Product Description

Stopping to get money from a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead. A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenaged girls. Quickly apprehended they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without trace. Soon afterwards a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery. Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked...somehow. Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to lose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace. Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move. Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them In their gripping police procedural about our increasing vulnerability in the modern digitalised world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112313 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Not too long ago, Henning Mankell was a well-kept secret, but his latest book, Firewall, will be received by readers worldwide with much fanfare, which is as it should be; Mankell is something special. Some of the initial resistance to Mankell's work might be understandable; like one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman, Mankell is from a country noted for Nordic gloom and the lazy-minded are not always prepared to go beyond stereotypes. Their loss: like his cinematic compatriot (Mankell is in fact married to Bergman's daughter), this is an artist of rare achievement.

Firewall continues Mankell's unvarnished portraits of modern life, in which society and all its institutions (not least the family) are on the edge. Here, his long-term protagonist, Inspector Kurt Wallander, moves into new area of crime: cyberspace. Various deaths have occurred: the user of a cash machine, a taxi driver killed by two young girls. The country is plunged into blackout by an electricity failure, and a grim find is made at a power station. What's the connection? Wallander finds himself on the trail of cyber terrorists with shady anarchic aims. But can his own malfunctioning team of coppers pull together to help catch them--or is there a fifth columnist in the police? Plotting here is impeccable, although Firewall may not be a prime entry point for those new to Mankell. But Wallander (here worried about his diabetes and failure to lose weight) is one of the great literary coppers: enthusiasts need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw

From the Publisher
The latest book in Mankell's critically acclaimed and best selling Kurt Wallander series. A police procedural about our increasing vulnerability in the modern digitalised world.

About the Author
Henning Mankell was born in Stockholm in 1948. He is the prize-winning author of the eight novels in the Inspector Wallander Series which has been translated into many languages and consistently tops the best-seller lists throughout Europe. His novel Sidetracked won the CWA Gold dagger in 2001. Mankell has worked as an actor, theatre director and manager in Sweden and in Mozambique, where he is head of Teatro Avenida in Maputo. Ebba Segerberg teaches Swedish at Washington University in St Louis. She was the translator of Mankell's One Step Behind, available from Harvill.

Customer Reviews

Grim, grumpy but gripping
It's hard to say what the attraction is about the Kurt Wallander series: They're not whodunnits; the stories can be as grim as the Southern Swedish landscape where they are set; there's no redeeming humour and the hero is just a normal policeman with no special quirks or character traits. There is nevertheless something remarkably compelling about them. The latest offering, Firewall, is no exception.

Inspector Wallander is a police inspector in Ystaad, Southern Sweden. As usual, he is in despair at what he sees as the gradual erosion of any sort of values in modern swedish society. He is confronted by an appalling example of this when two teenage girls are arrested for the brutal murder of a taxi driver and confess to the crime showing absolutely no signs of remorse. On the same evening a seemingly fit and healthy man drops dead in front of a cash machine, seemingly of natural causes. However, one of the girls escapes from custody and then there's another gruesome episode which seems to link the two events. The plot develops from here with Wallander attempting to piece together what really is behind it all.

The chronology of the series of novels is sometimes hard to follow as the books weren't translated in the order that they were written. If you haven't read any of these before then I would recommend that you start with an earlier novel. This one is actually set after Sidetracked, that is later than any that have so far been translated. The novels stand alone but there are references to events in earlier books. Nothing that spoils any plot however, but it is better to read them in the order they were written.

If you have read these books before then this one is back with what Mankell does best. I was a little disappointed with "Dogs of Riga" and "White Lioness" simply because they seemed to veer away from police procedural and into thriller territory. Firewall is more like "The Fifth Woman" and "Sidetracked". The reader gets to see the story mainly from Wallander's point of view but there is also some things seen from the criminal's eye, to put the reader slightly ahead of the police, but still not in the whole picture. You can never be sure where the investigation is going to lead to. Despite what I said earlier there's plenty of action too.

I also think that Mankell gets the mix of Wallander's private and professional life about right. There's enough to make the detective interesting as a human being but without being too much of a diversion from the meat of the book. As usual Wallander spends most of the book tired, bad-tempered and at the end of his tether and has very little time for a private life anyway. This case has a bit more office politics in it than in previous novels.

In general, the book seems very realistic, although I would say that artistic licence has been stretched a bit in a few places. Some things are never explained, which in some way adds to the realism because I'm sure in real life cases are not as neatly wrapped up in a bundle as conveniently as they are in most mystery stories. However I'm not entirely convinced by the criminal's behaviour at certain points. These are only minor grumbles. I see no letting up in the quality of the overall series with this entry. I find it really hard to compare these works to any other detective fiction availabe at the moment. Wallander might be a bit of a misery, but I'm keen to see what the future holds for him. I eagerly await the next translation.

