Wallander’s troubles

In the ninth Kurt Wallander mystery, The Troubled Man, Henning Mankell’s depressive hero is faced with signs of domestic contentment. At 60, he’s a well-respected policeman in southern Sweden with a country house and a good-natured dog. Linda, his policewoman daughter, has found a great man and produced a grandchild. But he’s still lonely, and a night of drinking leads to suspension, followed by mysterious gaps in his memory. While suspended, he’s pulled into a mystery with its roots in the Cold War, and even fighting his own troubles, Wallander is still a formidable policeman. As the mystery unfolds with themes of perception and frailty, Wallander is also pulled into his own past. The gaps in what Wallander perceives—and the impact of the relentless passage of time—are as important as the facts he uncovers and present a haunting, deeply affecting story.