Book Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is a post from: free book reviews

Whenever a film is made of a book I cringe a little. I have very seldom seen a film that is as good as, let alone better than, the original book. I have taken to avoiding film adaptations of books, and whenever a new movie in this genre appears I resolutely look away, or in this case, re-read the original source, to refresh my memory of how good it was to begin with.

So it was with Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, which was recently released as a movie and I’m sure the Powers That Be will figure out a way of creating Kevin lunchboxes and other merch. I haven’t seen it, nor will I, but in this case it is also because I didn’t particularly like the book in the first place.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of those books that unites people in discussion, which is the best that can be said of it. It’s a fantastic Book Club choice, for example, because it has such potential for disagreement. In the FrontLoad.com Book Club then, I am the curmudgeon in the corner who didn’t like it.

To reprise the book, for those who have neither seen the film nor read the book, it is ostensibly a series of letters, a first person narrative by career woman Eva Khatchadourian, mother of Kevin, by then a 15-year-old boy who has shot seven students and two adults at his High School, and who is currently imprisoned in a juvenile detention center for the crime. Eva explores the build up to this point through letters to her now estranged husband, Franklin.

So why didn’t I like it? Quite simply, I didn’t find it emotionally authentic. I found Eva’s voice unconvincing, Kevin an unconvincing disturbed child and Eva’s relationship with Franklin unlikely in the extreme. Franklin himself is little more than an adjunct to the story, and it is impossible to know him at all through Shriver’s portrayal. His behaviour is always inexplicable, and unrealistic. Nothing about him rings true at all, neither his relationship with Kevin, who can do no wrong in his eyes, nor with his other child, towards whom he seems chilly at best. As a periferal character this is bad enough. But when the narrator of the book starts by losing your confidence, the rest of the book is a house of cards waiting to fall down. And for me it did. Card, by tedious card.

As a writer, your primary tasks is to engage the reader, and most good writers do this by using their imagination, if they have no personal knowledge of the subject matter. The greatest literature in history does just this, and can move us to tears of pity. Who could not weep for Hardy’s Tess? Who would remain unmoved by King Lear? And although I am not a Russian living in Saint Petersburg, I could enter fully into the world of Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. So, if Shriver could not convince me of Eva’s reason for even being with Franklin, and of even a remote affection for her child, how is one to feel anything other than indifference towards her, as a reader? If I don’t believe in a character, or  find their emotional landscape remotely engaging or compelling, then the writer has failed. For me, a lack of emotional authenticity came through very strongly, and although some might argue that it is the authorial intention, I am not so sure.

I heard a radio interview with Lionel Shriver recently, and whilst I won’t fall into the trap of confusing a reader with her work, I found the interview revealing. Shriver, herself childless, and quite militantly so, sounded as emotionally disconnected as Eva. There was no sense of warmth, and seemingly no understanding of children or mothers in her explanation of the work. She clearly lacks the ability to realize these relationships either as an imaginative writer, or speaker. There are women who are ambivalent about bearing children. Shriver actually writes very well about this, since she is speaking from a position of emotional knowledge, and it shows. If her book had been about this subject alone it would have succeeded better, and contributed something useful – an often unheard and scorned voice would have been heard. Her portrayal of an emotionally conflicted woman is highly insightful. But of course the book is about far more than that.

