Before the Frost (ISBN 1400095816)

The Sinister World Invades Sweden:
Henning Mankell's Before the Frost combines the sleuthing skills of its main protagonist, Kurt Wallender and his daughter, Linda, who has now joined the force. Mankell takes us on his usual gripping journey as Kurt and Linda try to discover the identity of a murderer before he can kill again. This time, however, the murderer is fueled by religious mania, thus making Wallender's job more frustrating and dangerous as he attempts to decode a series of strange clues. Along the way, we are entertained by Kurt's evolving relationship with his grown up daughter as well as his insightful commentary on the demise of Sweden's social democratic society. Over and over, Mankell proves himself as one of the best crime novelists in the world. As always, he has written another gem. Donald Gallinger is the author ofThe Master Planets

Wallander and daughter are revolting people.:
I have read everything that Mankell has written. The plot is very very suspensful. Wallandar and his daughter are portrayed as two of the most unlikeable, revolting people I have have come across as detectives. Everything about them is distasteful and their disfunctional relationship totally took away from my enjoyment of what is a fascinating mystery.

Unusual, Involving, Shocking:
The small-town setting of Sweden, with occasional side-trips to Copenhagen and Jim Jones's Guyana, together with quirky characters and a relentless plot, make this a unique and surprising thriller. Mankell has a firm grip on the psychology of religious mania, and a sly way of linking small, everyday events with large, shocking social shifts.

I'd give the book an A, the translation a C+:
The plot is fab, and for the first 3/4 of the book, I couldn't put it down. The ending wasn't a disappointment, but the translation was just so wacky at some points, it really detracted from the story. An outbuilding, for example, is not the same as an outhouse, and while the explanation for the mysterious journal entry works fine in Swedish, in English it was completely ineffective. I think that the use of footnotes would be appropriate in pun-like things. But the book is a very good read regardless.

A good suspense story:
Mankell has a knack for taking fragments of history and projecting them onto suspenseful detective stories that take place in Sweden. In "The Return of the Dancing Master," the plot was tied in part to the months after World War II. Here the historical fragment is the massacre at Jonestown, where a shadowy figure that survived the atrocity has begun to spark strange killings, first of animals, in Sweden. Kurt Wallender is the divorced, middle-aged and somewhat ponderous police officer who features in most of Mankell's detective books. Here he is paired for the first time with his daughter Linda, who has decided after a tumultous youth to take after her father. The suspense is finely balanced and there is some Scandinavian elements to the storyline as the characters dash between Southern Sweden and Copenhagen. My only gripe, and it may in part be the translation but I think it is more central to Mankell's writing style, is that Mankell hardly describes anything that he writes about. He just tells the story as if from a mile overhead. Thus, while the suspenseful plot keeps the pages turning, it's easy to zone out because only the most basic details are described. The way that Mankell writes, that is fine because there are no Hitchcock style MacGuffin's designed to either divert or focus the readers mind. As a result, at the conclusion of the book I feel satisfied to have read a good suspense but still feel there was room for masterful details that might have kept my mind guessing and more engaged. But, overall, this is a good read and a worthy series of books from a master of Scandinavian suspense.