This is my first mystery novel written by a Swedish Crime Fiction author. I live in Sweden so I thought — who seems to be the best? Mankell.

The book started very promising, but as the story developed I began to get the feeling that I wasn’t much interested in what was going on or what was going to happen next.
I don’t know if it was the charisma of main character Lindman (and his illness), the depressing atmosphere of Sveg(town) Mankell tried to draw or the slow pace of the plot, but something did it.
Another issue that didn’t help much either is that the translator had a serious problem when it comes to the word “some”. Please, even I who don’t speak perfectly English know a few substitutes for that word.

I was hoping that after reading this book I’d feel forced to run to buy the entire Wallander series, but it won’t happen.

As I write this review I’m currently reading Charlie Huston’s “Already Dead”. So much fun, Joe Pitt, cool lead character!
That makes me think that good plots can be, if not completely destroyed, damage because of bad translations and boring characters. That’s is what I think of “The Return of the Dancing Master”

Cheers
CristianHC

Betyg 3