Title: The Man From Beijing
Author: Henning Mankell
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9780307271860
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 367
Quick Review: 4 (out of 5)
Why I Read It: Love Henning Mankell and (I believe) I have read all of his translated work.
Where I Obtained the Book: At my local library
Synopsis: In the Swedish hamlet of Hesjövallen, nineteen people have been massacred. The only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene. Judge Birgitta Roslin has particular reason to be shocked: her grandparents, the Andréns, are among the victims. The police insist that only a lunatic could have committed the murders. But when Birgitta discovers the diary of another Andrén—a gang master on the American transcontinental railway in the nineteenth century—that describes the cruel treatment of Chinese slave-workers, she is determined to uncover what she suspects is a more complicated truth.
The investigation leads to modern-day Beijing and its highest echelons of power, to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But the narrative also takes us back 150 years, into a history that will ensnare Birgitta as she draws ever closer to solving the Hesjövallen murders.
Review: When I was in my early twenties living a few hours north of my hometown, I walked past a newsstand and saw an acquaintance from my youth pictured on the front page of most of the newspapers. He was a few years older than me, but I still knew him fairly well. Well that thing does not happen everyday so I bought one of the papers and began reading. It turns out he had a pedophilic relationship with a boy and then when confronted he beat the boy and his family to death with a bat.
I bring this up because that is similar to how The Man from Beijing begins. In a remote northern Swedish town a majority of the residents, 19 in total, have been murdered in their homes. An older judge sees the story in the paper and realizes she has a connection to one of the Elderly couples. Being inquisitive, and having to take forced time off from work for medical reasons, she begins a private investigation. From the remote winter climes of modern Sweden our story goes back 150 years to China and the American West, and then jumps forward to modern China and Mozambique. A mystery that spans time and the globe, but still remains a story based in the common emotions found in all of us.
Henning Mankell is the master of the police procedural, the breaking down the crime to its barest elements and slowly putting together the puzzle to a satisfactory conclusion. The heart of the story is found in greed, power, and man’s cruelty to man. Layer on revenge and an underlying political message of the dangers of colonialism, you have a fantastic story that is like an onion, layers of intrigue to be peeled gently lest you miss something.
If you have never read his Wallander series and are looking for a place to jump in the world of Mankell, you cannot go wrong with The Man from Beijing.
Author Biography: Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer, children's author and playwright. He is best known for his literary character Kurt Wallander. Mankell splits his time between Sweden and Mozambique. He is married to Eva Bergman, Swedish director and daughter of Ingmar Bergman.
Other Reviews:
LA Times
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
FYI: Book Trailer
Author: Henning Mankell
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9780307271860
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 367
Quick Review: 4 (out of 5)
Why I Read It: Love Henning Mankell and (I believe) I have read all of his translated work.
Where I Obtained the Book: At my local library
Synopsis: In the Swedish hamlet of Hesjövallen, nineteen people have been massacred. The only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene. Judge Birgitta Roslin has particular reason to be shocked: her grandparents, the Andréns, are among the victims. The police insist that only a lunatic could have committed the murders. But when Birgitta discovers the diary of another Andrén—a gang master on the American transcontinental railway in the nineteenth century—that describes the cruel treatment of Chinese slave-workers, she is determined to uncover what she suspects is a more complicated truth.
The investigation leads to modern-day Beijing and its highest echelons of power, to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But the narrative also takes us back 150 years, into a history that will ensnare Birgitta as she draws ever closer to solving the Hesjövallen murders.
Review: When I was in my early twenties living a few hours north of my hometown, I walked past a newsstand and saw an acquaintance from my youth pictured on the front page of most of the newspapers. He was a few years older than me, but I still knew him fairly well. Well that thing does not happen everyday so I bought one of the papers and began reading. It turns out he had a pedophilic relationship with a boy and then when confronted he beat the boy and his family to death with a bat.
I bring this up because that is similar to how The Man from Beijing begins. In a remote northern Swedish town a majority of the residents, 19 in total, have been murdered in their homes. An older judge sees the story in the paper and realizes she has a connection to one of the Elderly couples. Being inquisitive, and having to take forced time off from work for medical reasons, she begins a private investigation. From the remote winter climes of modern Sweden our story goes back 150 years to China and the American West, and then jumps forward to modern China and Mozambique. A mystery that spans time and the globe, but still remains a story based in the common emotions found in all of us.
Henning Mankell is the master of the police procedural, the breaking down the crime to its barest elements and slowly putting together the puzzle to a satisfactory conclusion. The heart of the story is found in greed, power, and man’s cruelty to man. Layer on revenge and an underlying political message of the dangers of colonialism, you have a fantastic story that is like an onion, layers of intrigue to be peeled gently lest you miss something.
If you have never read his Wallander series and are looking for a place to jump in the world of Mankell, you cannot go wrong with The Man from Beijing.
Author Biography: Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer, children's author and playwright. He is best known for his literary character Kurt Wallander. Mankell splits his time between Sweden and Mozambique. He is married to Eva Bergman, Swedish director and daughter of Ingmar Bergman.
Other Reviews:
LA Times
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
FYI: Book Trailer
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