Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries

Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries (1999) Henning Mankell translated by Ebba Segerberg and Laurie Thompson

These are four Wallander stories: Wallander’s First Case, The Man with the Mask, The Man on the Beach, The Death of the Photographer.

Wallander’s First Case, set in June 1969 finds Wallander just starting out as a police officer, and just starting to woo his future wife Mona–you can see here that the marriage will be troubled.

Mona liked going out to dinner, but Wallander thought it was throwing away money for no reason.

We see Wallander meet his mentor, and see how he fell into investigation.

The Man with the Mask, set in December 1975, finds Wallander married to Mona and living in Malmo.

“In the past, people stole hand-cranked record players. You didn’t steal car stereos, for the simple reason that they didn’t exist.”

It’s interesting to see how frequently people bemoan the decay of civilization and look fondly back at the good-old-days, which really weren’t that good.

The Man on the Beach, is set in 1987, and finds Wallander in Ystad, with Mona and Linda away on a vacation that is really a trial separation.

“Did he have any children?
“One son.”
“We’d better find him, then.”
“That won’t be possible,” Hansson said.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s dead.” Wallander could sometimes get very annoyed by Hansson’s roundabout way of coming to the point. This was one of those occasions.

The Death of the Photographer, is set in April 1988 in Ystad. Was the most interesting mystery of the stories. Not to say that the other stories were not good, because they were, but this was a very interesting mystery, and you get a good look at the long and slow process of how the mystery is solved.

I’ve only read two Wallander books, once of which was the final book, so it was nice to read these stories, to get an idea of how Wallander worked and what interested him.
Rating: 8/10

Published by The New Press

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