The subject of High School shootings is a serious and complex one. Kevin bears absolutely no emotional similarities to any of the teenagers involved in shootings over recent years. This sort of inaccuracy and disregard for facts is irritating, and occurs throughout the book. One small example is when Kevin is presented from birth as a child who refused the breast. Eva takes it as symbolic of his rejection of her and an indication of his disposition. In reality breast refusal in babies is always as a result of one of a host of medical problems. There is no other authentic reason for a baby to refuse the breast, and certainly not an emotional one. 
This could have been a brilliant book, touching as it does on subjects such as wide-ranging as childbearing, relationships, the nature of good and evil, free will and the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate. But for me it became too much like a tick list of Book Club discussion points, with none of these issue tackled in enough depth, or with enough intelligence. As one fellow reader pointed out, accurately, there was no debate about nature/nurture to be had, since none of the ‘nurture’ offered to Kevin was accepted by him. Shriver’s presentation of a situation in which nothing could be done about Kevin by anyone became a fatalistic one. For that reader Kevin becomes an allegory for intransigent fundamentalist ideology in a post 9/11 world. Some ‘positions/people are just wrong’, and time should not be spent trying to understand them or help them. Nothing is to be gained by trying to excuse or explain their behavior, nor will you earn their respect by doing so. It is an interesting interpretation, if a depressing conclusion. I certainly share his frustration with the ‘nothing worked’ portrayal of Kevin. Having worked with disturbed children myself, I simply fail to recognize Shriver’s presentation of Kevin at all, and doubt she is speaking from a position of knowledge here either. 
So, I would not, as you may surmise, recommend this book. It’s far too long, self-indulgent, and light weight in all the places where it might have been really interesting. I have no idea why it has garnered so much praise. Perhaps I should go and see the movie after all. It might just be better than the book.

Our rating: 3 out of 5 stars

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Mti edition (December 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062119044
• ISBN-13: 978-0062119049

Treasure Hunting for Rare Books is a post from: free book reviews

My grandmother was an antique dealer who often enlisted my help as a child to run estate sales.  As an eleven-year-old adventure seeking literary snob, I was convinced there was a tremendous fortune to be had discovering rare, signed first editions in Oklahoma City basements.  The biggest find, which I still have, was a mint condition 1901 reprint of Alfred Lord Tennyson poems, for which I paid $1, which might now buy me lunch.

Though my discovery won’t be needing to travel via courier service to ‘go under the hammer’ at Christie’s in the future, one Oxford family will be sending a book from their bathroom shelf to do just that.  A couple of years ago a man visiting a Darwin exhibition recognized the spine of a first edition of The Origin of Species.   He recognized it because an exact copy of the same edition book resided on the shelf of his in-law’s bathroom shelf in Oxford.  This particular treasure is in mint condition and expected to fetch nearly $100,000 at auction!

Can you imagine randomly finding not just a fragment, but a complete book predating Shakespeare in your home?  In Sandy, Utah a 1493 copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle, which includes 1,800 woodcut illustrations, was discovered in someone’s attic!

In the event you are blessed with an incredible find such as these, find an expert appraiser immediately.  The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers are good resources to track down a qualified professional to inspect, value and locate a venue for sale or display if you so choose.  Good luck and happy hunting, the world is full of great books still waiting to be unearthed, and the best part is—they gain value with every passing year!

Book review: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan is a post from: free book reviews

Esi Edugyan is a renowned Canadian author of Ghanaian descent. Her newest novel Half-Blood Blues was published earlier this year and has found itself on the short lists of many celebrated awards from the Man Booker Prize to the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and it walked away with one of Canada’s leading literary prizes: the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

And it’s certainly an interesting premise - Half-Blood Blues looks at life war-torn in Germany and France in the later 1930s and early 1940s from an Afro-German and African-American perspective. Edugyan spent a period of time as writer-in-residence in Stuttgart and it was during this time she found inspiration for Half-Blood Blues, her second novel.

When thinking about the experience of the Second World War and the Nazi regime, it’s very rare that the African experience is considered. Afro-Germans are a race whose presence seems to go unnoticed despite their population in Germany being traced back to at least the 18^th century with African immigrants adding to the population. It’s believed there were thousands of Afro-German citizens by the time of the Nazi takeover, including those described as Mischlings or half-breeds such as the key fictional character in this novel, Hieronymus Falk.

Hieronymus Falk, known as ‘Hiero’ or ‘the kid’ throughout the novel is a young and exceptionally gifted jazz trumpeter. Living in Berlin, he’s the member of a popular jazz ensemble known as The Hot Time Swingers who are banned from playing live by the Nazi regime who deem their music “degenerate”. After a number of close run-ins with “the Boots” of the Gestapo, Hiero and two of his band mates Charles C. Jones (Chip) and Sid Griffiths, both from Baltimore, USA, escape to Paris. The dream doesn’t last long as their arrival in Paris coincides directly with the declaration of war and the German invasion, meaning the band members are forced into hiding. Whilst in hiding, they use all their contacts and knowledge to try and get hold of forged visas to get to the States but one day, on Hiero’s demand, both he and Sid venture out onto the invaded streets. Although Sid can pass for white, Hiero has no chance and on visiting a café, he gets picked up by the Gestapo and we soon learn he’s sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where it’s believed he dies.

