The Return of the Dancing Master

Kurt Wallander fans will love this new novel from Henning Mankell. Featuring a new cast of characters this novel marks the end of the Kurt Wallander Mysteries and prepares the way for many more mysteries to come. Herbert Molin, a retired police officer, lives alone in a remote cottage in northern Sweden. Two things seem to consume him; his passion for the tango, and an obsession with the “demons” he believes to be pursuing him. Early one morning shots shatter Molin’s window…by the time his body is found it is almost unrecognisable. Stefan Lindman is another off-the-job police officer. On extended sick leave due to having cancer of the tongue Lindman hears about the murder of his former colleague and, in a bid to take his mind off his own problems, decides to investigate. As his investigation becomes increasingly complex it is with both horror and disbelief that Lindman uncovers links to a global web of neo-Nazi activity.

Review “Furloughing series hero Kurt Wallender (The Dogs of Riga, 2003, etc.), Mankell introduces Detective Stefan Lindman and saddles him with Wallender-like Weltschmerz. Wallender has diabetes, Lindman cancer. Both are insomniacs who view the world darkly through Swedish glass, as when Lindman runs “his tongue over his mouth. The lump was still there. I’m carrying death in my mouth, he thought.” Like Wallender, Lindman is a cop to the core, imbued with a special sensitivity as to the nature of evil, and obsessive in pursuing creeps. Along with her cautious diagnosis, Lindman’s doctor issues some sensible advice. Get out of harness, she tells him; find a beach and bask while you wait out the three weeks before radiation therapy can begin. It’s all wasted on Lindman. Learning that a former colleague has been murdered in a nearby town, off he goes, fully aware how little the local cops will welcome him. Lindman had never been close to the enigmatic Herbert Molin, but that’s hardly the issue. It’s a case, a knotty one with tentacles reaching back to WWII and the Nazi monstrosity, that’s just what Lindman needs, if not exactly what the doctor ordered. While some over-the-top plotting keeps this series debut a notch below Mankell’s best, his audience will surely approve the new guy too heartily to inflict a serious hit.”(Kirkus Reviews) Author Biography Henning Mankell is the prize-winning and internationally acclaimed author of the Inspector Wallander Mysteries, now dominating bestseller lists throughout Europe. He devotes much of his free time to working with Aids charities in Africa, where he is also director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo.

Author Biography

Henning Mankell (1948-2015) became a worldwide phenomenon with his crime writing, gripping thrillers and atmospheric novels set in Africa. His prizewinning and critically acclaimed Inspector Wallander Mysteries continue to dominate bestseller lists all over the globe and his books have been translated into forty-five languages and made into numerous international film and television adaptations: most recently the BAFTA-award-winning BBC television series Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. Driven by a desire to change the world and to fight against racism and nationalism, Mankell devoted much of his time to working with charities in Africa, including SOS Children’s Villages and PLAN International, where he was also director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. In 2008, the University of St Andrews conferred Henning Mankell with an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his major contribution to literature and to the practical exercise of conscience. www.henningmankell.com