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Sidetracked (Kurt Wallander, Bk 5)
Sidetracked - Kurt Wallander, Bk 5
Author: Henning Mankell
Inspector Kurt Wallander's long-anticipated vacation plans are interrupted by two horrific deaths: the self-immolation of an unidentified young woman and the brutal murder of the former minister of justice. As the police struggle to piece together the few clues they have, the killer strikes again. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Revi...  more » as "Mankell at his best," Sidetracked merges blistering suspense with adroit social and political commentary, from the disintegration of the family and the exploitation of women to corruption and scandal at the highest levels of government, in "a quintessential example of the hard-boiled European procedural"

(Booklist).
ISBN-13: 9781565846111
ISBN-10: 1565846117
Publication Date: 6/1/1999
Pages: 352
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 3

3.8 stars, based on 3 ratings
Publisher: New Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
Read All 7 Book Reviews of "Sidetracked Kurt Wallander Bk 5"

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justreadingabook avatar reviewed Sidetracked (Kurt Wallander, Bk 5) on + 1707 more book reviews
A lot of Swedish feelings on how the country is going down, you get that vibe through out the story.
The feeling that it's not going to get better.
A interesting serial killer with a plan.
Completely engaging-page turning great read.
reviewed Sidetracked (Kurt Wallander, Bk 5) on + 20 more book reviews
Sidetracked is pure Mankell. An intricate plot, with lots of sub-plots and side roads, great descriptive phrases, involved characterizations (multi-level individuals), and many things to get one off track if the reader is not careful.
Mankell is a fantastic writer; I have read almost all of his work, and Sidetracked is one of the best.
Spuddie avatar reviewed Sidetracked (Kurt Wallander, Bk 5) on + 412 more book reviews
#5 Kurt Wallander Swedish police procedural set in and around Ystad. Wallander, hoping for an uneventful few weeks leading up to his summer holiday, is sorely disappointed when two troubling cases present themselves. First, he takes a call from an elderly farmer who has observed a girl in his rape (canola) field all day. She's behaving oddly and won't go away and wants the police. When Wallander arrives, he also observes the girl's odd behavior and it's not long before, to his horror, she dumps gasoline on herself and sets herself on fire!

While he is still reeling from that incident, a call comes in about a man murdered with an axe--who's been scalped. One of those is bad enough--and it will be a higher profile case, as the victim was an elderly retired government official--but when a second murder with the same M.O. comes to light a few days later, Wallander knows they have a serial killer on their hands and his holidays to be spent abroad with his Latvian lover Baiba are in jeopardy.

As Wallander and his team try to determine the connection between the two victims, they call in a profiler, although he is somewhat inexperienced given that serial killers seem to be not that prolific in Sweden. Tension mounts as they fear another killing and reprisals from the public and the press, poring over hundreds of reports and trying to come at the crimes through many different angles. While all this is going on, Wallander finds out that his father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, although he's at the early stage where he knows there's something wrong.

As usual, Wallander is a bit of a gloomy gus, and sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle to slog through his worries, self-doubt and pessimism. I still find him endearing, and of course his selfless dedication to his work is to be commended--otherwise, how would the criminals be caught? LOL At any rate, this was an excellent entry in the series and I'm looking forward to the next.


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