The narrator is Sid, takes the reader back and forth in time from wartime Paris and Berlin to 1992, where he and Chip Jones are returning to Berlin, as guests of honour in a premier screening of a documentary about Hiero. In his absence he has become somewhat of a jazz cult hero. Both Chip and Sid are in their 80s by 1992 and Sid in particular has a big, secret that has been eating away at him since Hiero’s incarceration and death. Chip also has a secret that he reveals quite early on in the novel, he has received correspondence from Hiero, who sensationally didn’t die in Sachsenhausen and is leaving in Poland. Chip decides that both he and Sid are going to visit him.

This novel promises a whole host of interesting insights into the Anglo-German experience during the Nazi regime and although it is discussed, it doesn’t feel central to the novel’s real story. Edugyan gives us the story of Sid Griffiths and his version of events leading up to Hiero’s arrest and capture and also his feelings in 1992, especially in relation to the changes in his relationship with Chip. The novel is also significantly concerned with jazz and Edugyan writes beautifully, using sentences that are crafted in such a manner that jazz becomes appealing to even those who couldn’t consider themselves fans, for example:

“Hiero thrown out note after shimmering note, like sunshine sliding all over the surface of a lake, and Armstrong was the water, all depth and thought, not one wasted note.”

This is just one example of Edugyan’s beautiful style and precision when talking directly about jazz, Hiero’s talent and the way it spoke to so many people. This example also shows the dialectal style in which Edugyan writes, displaying Sid’s Baltimore roots and also giving him a more genuine and believable voice. Edugyan gives Sid a voice with a warm and deep feeling to it which makes this novel perfect for settling into your comfy reading chair and getting lost.

Half-Blood Blues is written beautifully, Edugyan creates a voice for her narrator that is wholly unique and identifiable and the plot dealing with all issues from racial tension to the love of simple music is both powerful and thought-provoking.

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (February 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250012708
• ISBN-13: 978-1250012708

How to Write a Novel is a post from: free book reviews

Have you ever considered becoming a novelist? Write a great story and the money can come flooding in, although it usually takes years of practice! It can be a lonely profession with little guidance offered, so here are a few tips on how to write a novel like the most popular writers in romantic, horror, thriller and children’s fiction. Good luck!

Dame Barbara Cartland: Author of over 700 books, mostly romantic fiction.

How could you resist following in the footsteps of one of the most prolific and successful romantic novelists of all time? Dame Barbara Cartland certainly had the formula for success and even wrote 23 novels in 1983 alone, earning her the Guinness World Record for most novels written in a single year. A lot of coffee will be needed to catch up and an assistant would help, as Cartland usually dictated her novels. Cartland’s romantic novels had a standard formula based on a rather old fashioned but nevertheless popular kind of chivalry. First, you must create a virtuous and virginal heroine, longing for romance and marriage. Then, you need a male protagonist well versed in chivalry, who will eventually win the heart of the heroine. Prepare yourself for attacks from Feminist critics!

Stephen King: Author of over 50 books, mostly terrifying horror novels.

If you relish scaring the living daylights out of people, there is no better author to emulate than Stephen King, the undisputed king of horror. One thing you will need is an incredibly detailed knowledge of American society. From the prom night in Carrie, to the beloved classic car in Christine and 50s/80s small town setting of It, King has the uncanny ability to evoke authentic Americana while placing it in danger from malevolent supernatural forces. Many of King’s plots focus on the danger of obsession, most memorably in Misery, which may well change your mind about becoming a writer altogether! Fond of using old Indian burial grounds as a possible explanation for ensuing horror, if you really want your protagonist to resemble those of King they must fail to heed at least one warning of what lies ahead for them.

