Kurt Wallander Series

The Kurt Wallander series, created by author Henning Mankell, follows detective Kurt Wallander as he grapples with dark and complex crimes in the picturesque Swedish town of Ystad. The series explores not only the investigations themselves but also Wallander's personal struggles and moral dilemmas. Alongside thrilling plots, it reflects social and political issues of contemporary times. Wallander becomes a symbol of the modern detective facing not only crime but also his own demons.

Recommended Reading Order

1
Faceless Killers
Henning Mankell
298 pages
11 hours of reading
3.8(61148)Add rating
One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call-out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes racial hatred. Kurt Wallander is a senior police officer. His life is a shambles. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, and even his aging father barely tolerates him. He works tirelessly, eats badly, and drinks his night away in a lonely, neglected flat. But now, with winter tightening and his activities being monitored by a tough-minded district attorney, Wallander must forget his troubles and throw himself into a battle against time and against mounting xenophobia. (back cover)
2
The Dogs of Riga
Henning Mankell
352 pages
13 hours of reading
3.8(21779)Add rating
A few days later what they have been warned of comes to pass: a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead.The dead men were Eastern European criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. Bu
3
The White Lioness
Henning Mankell
448 pages
16 hours of reading
3.8(989)Add rating
The mystery thriller series that inspired the Netflix crime drama Young Wallander • From the dean of Scandinavian noir, the third riveting installment in the internationally bestselling and universally acclaimed Kurt Wallander series. The execution-style murder of a Swedish housewife looks like a simple case even though there is no obvious suspect. But then Wallander learns of a determined stalker, and soon enough, the cops catch up with him. But when his alibi turns out to be airtight, they realize that what seemed a simple crime of passion is actually far more complex—and dangerous. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander soon finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent. Combining compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue, The White Lioness keeps you on the knife-edge of suspense.
4
The Man who Smiled
Henning Mankell
448 pages
16 hours of reading
3.9(623)Add rating
After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself spiralling into an alcohol-fuelled depression. He has just decided to leave the police when an old friend approaches him for help investigating his father's suspicious death. Kurt doesn't want to know. But then his friend is found shot dead. Against his better judgment, he returns to work to head what may now have become a double murder case. But while Wallander is on the trail of the killer, somebody is on the trail of Wallander, and closing in fast.
5
Sidetracked
Henning Mankell
4.1(18199)Add rating
Midsummer approaches, and Wallander prepares for a holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his ageing father will cope without hi,. Bit his summer is ruined when a fir l commits suicide before his eyes, and a former minister of justice is butchered in the first of a series of apparently motiveless murders. Wallander's hunt for the girl's identity and his furious pursuit of a killer who scalps his victims will throw him and those he loves most into mortal danger.
6
The Fifth Woman
Henning Mankell
448 pages
16 hours of reading
4.1(21240)Add rating
Four nuns and a fifth woman, a visitor to Africa, are killed in a savage night-time attack. Months later, in Sweden, the news of the tragedy sets off a cruel vengeance for these killings. But when inspector Kurt Wallander investigates the disappearance of an elderly bird-watcher he discovers a gruesome and meticulously planned murder.
7
One Step Behind
Henning Mankell
4.1(15390)Add rating
"It is Midsummer's Eve. Three young friends meet in a wood to act out an elaborate masque. But, unknown to them, they are being watched. Each is killed by a single bullet. Soon afterwards, one of Inspector Wallander's colleagues is found murdered. Is it the same killer, and what could the connection be? In this investigation Wallander is always, tantalisingly, one step behind."
8
Firewall
Henning Mankell
4.0(14206)Add rating
Stopping to use a cash machine one evening, a man falls to the ground- dead. A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenage girls who demonstrate a complete 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. And somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move.
9
Before the Frost
Henning Mankell
384 pages
14 hours of reading
3.9(9555)Add rating
In woodland outside Ystad, the police make a horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, the pages marked with scribbled corrections.
10
An Event in Autumn
Henning Mankell
169 pages
6 hours of reading
3.7(4367)Add rating
The eleventh riveting installment in the mystery thriller series that inspired the Netflix crime drama Young Wallander • Wallander is "one of the most impressive creations in crime fiction today.... An old-fashioned moral force and sense of disquiet of the sort rarely found in contemporary crime fiction." —The Guardian After nearly thirty years in the same job, Inspector Kurt Wallander is tired, restless, and itching to make a change. He is taken with a certain old farmhouse, perfectly situated in a quiet countryside with a charming, overgrown garden. There he finds the skeletal hand of a corpse in a shallow grave. Wallander’s investigation takes him deep into the history of the house and the land, until finally the shocking truth about a long-buried secret is brought to light. Includes an afterword by the author.
11
The Troubled Man
Henning Mankell
3.8(346)Add rating
Every morning H�kan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. However, one winter's day he fails to come home. It seems that the retired naval officer has vanished without trace. Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation but he has personal reasons for his interest in the case as H�kan's son is engaged to his daughter Linda. A few months earlier, at H�kan's 75th birthday party, Kurt noticed that the old man appeared uneasy and seemed eager to talk about a controversial incident from his past career that remained shrouded in mystery. Could this be connected to his disappearance? When H�kan's wife Louise also goes missing, Wallander is determined to uncover the truth. His search leads him down dark and unexpected avenues involving espionage, betrayal and new information about events during the Cold War that threatens to cause a political scandal on a scale unprecedented in Swedish history. The investigation also forces Kurt to look back over his own past and consider his hopes and regrets, as he comes to the unsettling realisation that even those we love the most can remain strangers to us. And then an even darker cloud appears on the horizon... The return of Kurt Wallander, for his final case, has already caused a sensation around the globe. The Troubled Man confirms Henning Mankell's position as the king of crime writing.

Related books

The Pyramid
Henning Mankell
496 pages
18 hours of reading
3.9(672)Add rating
Detective Wallander is haunted by the spectre of a murder he was unable to prevent as a young policeman. Years after the event, the daughter of the murder victim, now a heroin addict, dies of an overdose. A distressed Wallander is assigned to investigate the crash of a light airplane and a detonated armour piercing shell is found in the wreckage. A few days later, two elderly sisters are killed in an explosion in a sewing supplies shop. Traces of an advanced explosive are found in the burnt-out shop and evidence soon mounts to indicate that both events are tied to a showdown between two rival narcotics gangs.
The Return of the Dancing Master
Henning Mankell
520 pages
19 hours of reading
3.9(6192)Add rating
Herbert Molin, A Retired Police Officer, Is Living Alone In A Remote Cottage In The Vast Forests Of Northern Sweden. He Has Two Obsessions: One Is The Tango And The Other Is A Conviction That He Is Being Hunted, Constantly Pursued By 'Demons'. He Has No Close Friends, No Close Neighbours, And By The Time His Body Is Eventually Found, Molin Is Almost Unrecognisable. Lindman, A Police Officer On Extended Sick Leave, Hears Of The Death Of His Former Colleague And, To Take His Mind Off His Own Problems, Decides To Involve Himself In The Case. What He Discovers, To His Horror And Disbelief, Is A Network Of Evil Almost Unimaginable In This Remote District, And One Which Seems Impossible To Link To Molin'S Death.