Henning Mankell wrote this novel in 1993, just after the end of apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela, at a time when the future of South Africa was very uncertain. While known for his detective novels featuring the debonair but formidable Kurt Wallander, he uses his character to advance his ideas on South Africa's racial struggles. This provides a novel that begins as previous games, a disappearance in deep Sweden and rapidly changing in a plot that combines the South African secret services and the swedish police. If the author's talent is sufficient to make the story interesting, novel constantly moves from a classic police investigation goes wrong, the political thriller which we necessarily know the outcome. It is not unpleasant but it loses some of the charm of the first surveys.