And then, one night, alone in the secluded woods, he knows he’s being stalked by a monster.

Wallander, who has always maintained that there are “evil circumstances” and “evil conditions” but no people with evil “hardwired in their genes,” is shaken. Clearly, Ystad has a serial killer on its hands, a careful, crafty killer with an obsessive hatred for, of all things, happiness. The homicides that follow give every indication of being somehow connected. Next, one of Wallander’s special officers is shotgunned to death in his own house. Three young celebrants of a bizarre, if probably harmless, Midsummer’s Eve ritual, first thought to be only missing, are found murdered, executed by bullets to their heads. Even as Wallander vows to reinvent himself, however, all hell breaks loose in Ystad, ending any dreams of peace for weary Wallander and his undermanned department. He’s got no energy, no zest for the job, and no reason to plan for life much beyond 50, his doctor tells him grimly, unless he does something about the hours he works, the junk food he eats, and the exercise he assiduously avoids. But Wallander, just returned from a holiday of his own, is feeling far less invigorated than he expected to.

OL158685W Page_number_confidence 98.18 Pages 550 Partner Innodata Ppi 300 Rcs_key 24143 Republisher_date 20200608154426 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 832 Scandate 20200604112915 Scanner Scanningcenter cebu Scribe3_search_catalog isbn Scribe3_search_id 9780099535041 Tts_version 3.In Ystad, the middle-sized Swedish city that Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander ( The Fifth Woman, 2000, etc.) tries to keep law-abiding, it seems he’s succeeding: big crime has taken a holiday during a decorous summer. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 10:16:37 Boxid IA1822118 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

One Step Behind by Henning Mankell