The Dogs of Riga

After mostly enjoying the first in the Kurt Wallander series (Faceless Killers), I definitely found this one to be a significant step down in quality. Set in 1991, it starts off promisingly enough with a pair of smugglers discovering two dead men adrift in a life raft. The good samaritan criminals tow the raft closer to the Swedish shore, where it winds up washing up in Inspector Wallander's territory. For a while, the story proceeds as a straight crime procedural, as he attempts to find out who the men are and why they were killed. As usual, in the background is Wallander's shaky personal life and his coping with the death of his closest friend on the police force.

However, once it's determined that the men are from Eastern Europe, the story morphs into an international thriller. First, Major Liepa of the Latvian police arrives to try and assist on the case. Then, Wallander is himself dispatched to Latvia to help with a related murder there. Rather improbably, Wallander simply steps off the plane and is whisked away by his Latvian police liaisons. At the time, one would think the Swedish Embassy would have someone on hand make sure all went smoothly. However, this would make it harder to develop the plot, which revolves around Wallander's confusion over the forces at work and the Latvian police he's working with. Soon, the book is awash with amateur spycraft, as Wallander goes to clandestine meets with mysterious figures. Next thing you know, the dour detective has launched himself headfirst into a ridiculous scheme involving illegal border crossings, false papers, car theft, and wild shootouts. Even worse, these over the top Mission Impossible style theatrics are due to his infatuation with a woman he's only briefly met. If all of this smacks of a bad Hollywood film rather than a solid crime novel, that's unfortunately how it reads as well.

At the time of the book's writing, the Soviet Union was still in the midst of dissolution and reformers and hardliners in the USSR's various satellite republics were struggling to determine the future of their new states. Through Wallander, Mankell attempts to contrast orderly, progressive, first-world Sweden with chaotic, repressive, third-world Latvia. Alas, the city never really comes to life, and the atmosphere feels ersatz. Mankell attempts to make a connection between organized crime and the political power structure of the emerging post-Soviet states, but it kind of falls flat. It doesn't help that the characterization isn't particularly good, even for critical characters such as Wallander's platonic love interest. Like the first book, the writing is fairly straightforward and plain. One rather severe misstep involves the Latvian Major and Wallander, who are both described as having very shaky English, and yet their conversations are rendered in more or less grammatically sound, highly idiomatic English.

Note: The book was made into a film for Swedish television in 1995 which is apparently unavailable in English.

Henning Mankell's "The Dogs of Riga" was written in 1992, around the time of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. While the novel was certainly topical at the time, it wasn't one of his best efforts. In atypical fashion, "The Dogs of Riga" does not feature intensive character development which is a Mankell hallmark. As a consequence of this it is difficult to empathize with the plight of his characters. Mankell in this book exchanges the usual dreary southern Swedish locale for a drearier environment in Latvia. Unfortunately police inspector Kurt Wallander seems out of sync when not in his familiar Ystaad location.

Wallander becomes involved in an unusual investigation when two well dressed corpses wash ashore in a lifeboat on the outskirts of town. Pathologic examination of the bodies as well as the boat point to both eminating from one of the Russian Baltic states. Wallander is soon joined in his investigation by Latvian police inspector Major Karlis Liepa. Working well together they discover that the dead men were members of the drug smuggling Latvian underworld. The investigation is relinquished to Latvian authorities and Major Liepa returns home. Wallander has officially wahed his hands of the affair when he shockingly learns that Major Liepa has been murdered.

Latvian authorities summon Wallander to aid them in solving the murder of Liepa. He arrives in Riga where the police department is commanded by two colonels Putnis and Murniers. He soon learns that the police department suffers from massive corruption and is affiliated with the criminal underworld. The ethical Liepa was killed to prevent his from blowing the whistle on the corruption. While investigating in Riga, Wallender becomes enamored with Liepa's widow Baiba.

The novel proceeds as Wallender continues to probe while the whole political structure in Latvia is undergoing a major upheaval as the Communist government is crumbling.

Novels whose protagonist is inspector Kurt Wallander from a small village of Sweden, contains for me as much sociology and politics as crimes. This books follows a chronological order, so we can see the aging of the personages and the pass of time in the police station of Ystad, South Sweden. That is fully believable, although it seems not likely that in a small village it could happen so many terrible, complicate and strange murders that let New York as a quiet hamlet. Sure, that gives to inspector Wallander the opportunity to demonstrate his high ability and intelligence as policeman, philosopher, etc. We, as readers must accept that literary license.
We see, I spite to have to face terrible criminals Wallander very rarely carries his ordnance handgun. He drives too much his old and re - repaired Peugeot, delegates very little the most routine tasks, earns a low salary, sleeps very bad and very little and he's constantly sick and tired after many journeys of almost 24 hours of hard work. He resists all that by drinking a big amount of coffee, doesn't disdain whisky, eats usually cheap tasteless hamburgers and pizzas, all very fast and very bad and so, he suffers some diarrheas, and he's overweigh and prone to diabetes. Summing up, Kurt Wallander isn't Mike Hammer: he's humane, so humane, that if truly necessary he's able to knock out with a powerful punch to an adversary. He's constantly consternated by the cases he has to solve. He's truly a pacific man and doesn't like his profession but he simply doesn't know another thing to do in life.
And there, it does very well: the reason is Wallander possess an extraordinary sharpened instinct for true or false things and words, a rare ability to relation spare words, declarations apparently unconnected, and a deep knowledge of human being and human situations. That is worth more tahn a revolver. These abilities I think aren't fully innate: you need to have experience of living, looking, and capacity to learning from it. In effect, personal and familiar problems of Swedish society are omnipresent. In this novel Wallander has to solve the murder of two Latvians in a small boat at derive. That goes him to find a love with a Latvian woman. In Spain we have much Swedish and Scandinavian people living here almost permanently with a good standard of life while Russians and Baltic people are economically in poor situation, but the novel reveals truly these Northern people seems very near in character and mood.

I tried to give this a chance, because it's set in Sweden, but after the 50-page test, I saw that it was just another boring police novel. (DNF)

This is the weakest of the six books I have read in the series. The translation into English is flat and the language drab. Usually, the element of mystery and suspense is stronger as is the character development of the detective Kurt Wallender and those surrounding his life. Here, the mystery lacks tension and at the end I hardly cared about the resolution. Also, there was little depth in the portrayal of Wallender or his personal circumstances. If you want to read two first rate Wallender mysteries, choose either One Step Behind or Sidetracked [they are quite similar in plot --and both are extraordinary mysteries].