'THE TROUBLED MAN' by Henning Mankell

Finished Mo 2/4/19

This is one of two Henning Mankell novels that I ordered on Amazon a few weeks ago. This was a hardback library copy (discarded from The Sonoma County, CA Library). This is the last book in the Kurt Wallander series.

I learned at the 'Feb 3rd' page at Wikipedia (I was checking out famous people that were born on my birthday: Pretty Boy Floyd/ Frederick Mendelsohn) that Mankell and I were both born on Feb 3rd, although he was born in 1948 and died of lung and throat cancer in 2015. In his later life, he lived both in Sweden and Mozambique where he ran a theater that staged plays and operatic performances that were budget priced.

This is the last installment of the Kurt Wallander series. The last paragraph of the book informs the reader that within a couple of years Wallander slips into the abyss of dementia. I wish that there was at least one more episode because I think that would have been very interesting to have a detective that was dealing with memory loss. It might be more of a procedural burden than Mathew Scudder's problems with alcohol.

PLOT NOTES:

Kurt's adult daughter has a partner, Hans, and gives birth to Kurt's grand-daughter, Karla. Hans is an investment banker in Copenhagen. They live near Ystad and Han's drives over an hour to work. Kurt has finally moved from the city and he lives in an isolated small house near the sea.

Hakan and Louise Von Enke are Hans's parents. Hakan is a retired naval commander and Louise is a homemaker. Kurt is invited to Hakan's 75th birthday party and he pulls Kurt aside to talk to him. He seems distracted, nervous, and was possibly being followed. He is the 'troubled man' of the title, but ironically it could also apply to Kurt.

Hakan has extreme anti-Soviet views and sees America and NATO has Sweden's only hope for political safety.

Hakan disappears and within a week or so, Louise is also missing.

Later Louise's body is found. It seems that she had committed suicide, but Kurt contacts someone he knew that specialized in drugs used by the East Germans. This man identified the drug found in Louisie's body and says that this was used to kill people and make it look as a suicide.

After questioning several of Hakan's friends and co-workers Kurt tracks Hakan to an isolated small island where Hakan was hiding in a hunting cabin. He claims that he was on the run from persons unknown but he suspects that his wife, Louise, had been a spy for the Russians. He claims that over the years (decades- this began during the sixties) various papers appeared to be disturbed in his safe.

The big reveal is that Louise is not a spy for the Russians, but Hakan was a spy for the Americans and he set Louise up as his cover.

In the climax to the novel Kurt and Hakan's best friend travel to the hunting cabin and confront Hakan. The friend hides near a window and listens to the exchange. Hakan admits to Kurt what was really going on and then pulls a gun and shoots himself in the head, but the wound is not fatal. Kurt leaves the cabin to try to contact emergency services. The friend enters the cabin, shoots Hakan again and kills him, and then he turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.

Kurt leaves the island but conceals his part in the suicide pact. He lets the authorities figure it out, but he has erased his connection to the crime.

He spends the next several months writing down exactly what and how the 'spy ring' and murder operated. He will send this anonymously to the authorities. This is Kurt's last work.

The book ends with a short and very sad paragraph:

"After that this is nothing more. The story of Kurt Wallander is finished, once and for all. The years-ten, perhaps more- he has left to live are his own. His and Linda's, his and Klara's; nobody else's. "

There are quite a few loose ends to the plot and they are mentioned in the final chapter of the book, but never explained. Kurt was dealing with secret spy organizations of the Russians and the Americans and it's expected that they would cover their tracks very well.

I loved the book (and the series) and I want to read them all. And maybe I'll see if I can watch some of the movies and television series that are based on the Wallander books. Kenneth Branagh plays Wallander in the English version and there is a Swedish Kurt as well.