. Everyone in the Ystad PD has written off the death of elderly lawyer Gustaf Torstensson as accidental. Only Wallander is astute enough to recognize it for the homicide it is and spot its heinous connection to the rich and powerful man with no smile. True, Wallander has a certain helpful piece of inside information, but never mind. What matters is that the game is once more afoot. Slow as an ice floe, but the Wallander Weltschmerz maintains its peculiar grip. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Swedish crime writer Mankell has taken U.S. publishing by storm over the last decade, launching a genre-altering invasion of his fellow Scandinavian mystery authors and (with other Europeans such as John Harvey and Andrea Camilleri) reinterpreting the notion of the hard-boiled hero. No longer the strong, silent, stand-up guy of American fiction, the new European hero, led by Mankell's Kurt Wallander, faces the horrors of the modern world with a sagging spirit, nearly overwhelmed. Lately, though, Mankell has rested Wallander, focusing instead on other cops in and around Ystad, Sweden, including Wallander's daughter, Linda, the star of Before the Frost (2005). Now the series returns to Wallander but backtracks in time. The Man Who Smiled, written in 1994, was the fourth in the series but is only now appearing in the U.S. It finds Wallander on the verge of quitting the Ystad police force; then a friend who had asked for his help is killed, and the would-be retiree is compelled to go back to work. The case that unfolds, involving a the head of a multinational corporation who traffics in the selling of human organs, opens yet another window on the unimaginable horrors of modern life, but this time Wallander responds with new resolve. Devotees of the series will be thrilled to pick up this missing chapter in the ongoing saga, but it is a bit disconcerting to keep the chronology straight. Still, any new Wallander novel--in whatever order--constitutes a major event in crime fiction. ((Reviewed September 15, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews

Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews
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Library Journal Reviews

Detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander, on sick leave for more than a year after killing a man in self-defense, is drinking too much and contemplating resigning. Then a lawyer friend, questioning whether his father's death was accidental, appeals to Wallander for help. When this friend is murdered just days later, Wallander's investigative juices get flowing, and he's back on the job, zeroing in on title character Alfred Harderberger, a wealthy businessman. But only painstaking police work a keynote of European writer Mankell's thrillers, this time involving complex financial dealings can confirm Wallander's suspicions. While any Kurt Wallander appearance is a pleasure, this volume is out of sequence: published in 1994 as the fourth in the series, it includes Wallander's father, whose death he grieved in previously translated books; a colleague murdered in One Step Behind ; a woman whose relationship with Wallander is long over; and Ann-Britt Hglund as a rookie (causing the inspector to ponder the future of police work). An essential purchase for mystery collections, this may disappoint Mankell fans who enjoy the changes and character development of a sequential series. Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

[Page 124]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

First published in Sweden in 1994, Mankell's terrific fourth Kurt Wallender mystery opens with the kind of startling image typical of this internationally bestselling series (Firewall , etc.): a lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees "a human-sized effigy" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was "dead before his body hit the damp asphalt." The police accept the assailant's claim that it was an accident, but when Torstensson's son, Sten, is shot dead just two weeks later, the brooding Wallender, who's on sick leave and vowing to retire from the Ystad police force, decides to pursue the killer and resume his career. The chief suspect—a powerful, globe-trotting Swedish businessman who's the smiling man of the title—leads Wallender on an exquisitely plotted search for motive and evidence. Dark and moody, this is crime fiction of the highest order. (Sept.)

[Page 39]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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