Firewall, Henning Mankell
I'm now going to make a broad statement: Mankell's Wallander books form the best detective series that has ever been written. Ever. Michael Ondatje seems to concur, which is just lovely.

Firewall is the 8th full-length novel in the series, and also the last. In the next novel, Wallander retires and we follow the exploits of his daughter Linda, who has also joined the police force. Knowing it was the last was a great shame, because it is also, probably, the very best of this incredibly, astoundingly fine series. At the close of each chapter sadness broke over me like a wave. Wallander may not be the most cheerful company, but he is charming and the most endearing of current detective. Mankell's style is also part of the reason why every single sentence is so spellbinding. I can't say why, I don't know exactly what it is about the way he writes that is so special, but nor do I want to. Like seeing how a magician performs his tricks, that may spoil it a little.

Part of the reason why it's all so engrossing is Mankell's mixture of details. Indeed, he depicts a level of procedural detail that should be all rights be dull, but is instead riveting. The reasons for this a re two: Mankell's superb prose, and the very real impression he has created through the entire series that the crucial breakthrough, the information which might crack the case wide open, could come from absolutely anywhere, from the most mundane of tasks.

Also, it may be true that Wallander is somewhat the stereotypical loner (although like them all he has things about him which make him truly original), the police-force background is not at all stereotypical. Unlike many series where the cop seems to constantly go it alone, Mankell creates a unique sense of teamwork, that I don't think I've ever come across before. There's a warmth in the team which surrounds Wallander, and the way they work together. He doesn't have a particularly antagonistic boss, or any colleague he particularly dislikes. They all play their part, they all play their role in a cohesive policing team, and it's a joy to watch it as it works. Mankell knows that otherwise his series may be just TOO bleak and depressing, so the team exists in a happy unity which is far more realistic.

As you may have guessed, I adore this series. Wallander is a superb protagonist, and while just now I said he was the stereotypical loner, in all honesty he isn't. He's actually completely different to his counterparts Bosch and Rebus, etc. Instead of being the attractive loner, he is REAL, he is HUMAN. He gets angry properly (rather than Rebus would), like a child - in Firewall his frustration becomes such that he snaps and throws a chair across a colleague's office. There isn't a single investigator like him.

Do yourself a favour - read this series. Don't start here (Faceless Killers is the first). It isn't for everybody, but serious fans of crime fiction cannot afford to pass it by.

Firewall, Henning Mankell
I'm now going to make a broad statement: Mankell's Wallander books form the best detective series that has ever been written. Ever. Michael Ondatje seems to concur, which is just lovely.

Firewall is the 8th full-length novel in the series, and also the last. In the next novel, Wallander retires and we follow the exploits of his daughter Linda, who has also joined the police force. Knowing it was the last was a great shame, because it is also, probably, the very best of this incredibly, astoundingly fine series. At the close of each chapter sadness broke over me like a wave. Wallander may not be the most cheerful company, but he is charming and the most endearing of current detective. Mankell's style is also part of the reason why every single sentence is so spellbinding. I can't say why, I don't know exactly what it is about the way he writes that is so special, but nor do I want to. Like seeing how a magician performs his tricks, that may spoil it a little.

Part of the reason why it's all so engrossing is Mankell's mixture of details. Indeed, he depicts a level of procedural detail that should be all rights be dull, but is instead riveting. The reasons for this a re two: Mankell's superb prose, and the very real impression he has created through the entire series that the crucial breakthrough, the information which might crack the case wide open, could come from absolutely anywhere, from the most mundane of tasks.

Also, it may be true that Wallander is somewhat the stereotypical loner (although like them all he has things about him which make him truly original), the police-force background is not at all stereotypical. Unlike many series where the cop seems to constantly go it alone, Mankell creates a unique sense of teamwork, that I don't think I've ever come across before. There's a warmth in the team which surrounds Wallander, and the way they work together. He doesn't have a particularly antagonistic boss, or any colleague he particularly dislikes. They all play their part, they all play their role in a cohesive policing team, and it's a joy to watch it as it works. Mankell knows that otherwise his series may be just TOO bleak and depressing, so the team exists in a happy unity which is far more realistic.

As you may have guessed, I adore this series. Wallander is a superb protagonist, and while just now I said he was the stereotypical loner, in all honesty he isn't. He's actually completely different to his counterparts Bosch and Rebus, etc. Instead of being the attractive loner, he is REAL, he is HUMAN. He gets angry properly (rather than Rebus would), like a child - in Firewall his frustration becomes such that he snaps and throws a chair across a colleague's office. There isn't a single investigator like him.

Do yourself a favour - read this series. Don't start here (Faceless Killers is the first). It isn't for everybody, but serious fans of crime fiction cannot afford to pass it by.