La Faille Souterraine Et Autres Enquêtes (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
Wallander as young policeman, in love and unsure of himself, leads off this collection of four short stories and one novelette. We learn to know Rydberg and we learn about Wallander's relationship with Mona. His habit of knowing something he can't quite see clearly was established in the beginning. His self-doubt, his confusions about his father, the love he has for Linda and his concerns for her, all of these things we get to see develop.The crime stories are in some ways just bare bones. They move quickly. I felt they were the subtexts, the important story lines being those that dealt with Wallander as a developing detective and the growth of relationships between his family and his co-workers. Wallander has always had trouble deciding what he wants, and then acting on it. He's much more proactive about his work, and greatly confused about his relationships.Primarily a rather scruffy character, always wishing he'd been more thoughtful about personal things and a much more decisive person when it comes to work, Wallander is sometimes maddeningly laughable, sometimes downright inept, and always surprised about how things worked out in the end given his misunderstandings and misdirection. If you are a Kurt Wallander fan, you met him at age 40 as a senior detective and have followed him through subsequent procedural novels. In this treat of a book, Mankell has collected five stories he wrote that tell about Wallander's life BEFORE the novels. The stories begin in 1969 and run through 1990. The Wallander novels begin at this point. This collection is of real interest to Wallander fans.
What do You think about La Faille Souterraine Et Autres Enquêtes (1999)?
These stories set up the Wallander personality as they take you through some of his earliest cases.
—nayjah
The first Wallander. Read these first. I devoured these and love the profression of the hero.
—lovesaadi
This book does fill in the missing pieces, but Mankell's strength is in his long novels.
—tamia
Five short stories shaping a posteriori the early years character of Wallander :)
—sameer
Very well written, I like Wallander as a character.
—Johanjjvr83