Tom Clancy: Author of the Jack Ryan/John Clark thriller novels

A true master of the military and espionage thriller, Tom Clancy’s most famous novels involve the characters Jack Ryan, who moves from consultant to CIA operative to US President during the course of the novels, and John Clark, who serves as a Navy SEAL before joining the CIA. If you want to write like Clancy, you will need an encyclopaedic knowledge of global politics and the military. Nearly all Clancy’s novels feature a plot involving terrorist factions threatening the safety of the US, with incredible attention to detail being given to both terrorist and military operations. As well as knowing your military technology and weaponry, you must work in at least one traitor lurking in the shadows.

J.K. Rowling: Author of the Harry Potter novels

What can you say about billionaire author J.K. Rowling? If you want to replicate her unparalleled success, you will need an incredibly fertile imagination, the ability to work magic with your prose, a host of characters you truly fall in love with and an admirable commitment to not shun from the darker aspects of children’s fantasy literature. The narrative throughout the Harry Potter series is a classic example of the bildungsroman, a coming of age tale of a young boy who just happens to be a wizard. To capture the essence of the Harry Potter series would require sharing Rowling’s ability to create a spellbinding blend of fantastical fictional elements and the more realistic portrayal of the key characters’ struggles with love, life and death as they grow from children to teenagers.

This article was produced on behalf of business card, catalogue and booklet printing company, PrintExpress.co.uk.

Life Interrupted, an Author’s Journey is a post from: free book reviews

Wednesday, June 22, 2011. From Corporate America to Poverty with the Stroke of a Pen
It’s not easy being famous, but, then, of course, I wouldn’t know, because I’m not… What I SHOULD say is that it’s not easy being an author, especially if you need to eat on a regular basis.

I mean, it’s not quite as difficult as slopping hogs for a living, but close. No, for those of you reading this, I have NOT lost my mind (I have to find it first before I can lose it). I once was little Miss Sales Person, all dressed in her pumps and her tailored suit when I got the crazy urge to write full-time. After all, my ninth grade teacher, Miss Hazel May, told me that I would be miserable if I did not pick up a pen and write full-time. So, in 1991, I got off the fast track, dumped the briefcase and the attitude, and said, by God, I’m going to write. It was a crazy moment. That was when I probably DID lose my mind… I set out with my rose-colored glasses and picked up my pen and began to write.

Picking up the pen to write wasn’t the problem. The problem was getting someone in the elite world of publishing to actually READ what I wrote (more about that at a later time). So, I wrote and naive little thing that I was, I sent a crackerjack synopsis and first three chapters to an agent for a really good novel I was writing. Oh, my God, I forgot to tell you – I’d only written the first three chapters and I didn’t HAVE a book. A few weeks later, still fat from my sales commission checks, I danced out to my mailbox and there was a letter from THE AGENT (they are to be revered, after all – remember that if you are looking for one of them; adhere to protocol because if you don’t, you might be discussed over dinner or worse, talked about as some scuttlebutt in a bar somewhere – probably Manhattan). Well, I had to adjust my glasses when I looked at the letter. I already thought I was seeing things. He actually liked the idea and wanted to see my entire manuscript. I almost peed at the mailbox… I didn’t have a manuscript, so what was I supposed to do? I did what any aspiring novelist would do. I sat down, calculated, very methodically, how many pages I could write in one day and multiplied it by the number of days I would have to write in order to produce, well, the hmm, manuscript. Six weeks later, I had a completed manuscript. Eager to get it to him, I almost ran over the postman trying to get it to the agent…

Flash forward to two months later. And thus, the journey began… “Dear Friend, We’re sorry but while this shows promise, it does not suit our editorial needs for the marketplace, etc.” What miffed me more than anything was that a man I had never met me dared to call me friend.

I would learn later that in the publishing industry, you escalate from “friend” to “writer” when you’ve published a few things and later, when you’ve REALLY sold some work, they’ll even wine you and dine you because they see dollar signs all over your pen… Now, here’s the good part – you create it, and let’s go to one of those casinos, play some Black Jack and see who gets the higher percentage off your creation. I’d love to hear your comments on that one…let me know!

