The Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallendar Mystery

This was my 1st Henning Mankell book and I thought it was great!! I couldn't put it down. I like Inspector Wallander's down to earth, everyman kind of approach to life. And this is coupled with a strong policeman's street sense and the natural innate ability to come up with the right conclusions every time. I like how the author often refers to his dead and departed police friend and asks himself how he would see a particular situation. I'm definitely going to buy more of these books.

Henning Mankell is undoubtedly the Agatha Christie of Sweden - a very good, competent author of crime and suspense novels. His writing style is sparse, but very effective, and as a suspense novel, this story will grip you and keep you reading until the last page. At least, it kept me glued to the story to the last page. As a history of the events in the Baltic states, especially Latvia, it is not so convincing. Several grievous errors crop up, and it is quite unbelievable that a policeman, even from a small Skåne town, would be so ignorant of the history and situation in the Baltics. Even in the turbulent times of the 1988-1991 'Singing Revolution', There was no question who the ultimate authority was in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. To pretend that Latvians had any real say-so in their country is not realistic, even by a Swede. It is true that Sweden was practically the only western country to recognize the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union, but it also had a sizeable diaspora of Estonians and Latvians, some of whom moved in fairly high circles of the Swedish government. Any halfway-educated Swede knew the situation across the Baltic Sea. And any Swedish policeman sent to coordinate criminal investigation in the former Soviet Union should, and would have been briefed by the foreign ministry before being allowed to go. So, in reading the book, be enthralled by the mystery, but do not take the history and explanation of the political scene all too seriously.

I am wondering if Mankell spent any time in Latvia doing research for this book. While it is a very good yarn, I question whether Riga was a grim as Mankell describes. I question this because of personal experiences and because in an afterward in the book Mankell pleads "poetic license" for the Riga he portrays.

I was in Moscow in 1978 with a trade group and encountered a group of Latvians at the Moscow airport. They were waiting for their flight home after some sort of meetings in Moscow. They were singing, laughing and joking and had a very in-your-face attitude toward the Soviet officials who were glowering at them. I don't know if they were using the hijinks to annoy the officials or just having a good time. However, the memory of their spirit has stayed with me through the years.

In 2004, my wife and I took a cruise on the Baltic, and one of the ports of call was Tallinn in neighboring Estonia. Tallinn was an attractive and pleasant city. I encountered an Arizona Saloon, which paid homage to John Wayne and his movies; a wedding reception at a McDonald's; and a lot of Finns who had come over on the ferry for the day. It is hard for me to picture that Riga would be in such worse shape. The book was written in the early 90s, but is a decade long enough to rehabilitate the city Mankell portrays.

Somehow, I feel Mankell had this great idea for a story and felt Latvia, Estonia or Lithuanian seemed a logical site. Then, he forced his idea on Riga.

Also, it seemed a bit of a stretch to have Wallander suddenly becoming James Bond.

Though this was the second book in the series, it was the sixth to be translated into English. Unless you lived through the Cold War and the transition time of the early nineties, you will not understand this book. In 1991, two men wash up on the Skane shore of Sweden. They are in a life raft with no ship markings. Both men are well dressed in Western European clothing, and have both been tortured and shot in the heart. Their dental work is Eastern European. So how did they get to Sweden?

When Inspector Wallendar is called in on this case, he has little to go on, and then some one steals the life-raft out of the Police Station. When the men are tracted to Latvia, a Major in their national police force comes to Sweden to help out the inquiry. On the day that he returns to Latvia, he is murdered, and their police request Wallendar's help. From here, the story turns into a thriller and the mystery becomes involved in politics and the changing political situation in the Soviet Union.

The rest of the story needs to be read, not summarized. They is only one weakness in the story and most readers will be able to figure that out. But, I'm curious to see how this 'affair' will effect Wallendar down the road in later novels.

Let me begin by pointing out that I am a huge Henning Mankell fan, although I found this book a bit of disappointment. His writing ability is clear, concise and flows so smoothly he can only compare to Ed McBain who also knew how to tell a story in a simple but extremely effective way. The problem with this story is that so much of it involves foreign intrigue that seems out of place for both the writer and the Wallander, the main character, that I am not surprised that Mankell didn't go back to it. I can't praise this author enough, but I would read any of his other Wallander books before reading this. It's not bad, just a disappointment when you consider what he can do.