The Troubled Man / Henning Mankell

The final installment of the popular Kurt Wallander detective series follows Wallander to the end of his career. As he transitions from the loss of his father, his family focus shifts to his newly-born granddaughter and a renewed relationship with his daughter Linda. Worrisome episodes of forgetfulness, however, force him to confront his own mortality, and the sudden death of his once-beloved Baiba is a sign that his remaining years are precious.

The disappearance of Linda’s “in-laws” (since she isn’t married to their son, what’s the proper term?) is the case that preoccupies Wallander in The Troubled Man. Their backstory takes in the complicated history of post-war Europe's Cold War politics, a suggestion of espionage, Olof Palme, the CIA... all culminating with the rash of submarine incursions into Swedish territorial waters from the 1980s that I remember so well.

I was fascinated by Wallander’s last case, but also felt that the entrance into his final life stage was very compelling and realistic. It was sad and melancholy, but life is often that way. Of course, it’s not likely that Mankell will write another Wallander novel, but Conan Doyle did resuscitate Sherlock Holmes, so there is a smidgen of hope. It’s a little sad to say “adjö" to a good Swedish friend.

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