Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

1st book in the Kurt Wallender mystery series

Set in Sweden these books are now being translated into English. Also some of the novels have been an adapted for Masterpiece Mystery series on PBS starring Kenneth Branagh

The story opens with a horrific murder scene on the Lovgren farm in rural Sweden. An elderly farmer discovers that his neighbors, also elderly, have been attacked. The husband, Johannes Lovgren, was gruesomely tortured and killed while his wife, Maria, left for dead with a noose around her neck. Rydberg, a police force old-timer, says the noose's unusual knot and the word foreigner, which old woman uttered before she died, are important. Wallender puts those clues on the back burner when he learns that Johannes, ostensibly a simple farmer, had a secret life involving wealth and connections unknown to his wife. However, a leak to the press complicates the investigation by arousing anti-immigrant feelings, some of which are expressed in anonymous threats.

There is a lot of immigration tension in Sweden and refugee camps are being targeted - making the small police force even more stretched to the breaking point. When a Somali refugee is shot, the clues point to a retired former policeman of another town Wallander and his fellow police detectives are torn how to deal with it.

Kurt Wallender, a middle-aged cop in the small town of Lenarp. His wife has recently left him and he is drowning his sorrows in opera and far too much liquor. He is also dealing with the guilt he feels with his father who's mental health is failing. He tries to visit but gets caught up in the drama of the new case. Only after a neighbor calls after finding his father wandering along the roadside carrying a suitcase of dirty underwear and paint supplies. Wallender's father is a famous painter who has only paints one scene with or without a grouse. Wallender often wonders what his father wanted him to be as he is constantly berating him for being a policeman. Wallender feels estranged from his wife, his daughter, Linda and most of all real life.

You really feel the hopelessness he feels, the despair he feels his life has become. But he also has this way of finding the truth. This is a true police procedural and the cases take months to solve versus a few days. Plus I have a whole new appreciation to cold weather! brrrr.... A good book to read in Phoenix when it is 115+ degrees.