One Step Behind (Kurt Wallander Series #7)

by Henning Mankell, Ebba Segerberg (Translator)

Overview

On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the still-sun-lit northern night, they don costumes and begin to role play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. The murderer then carefully photographs the grisly tableau. Meanwhile, the Ystad police station is experiencing a summer lull. Inspector Kurt Wallander is focusing on living healthier, but his peace of mind is shattered when a fellow officer is murdered. The police slowly realize how little they know about what is going on in their seemingly serene town. An unknown killer is on the loose, but their only lead is a photograph of three dead young people in costume.Forced to dig more deeply than he'd like into the personal life of one of his colleagues, Wallander's investigation uncovers something he could never have imagined. One Step Behind is the fifth book to appear in English in what the Los Angeles Times Book Review calls the "exquisite" Kurt Wallander series.

Author Biography: Internationally acclaimed author Henning Mankell has written nine Kurt Wallander mysteries. The books have consistently topped the bestseller lists in Europe, receiving a number of major literary prizes and generating numerous international film and television adaptations. Translator Ebba Segerberg teaches Swedish at Washington University in St. Louis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565846524
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/01/2002
Series:	Kurt Wallander Series , #7
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	1.06(w) x 9.00(h) x 6.00(d)

About the Author

Henning Mankell is the internatinally acclaimed, bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander novels.  Mankell's novels have been translated into forty-five languages and have sold more than forty million copies worldwide. He was the first winner of the Ripper Award and also received the Glass Key and the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger, among other awards. His Kurt Wallander mysteries have been adapted into a PBS television series starring Kenneth Branagh. During his life, Mankell divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he was artistic director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. He died in 2015.

Hometown:

Mozambique, Africa

Date of Birth:

February 3, 1948

Place of Birth:

Stockholm, Sweden

Education:

Folkskolan Elementary Shool, Sveg; Högre Allmäna Läroverket, Borås

Reading Group Guide

“Lyrical, meticulous, and stunningly suspenseful.” —St. Petersburg Times

The introduction, discussion questions, author biography, and suggested reading list that follow are designed to enhance your group’s reading of Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s most chilling Kurt Wallander mystery, One Step Behind.

Introduction

“Lyrical, meticulous, and stunningly suspenseful.” —St. Petersburg Times

The introduction, discussion questions, author biography, and suggested reading list that follow are designed to enhance your group’s reading of Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s most chilling Kurt Wallander mystery, One Step Behind.

Editorial Reviews

In Ystad, the middle-sized Swedish city that Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander (The Fifth Woman, 2000, etc.) tries to keep law-abiding, it seems he's succeeding: big crime has taken a holiday during a decorous summer. But Wallander, just returned from a holiday of his own, is feeling far less invigorated than he expected to. He's got no energy, no zest for the job, and no reason to plan for life much beyond 50, his doctor tells him grimly, unless he does something about the hours he works, the junk food he eats, and the exercise he assiduously avoids. Even as Wallander vows to reinvent himself, however, all hell breaks loose in Ystad, ending any dreams of peace for weary Wallander and his undermanned department. Three young celebrants of a bizarre, if probably harmless, Midsummer's Eve ritual, first thought to be only missing, are found murdered, executed by bullets to their heads. Next, one of Wallander's special officers is shotgunned to death in his own house. The homicides that follow give every indication of being somehow connected. Clearly, Ystad has a serial killer on its hands, a careful, crafty killer with an obsessive hatred for, of all things, happiness. Wallander, who has always maintained that there are "evil circumstances" and "evil conditions" but no people with evil "hardwired in their genes," is shaken. And then, one night, alone in the secluded woods, he knows he's being stalked by a monster. Maigret lives in this brilliant police procedural, the best of Wallander's adventures to date.

Kirkus Reviews

Lyrical, meticulous, and stunningly suspenseful.” –St. Petersburg Times

“Typical of the dense, intricate intelligence that Mankell brings to detection and crime writing.” –The Washington Post Book World

“Satisfying in a way that has less to do with the wonders of forensic science than with the pure pleasure of rational thought.” –The New York Times

“It is not hard to see why the Wallander books have made a particular impact.” —Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher