Morder ohne Gesicht

This is the first book of a series, so maybe they get better, but it wasn't great. The writing is very lazy. There's single sentences that cover things I wanted to know more about, and entire paragraphs where a word or two would've sufficed. There's a lot of casual racism and sexism throughout, which the reader is supposed to understand as problematic, but Wallander often seems to thinks to himself "Huh, that person is racist and/or sexist, but I'd rather not call them out right now." Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book is Wallander's own problems with women and minorities, which as a character he seems to recognize and want to address, but the structure around it isn't good enough to make that meaningful or interesting.

3.5 stars. This was a very short book and unexpectedly found me page-turning, despite it not being very spectacular. The protagonist is Kurt Wallander, a middle aged police officer in the Swedish country side. His wife just left him, he is estranged from his daughter and has a problematic relationship to his aging father. He is confronted with the brutal murder of a farmer couple. As suspicion falls onto foreigners, the situation heats up because of rising antagonism towards foreigners seeking political asylum in Sweden in the 90s.

I have read far better crime stories. But this is not so much about the crime and solving it. This is about Kurt Wallander the person, the changes in his life and his country. So if you are looking for something along the lines of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, this is not that book. It's bleak and it's easy to feel bad for Wallander. And it is because of the character that I will continue reading the series, not because it was a stellar mystery.