Mankell is decidedly modern writer who is good for: his writing and his style reality survey gives us a hard time to find the riddle. We learn more about Wallander and his family (father, ex-wife, daughter, saeur) and even we manage to understand how he can be quite alone (he has a temper to go through things and to do funds). The police investigation gives us the impression of being real which puts the action in the book. The subject is topical as it was written in 1991: the fear of the stranger and the importance of money. The plot is well done and really want to know how this farmer apparently without problems managed to be in such a mess. I think it is a good soft fleece where the plot pushes us to want to turn the pages, where the characters are lost but very friendly.
