Not with a bang but a whimper.

There are already so many excellent reviews of this book, I feel I have little to add, except to agree it was a compelling read with several major surprises, and also very sad. I did find the ending unsatisfying, but I think that was the author's intent. The issues of aging and death Wallander is wrestling with cannot be neatly resolved.

Without giving anything away, pretty much everyone knows by now that The Troubled Man is the last Wallander novel, and once again within the space of a month I'm having to say goodbye to not only a favorite series, but to a favorite character as well. I hate when this happens, but series readers know it's likely inevitable at some point."It began with the troubled man," who in this case is Håkan von Enke, retired naval officer, husband of Louise and father of Hans. Hans, as it turns out, is a he...

Apparently, The Troubled Man, is Henning Mankell's last book in the Kurt Wallander series. Many of us will miss him as we got to like the often grumpy detective, who has had his own, very individual, ways of following suspects and investigating crime(s). This novel is not necessarily his best detective story, - but then I am not the one to judge, not being very knowledgeable in this genre - yet, in other ways, it makes for a very rewarding read. We learn more about the man, Wallander, who he was...

"History isn't just something that's being us, it's also something that follows us.”If you have been reading or have read all of the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell as I have done, this is an especially sad but really well-done volume that finally ends the series. Mankell had written what he thought was the last book on a number of occasions, but this one, published in 2009, six years before he himself succumbed to cancer, in 2015, is a very clear ending readers may not quite have desir...

This is not a book with which to begin your relationship with Henning Mankell's moody detective, Kurt Wallander. This is a novel purely for those who have formed a connection with Wallander over the many preceding novels. I find Wallander one of the most richly human characters I've encountered in fiction--believably flawed and lonely and morose (perhaps because I am always flawed and sometimes lonely and morose, myself)--and I was a bit saddened, going into this book, knowing that it was to be

I won't rehash the plot, others have done a fine job of that. My problem with the book is that Henning Mankell was astonishingly lazy with his plotting. He seems to have made up the plot as he went along, with no clear idea of where he was going or what the solution would be. There's a stunningly inane, unbelievable, and contrived coincidence a third of the way through the book that ultimately ends up being totally unnecessary. I can't understand why Mankell didn't cut it, because it asks for su...

This is the last novel in the Wallander Series and I find it impossible to review it without spoilers. As usual in this series there are pieces of a jigsaw waiting for Wallander to fit together. Unusually, though, several are left out of the completed picture. Small stones are mentioned, one of which appears to travel from Sweden to Germany. What does this signify? I have no idea. A woman, Louise, is murdered, this being the only murder in the book. By whom? I have no idea. Why? There is a sugge...

I usually give Henning Mankell's novels about Kurt Wallander 4 stars. They're all very good, always pushing the boundaries of the mystery genre in order to develop character and explore political issues. The mysteries are often less interesting than the world Mankell constructs. But since this is the end of the series for me--and it's so sad to say goodbye to Kurt after following his ups and downs (which are many) for so long--I'm going to give the finale 5 stars, as a tribute to the entire body...

Great read. Kurt Wallander is a wonderful character. So real with his vulnerabilities. His illnesses and his fear of death. He sees himself on a journey he can not turn around from nor can he change the final destination. He lives alone because of his obsession in solving cases leaves no time for anyone else, yet he dreams of a relationship with Baiba a former love interest. In his world he has a daughter and grand-daughter who love him but there is no one else. There is a detective story, a mys...

I have had a problem with the last several Wallander books because of the inconsistencies between books, especially in events that took place between Kurt and his father. This book pretty much epitomizes this trend, and to boot has so many red herrings that instead of a plot its just a series of plot devices. Why would Eskil point out the hideaway on their trip back from the island? Why did Eskil give Wallander the cylinder? Who was in the submarine that was let "free" when Hakan was about to fi...

Depressing and not a good read if you happen to be a newly retired 62 year old man who has been determined in his life to find a happy ending to all eventualities. Wallander is depressed and depressing and the case he is pursuing is not very interesting for his last case...I could barely finish this book as I simply lost interest in Wallander as well as his case. This was a disappointing end to a brilliant series in a genre so capably handled by the gifted Henning Mankell.

It had been quite a while since I had checked in on Kurt Wallander, so the time seemed appropriate. I wondered if perhaps his creator, Henning Mankell, had allowed him to mellow out at all in the interim.Early in the book, as the author was describing Wallander, I came across a sentence asserting that the Swedish policeman was, in fact, quite a cheerful person. I had to laugh out loud. If there is one adjective that could likely never be honestly applied to Kurt Wallander it is "cheerful."As we

Reading this, Henning Mankell's latest and final in the Kurt Wallander series, was like finding myself in a well-known and beloved landscape: Kurt Wallanderland. Mankell is not a great stylist but he has managed to do something remarkable in his creation of Police Detective Wallander. I love this melancholy man. Smart, humane, brooding, somehow both slow and sharp, he is an old and dear friend to me.I think I've now read all of the Wallander novels. A few of them don't quite work (The Dogs of Ri...

Book Review:We all form connections and we break them. We build friendships. Some of us are on teams at work only to get displaced and join a different team. We travel to distant lands and leave such lands and the people in it. We have families and children, this sacred space we rarely leave until death. We marry and sometimes we divorce a beloved. We become fans of successful artists, perhaps a musician, a singer/songwriter or a Maxfield Parrish, or a Goya, only to feel our inner landscape has

Halfway through the book, I find it hard to believe how fast this reads, and how hard I find it to put it down. I have a soft spot for Mankell ever since I saw him talk live (and found that I could well listen for a few more hours) but in some of the Wallander mysteries, I got a bit tired of rants about the political climate in Sweden. This one had only a reasonable amount of that, and I'm enjoying it._____________Finished the book - a bit sad that this is definitely the end of the series, but I...

A good end to an amazing series. I admit that you can feel the end coming, but it wasn't 100% expected. Now we know Mankell's own life story was coming to a close, so it's fitting that Wallander was allowed to pass away in the world of fiction. But it's still heartbreaking that the wonderful series is done; never again to be in my "to-read" pile. Troubled Man had a few coincidences that annoyed me but nothing as bad as Before the Frost. Not bad enough to ruin the experience, but a crutch that He...

I had put off reading the last in the Kurt Wallander series because I really did not want to say goodbye. Yet with the BBC4 transmission of the TV adaptation of the novel I figured the time and come to say goodbye. I appreciated the Cold War elements of the story. Like many in the series, this is a very slow burning novel as Kurt investigates the disappearance of the parents of his daughter's partner. It is an unofficial case that he slots into his free time and during various holidays. Througho...

I have loved this series, even though I've read them out of order. I love that they're a bit dark - Wallander is always a bit down, which to me seems totally logical in terms of the terrible crimes he's helping to solve. It's his personality, and I liked that about him. It was consistent throughout all of the books. But while I liked the mystery of this one, I seriously disliked the ending. Throughout the book Mankell's gave hints that Wallander was losing his memory, but the last two sentences

i bid a sad farewell to kurt wallander. it's been wonderful eagerly reading thru all of his cases. more than ordinary police procedurals these novels are character driven stories, a look into the deeper issues of the changing social and political side of a modern sweden thru the eyes of a flawed and aging citizen obsessively searching for the truth.