Linda Wallander is bored. Just graduated from the police academy, she is waiting to start work at the Ystad police station and move into her own apartment. In the meantime, she is staying with her father and, like fathers and daughters everywhere, they are driving each other crazy. Nor will they be able to escape each other when she moves out: her father is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a veteran of the Ystad police force, and the two of them will soon be reluctant colleagues.
Linda's boredom doesn't last long. Soon she is deeply involved in the inexplicable disappearance of her childhood friend Anna. But no one - least of all her father, who is busy investigating an ominous series of animal killings - thinks anything serious has happened to Anna. Determined to find out the truth, Linda makes a few predictable rookie mistakes that may just turn out to be life-threatening. When her father's case unexpectedly dovetails with Anna's disappearance, something far more calculated and dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge. Joining their efforts is Stefan Lindman (The Return of the Dancing Master), a recent transfer to the Ystad station.

Il racconto di Aida, che esorcizza la morte intorno a sé prendendosi cura di una pianta di mango, nasce da un viaggio in Uganda, dove Mankell è stato per parlare con madri e padri colpiti dall'Aids. Malati senza speranza di guarigione, questi genitori scrivono piccoli quaderni cui affidano ricordi di sé e auspici per il futuro dei loro figli, consapevoli che non vivranno abbastanza a lungo per vederli crescere. Così nascono i Libri della memoria, per Mankell, forse 'i più importanti documenti del nostro tempo'. Il suo intenso racconto, unito al quaderno scritto da Christine Aguga per la figlia Everlyn, testimonia l'urgenza di un intervento: milioni di bambini come Everlyn e Aida sono destinati a rimanere orfani prematuramente.

Venerdì 24 aprile 1992, Louise Åkerblom, titolare di un'agenzia immobiliare di Ystad, nel sud della Svezia, scompare senza lasciare traccia. Quello stesso giorno, dall'altra parte del globo, in Sudafrica, un gruppo di boeri fanatici decisi a fermare il processo di democratizzazione in atto progetta un attentato contro uno degli uomini politici più in vista del paese. E il commissario Wallander a guidare le ricerche della donna, un caso complicato: Louise Åkerblom, attivo membro della chiesa metodista, è sposata felicemente con due bambine, è benvoluta e contenta del suo lavoro, non ci sono indizi che possano giustificare la sua scomparsa.

Fifth in the Kurt Wallander series.

In an African convent, four nuns and a unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered--the death of the unknown woman covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is baffled and appalled by two murders. Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and bird watcher, is impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch behind his secluded home, and the body of a missing florist is discovered--strangled and tied to a tree. The only clues Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men. What ensues is a case that will test Wallander's strength and patience, because in order to discover the reason behind these murders, he will also need to uncover the elusive connection between these deaths and the earlier unsolved murder in Africa of the fifth woman.

Second in the Kurt Wallander series.

On the Swedish coastline, two bodies, victims of grisly torture and cold execution, are discovered in a life raft. With no witnesses, no motives, and no crime scene, Detective Kurt Wallander is frustrated and uncertain he has the ability to solve a case as mysterious as it is heinous. But after the victims are traced to the Baltic state of Latvia, a country gripped by the upheaval of Soviet disintegration, Major Liepa of the Riga police takes over the investigation. Thinking his work done, Wallander slips into routine once more, until suddenly, he is called to Riga and plunged into an alien world where shadows are everywhere, everything is watched, and old regimes will do anything to stay alive.

December 12, 1945. Nazi Germany lies in ruins as a British warplane lands in Buckeburg. A man carrying a small black bag quickly disembarks and travels to Hamelin, where he disappears behind the prison gates. Early the next day, England's most experienced hangman executes twelve war criminals.
Fifty-four years later, retired policeman Herbert Molin spends another sleepless night on his remote farm in Harjedalen, Sweden. But it is this night when the long-dread shadows from his past finally emerge to exact revenge. After Molin is found brutally slaughtered - literally whipped to death - the police discover strange tracks in the blood on the floor...as if someone had been practicing the tango.
Stefan Lindman is a young police officers who has just been diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. When he reads about the murder of his former colleague, he decides to travel north and find out what happened. Soon he is enmeshed in a puzzling investigation with no witnesses, no discernible motives. Terrified of the illness that could take his life, Lindman nonetheless becomes more and more reckless as he uncovers the links between Molin's death, World War II, and an underground neo-Nazi network that runs much further and deeper than he had ever imagined.

Seventh in the Kurt Wallander series.

A body is found at an ATM the apparent victim of heart attack. Then two teenage girls are arrested for the brutal murder of a cab driver. The girls confess to the crime showing no remorse whatsoever. Two open and shut cases. At first these two incidents seem to have nothing in common, but as Wallander delves deeper into the mystery of why the girls murdered the cab driver he begins to unravel a plot much more involved complicated than he initially suspected. The two cases become one and lead to conspiracy that stretches to encompass a world larger than the borders of Sweden.

The powerful story of one girl's indomitable spirit after surviving a land mine in war-ravaged southern Africa.

It is the wise old woman of the village who teaches young Sofia about the secrets in the fire. Within the flames hide all things past and all things yet to be. But not even old Muazena can see the horrors the fire holds for Sofia and her family -- not the murderous bandits who drive them from their home, and not the land mine that takes Sofia's legs.

In her long journey toward recovery, Sofia must still deal with growing up. Along the way, she discovers friends, and foes, in places she'd never expected. Through it all, Sofia draws on a strength she never knew she had, a fire of her own that's been a secret all along.