So, next time, I’ll tell you more about all that scuttlebutt in a bar…

Book review: We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen is a post from: free book reviews

The author and political commentator Carsten Jensen hails from the Danish town of Marstal, in the South of Funen Archipelago, and it’s the people of this coastal town, and their relationship to the sea, that forms the central thread of the novel.

“Such was the chain of life: unbreakable.”

This seafaring book deserves praise for its ambition alone: split into five parts, it begins in 1849 and concludes a century and four generations later, with the end of WWII. The story starts well. The first two hundred pages colourfully describe a naval battle between Denmark and Germany at Eckernförde, followed by a POW drama, life in Marstal under the cloud of a tyrannical school teacher, and Pacific adventures full of pirates, cannibals, and a shrunken head or two.

The book’s main strength, however, is centred around parts two and three, which feature the character of Albert Madsen. Recently returned to Marstal and now a wealthy and respected shipowner, Albert becomes a surrogate father to Knud Erik, one of the many children whose real father drowned while sailing. The volatile relationship between Albert and the boy’s mother is unsentimental and at times very moving. In addition to the brilliantly complex Albert, we’re given an intimate portrayal of a widower learning to stand on her own two feet, of the legacy of a father lost to the sea, and of a son yearning to follow in his footsteps despite the risks – all of which are the novel’s major themes.

If the book’s greatest moments occur when we ‘zoom in’ on the interplay of characters, then its weakest occur when the camera pulls back and we have to read large chunks of impersonal summary that span many years. And during such moments – for example, when Albert voyages the Pacific or returns to Marstal at the outbreak of WWI – the pace and emotional charge suffer from too much self-reflection and navel gazing (or should that be naval gazing?). Another weak spot for me was the anonymous ‘we’ narrator that was applied inconsistently throughout the chapters. ‘We’ may well be a clever literary device, but its effect was lost on this reader. I simply found myself asking, who is this narrator and when will he or she be revealed!

But weak spots aside, I turned the last page with a richer, more intimate insight of sealife and the legacy it leaves behind.

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

• Author: Carsten Jensen
• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (February 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013772
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013777

Free books friday week 2 – Alice in wonderland by Lewis Caroll is a post from: free book reviews

In this week’s Free Book Friday, we focus on one of the most influential classic novels in the fantasy genre: Alice in wonderland (or in full: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). This 1865 novel, written by English Author Lewis Caroll, is listed in the public domain, which means that the book is freely available to the general public.

In fact, the book entered the public domain in 1908 already after the expiration of it’s copyright in the UK. And at least 8 new editions of the book are published in that same year alone!

As most of us know, the book tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a fantasy world populated by the most bizarre and fantastic creatures. The book certainly was a sensation, since it’s first mass publishing in the 1860s. Both children and adults loved it, while having Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wild among its first avid readers. Until this day, the book has never been out of print.

So don’t wait to read this book and experience your childhood again by entering wonderland! You can read it online or download it to your pc, iphone, ipad, kindle, etc. right here: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Book review: How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People is a post from: free book reviews

If you’ve ever struggled with communicating confidently with others, this book is for you!

How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People is virtually a manual from A to Z on human relations.  Les Giblin is genius in outlining the skills needed to becoming confident when dealing with others.  You will learn what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and what NOT to do as it pertains to communicating with people.

Communication is more than what we say.  It’s how we say it, our posture, our expressions; our ever important non-verbal communication that speaks louder than the words that come out of our mouths’.  If you want to be a people person or just have success communicating with people in your everyday life, you must read this book!  Better yet, don’t just read it – apply the principles and I am positive you will see great results in your personal, casual, and business encounters.

