This is one of the many Mankell books that tell a story about the professional and private life of a Swedish police
inspector.
The is mankell's most baffling secret, the way he combines a
detective story and a story about a character's life without ever neglecting one or the other.The Swedish detective
inspector Kurt Wallander in this book has been divorced for some months and is very lonely. His car is broken and he has to get a loan for a new one. His dad flies to Egypt and tries to climb a pyramid, and now Wallander has to go there to bail him out. For this, he has to take out yet another loan...Professionally, things are also going haywire. The Swedish as well as foreign criminals don't sleep. A plane that apparently smuggled drugs from Europe to Sweden crashes. Two old, seemingly harmless, ladies and a well-known drug dealer are being executed in the same manner. It remains to be seen whether all of this is really connected. In the end, Wallander manages to find a suspect who might have been the perpetrator.To cut a long story short, if you'd like to risk apeek into the everyday life of a Swedish police inspector, this bookis the right choice for you. Translated from Swedish with empathy and understanding by Wolfgang Butt.