An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell – 169 p.

Inspector Kurt Wallander is getting restless, living with his daughter in their small town home, and he's been imagining moving to a bigger place where he can have a dog and a garden. His colleague offers a charming fixer-upper that appears to be the answer to Kurt's dreams. However, the dream is dashed when Kurt inspects the grounds, and practically trips over a human hand coming up through the soil. This brief novel was a great introduction to Mankell's series, and even though I have watched the (excellent) TV series, I think it will be worth reading some more of these.

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson – 309 p.

The Darkness is first in a new series by Scandinavian noir author Jonasson. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik police is forced into early retirement. She wheedles a half-hearted verbal agreement from her boss to investigate one last cold case, one that has haunted her for many years, that of a drowned young Russian woman that no one really cared about. I simply could not dredge up a lot of empathy for put-upon Hulda. The author kept explaining what a strong, capable woman she is, but I felt she was just whiny and unsure of her every move. I also did not care for the way this book sets up the series, which I don't intend to read. Too bad.