Real-life land mine victim Sofia Alface is the inspiration for Henning Mankell's stunning novel which puts a very human face on the suffering in Africa.

Key Features:

• Land mines, an important, high-profile issue
• A gripping, dramatic page-turner and a story full of hope
• Readers will relate to the spirited Sofia

The powerful story of one girl's indomitable spirit after surviving a land mine in war-ravaged southern Africa.

It is the wise old woman of the village who teaches young Sofia about the secrets in the fire. Within the flames hide all things past and all things yet to be. But not even old Muazena can see the horrors the fire holds for Sofia and her family -- not the murderous bandits who drive them from their home, and not the land mine that takes Sofia's legs.

In her long journey toward recovery, Sofia must still deal with growing up. Along the way, she discovers friends, and foes, in places she'd never expected. Through it all, Sofia draws on a strength she never knew she had, a fire of her own that's been a secret all along.

Real-life land mine victim Sofia Alface is the inspiration for Henning Mankell's stunning novel which puts a very human face on the suffering in Africa.

Key Features:

• Land mines, an important, high-profile issue
• A gripping, dramatic page-turner and a story full of hope
• Readers will relate to the spirited Sofia

Third in the Kurt Wallander series.

The execution-style murder of a Swedish housewife looks like a simple case even though there is no obvious suspect. But then Wallander learns of a determined stalker, and soon enough, the cops catch up with him. But when his alibi turns out to be airtight, they realize that what seemed a simple crime of passion is actually far more complex—and dangerous. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander soon finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent. Combining compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue, The White Lioness keeps you on the knife-edge of suspense.

Fourth in the Kurt Wallander series.

In the award-winning Sidetracked, Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day he is called to a beach where Sweden's former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer, and Wallander is frantic to find him before he strikes again. But his investigation is beset with a handful of obstacles—a department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, a tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman's widow, and the unshakably haunting preoccupation with the young girl who set herself on fire. Fascinating and astute, Sidetracked is a compelling mystery enhanced by keen social awareness.

Venerdì 24 aprile 1992, Louise Åkerblom, titolare di un'agenzia immobiliare di Ystad, nel sud della Svezia, scompare senza lasciare traccia. Quello stesso giorno, dall'altra parte del globo, in Sudafrica, un gruppo di boeri fanatici decisi a fermare il processo di democratizzazione in atto progetta un attentato contro uno degli uomini politici più in vista del paese. E il commissario Wallander a guidare le ricerche della donna, un caso complicato: Louise Åkerblom, attivo membro della chiesa metodista, è sposata felicemente con due bambine, è benvoluta e contenta del suo lavoro, non ci sono indizi che possano giustificare la sua scomparsa.

Dopo la fortunatissima serie dedicata all’ispettore Kurt Wallander, Mankell inaugura un nuovo ciclo: protagonista è la figlia dell’ispettore, Linda. Agosto 2001. Un uomo fa la consueta passeggiata serale con il cane intorno al lago di Krageholm, nel sud della Svezia, quando scorge all'improvviso degli strani grumi di materia che bruciano sull'acqua. Con grande orrore scopre che si tratta di cigni a cui sono state intrise le ali di petrolio prima di dar loro fuoco. Due settimane dopo l'orrore si ripete. Wallander comincia ad indagare. Con lui c'è sua figlia Linda, che tra due settimane prenderà ufficialmente posto nella polizia. Inizia così un'inquietante serie di eventi che rischia di far terminare la carriera di Linda nella polizia prima ancora che sia iniziata.

First in the Kurt Wallander series.

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn't present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman's last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden's already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.

Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.

Sixth in the Kurt Wallander series.

On Midsummer’s Eve, three role-playing teens dressed in eighteenth-century garb are shot in a secluded Swedish meadow. When one of Inspector Kurt Wallander’s most trusted colleagues–someone whose help he hoped to rely on to solve the crime–also turns up dead, Wallander knows the murders are related. But with his only clue a picture of a woman no one in Sweden seems to know, he can’t begin to imagine how. Reeling from his own father’s death and facing his own deteriorating health, Wallander tracks the lethal progress of the killer. Locked in a desperate effort to catch him before he strikes again, Wallander always seems to be just one step behind.

On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the still-sun-lit northern night, they don costumes and begin to role play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. The murderer then carefully photographs the grisly tableau. Meanwhile, the Ystad police station is experiencing a summer lull. Inspector Kurt Wallander is focusing on living healthier, but his peace of mind is shattered when a fellow officer is murdered. The police slowly realize how little they know about what is going on in their seemingly serene town. An unknown killer is on the loose, but their only lead is a photograph of three dead young people in costume. Forced to dig more deeply than he'd like into the personal life of one of his colleagues, Wallander's investigation uncovers something he could never have imagined. One Step Behind is the fifth book to appear in English in what the Los Angeles Times Book Review calls the 'exquisite' Kurt Wallander series.

The eagerly awaited second mystery from the award-winning Kurt Wallander series. Mankell's tenacious sleuth, Inspector Kurt Wallander, returns to investigate a horrific crime in his Scandinavian homeland that soon involves him with a troubled apartheid-era South Africa. When his search for the truth behind the execution-style killing of a Swedish housewife uncovers a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela, Wallander finds himself in a tangle with the South African secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent. Combining heart-pounding suspense with probing social commentary, The White Lioness is certain to win new American readers for this master of the detective genre.