The book contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 1 – Your key to success and happiness
• Chapter 2 – How to use the basic secret for inluencing others
• Chapter 3 – How to cash in on your hidden assets
• Chapter 4 – How to control the actions and attitudes of others
• Chapter 5 – How you can create a good impression on others
• Chapter 6 – How to use three big secrets for attracting people
• Chapter 7 – How to make the other person feel friendly
• Chapter 8 – How you can develop skill in using words
• Chapter 9 – How to use the technique that a supreme court justice called “White Magic”
• Chapter 10 – How to get others to see things your way quickly
• Chapter 11 – How to get 100% cooperation and increae your brain power
• Chapter 12 – How to use your miracle power in human relations
• Chapter 13 – How to criticize others without offending them
• Chapter 14 – A simple, effective plan of action that will bring you success and happiness

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

• Author: Leslie T. Giblin
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press (November 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0134106717
• ISBN-13: 978-0134106717

Free books friday! is a post from: free book reviews

Isn’t friday the perfect day to start reading a book? It absolutely is, especially if it’s a free book! That’s why we want to start a new concept here on Frontlist – Every friday we will introduce you to a website where you can order or download free books online. This can range from free ebooks, kindle books, iPad editions to real book deals delivered right to your doorstep.

Our first free book is one of the best Sci-Fi classics of all time and you can currently download the Kindle edition free of charge on Amazon.com. We are talking about The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells.

This book is a must read for all fans of the genre and it’s great to see that this classic was converted to a digital format, thanks to a community of volunteers. Since it’s a quick read, this book makes a great travel companion. Even more in it’s digital edition, making it possible to read on your Kindle, iPhone or iPad. So don’t hesitate to add this novel to your free books collection!

Book review: Before the Frost by Henning Mankell is a post from: free book reviews

Henning Mankell has been busy lately writing about the recent Swedish election and experimenting with new thriller formulas such as his latest novel, The Man from Beijing.

After his long running popular Kurt Wallander novels, adapted for a TV series in the UK earlier this year, he has officially dropped the famous police inspector. He first moved the focus away from Inspector Wallander in Before the Frost, (2005) which gives his daughter the lead role with mixed success.

On the positive side, Linda Wallander is a very well drawn character. She’s multi-dimensional with strong points, her determination to succeed and understanding of people’s motivations as well as flaws, a short temper and tendency to wallow in teenage angst. She is determined to be as successful as her father in her chosen career as a policewoman. Mankell really brings out how much Linda wants to impress her father as she constantly compares her work life and even personality traits with his. This becomes more obvious as she throws herself into one of his investigations while waiting a couple of months to officially start work at Ystad police station.

Her father is called up after two apparently unrelated acts of violence: a massacre in Guyana and the sadistic killing of half a dozen swans on a lake in Sweden. Linda becomes more directly involved when a close friend of hers, Anna, disappears. During her role in the investigation, we see she does match her father in her insight into people’s characters. She is a very perceptive person able to draw conclusions from somebody’s body language or comment.

At the same time, we don’t just see Linda as an all round good character. She is quick to fly off the handle, at one point throwing an ashtray at her father. The aftermath of these incidents are also well described as Linda feels a mixture of regret and shame at losing her temper. In addition, while around her parents she sometimes behaves as a teenager. Mankell shows that he can still remember what it’s like to actually be this age. Also, given that Linda is forced to live with her father (her parents are divorced) she is in a similar position to a 16 year old. She also has her attempted teenage suicide at the back of her mind. She’s constantly doubting herself, although we see her growing in confidence with her successes as a police investigator.

The real weakness of the novel, in my opinion, is Linda’s friend Anna. It is difficult to understand how logical minded Linda is friends with a religious fanatic. The fact that she’s got keys to Anna’s apartment is either strange or simply lost in translation. Anyone from a city will find it amazing that Linda could walk in and out of Anna’s flat while she was reported missing.
Anna goes off suddenly after thinking she’s seen her father who left years ago to become part of a religious group that organises sadistic religious rituals. The fact that Anna turns out to have another life in a different city is a little far-fetched. If Anna was a more convincing character then the plot would be more credible. It’s well-paced and there are exciting twists and turns, but it’s really let down by Anna’s personality and unrealistic motivations.

Overall, the novel is well done and an imaginative extension of the Kurt Wallander series. However, its reception has not been as impressive as his earlier Wallander novels which arguably mark his peak as a thriller writer.

Makell is a butterfly author unsure what to land on after his successful Wallander series.

Our rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

• Author: Henning Mankell
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400095816
• ISBN-13: 978-1400095810