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The Dogs Of Riga

The Dogs Of Riga: Kurt Wallander

by Henning Mankell

3.43 out of 5 (30 ratings)

Format:
Paperback 
Pages:
352 
Publisher:
Vintage 
Publication Date:
01 January 2009 
Category:
Crime, Thrillers and Mystery 
ISBN:
9780099535287 

Description

Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander's obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light.

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Showing 1-4 out of 35 reviews. Previous | Next

  • This is the second of the Wallander-novels - and my first Wallander, so I can't compare it to the others in the series - but I really enjoyed this detective. At least in [The Dogs of Riga] Wallander is surprisingly vulnerable - with chest pains and bowel problems - a distaste for police work and a misanthropic nature. And the case he's thrown into gets him quickly out of his comfort zone - a trip to Riga where he's powerless most of the time and has to rely on his instinct rather than facts. It's not even the case that drives him at last but a vague love for a women he hardly knows. And when hailed as a sharp detective he brushes it of because he feels like a complete failure.I like the mood of despair and disillusionment that pervades the novel. The case itself adds to the feeling of uncertainty and a life filled with grey areas - police corruption and political instability where one does not know whom the enemy is. I want to spend more time with Wallander. No doubt about it.

    5.00 out of 5

    ctpress

  • I really liked this book as it introduced me to Latvia, a country I'd never thought anything about before. I was surpised to find this in a bookstore in a tiny town in South Carolina, perfect for my trip home from vacation!

    5.00 out of 5

    kellynasdeo

  • Mankell's Wallander is one of my favorite characters, and the books featuring him are one of my favorite mystery series. I'd somehow missed this one, which is the book where Kirt meets Baiba. And solves a mystery. And almost gets killed. Kind of in that order.

    4.00 out of 5

    bookczuk

  • Much better than your typical mystery. Kurt Wallender follows the mysterious murder of two men--discoverd washed up on the beach in a lifeboat--all the way to Riga in Latvia. Here he discovers the dysfunctional nature of the post-Soviet state. Corruption everywhere; incompetence everywhere; flickers of hope here and there. Mankell is definitely a notch above most mystery writers. Two notches.

    4.00 out of 5

    cdeuker

Reviews provided by Librarything.

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