The Dogs of Riga (Harvill Panther)

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-04-25 rating:
A poor follow-up with a weak plot
I ordered the second in the Wallander series having been impressed with the first in the series - Faceless Killers. br / br /This book starts very well with a dead man being washed up along the coast of Sweden that Wallander is called in to investigate. It is soon realised that the man is not from Sweden, but from Eastern Europe. Wallander is then sucked into an investigation which goes national and then international in scope. However, this is where the book started to become a bit farfetched and loose my attention, even if when it was written was during the early 1990s when Eastern Europe was experiencing quite a lot of change. br / br /Overall, a weak plot that gradually lost my attention. I hope that this is just a small blip in an otherwise good series as I have just ordered the third book - The White Lioness. br /

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review by: date: 2009-04-20 rating:
Dog of Riga
A fine Mankell gritty detective yarn set as always in the often bleak landscape of Southern Sweden but this time incoporating even bleaker post USSR Latvia. It would seem that the lack of sleep and addiction to caffiene is common to both nations.

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review by: skirrow22 date: 2008-12-20 rating:
The Norse Morse in fine form
I've had this book on my shelves for ages, purposely waiting for the TV series to come and go, so that I could assess how the character was portrayed, also knowing that if I enjoyed it (the book) there were another 6 follow-ons. br / br /I can see now why this book would be more difficult to bring into the series as it is set, mainly, in Riga in 1992 where life was a little different from that of today - to say the least. br / br /I remember my days in Eastern Europe and Mankell conveys the grimy atmosphere of the State police rather well. My everlasting view of that part of the world has always been the greyness of everything and Riga is no exception. br / br /The story is well-reviewed elsewhere, so my thoughts turn to Wallander himself. A bleak man, devastated by the break-up of his marriage and the distancing by his daughter, committed to dogged determination to solve a murder mystery. In this story he has to resort to physical force but, nonetheless, needs to use his brain to work out who are the culprits. That he gets it wrong is no bad thing. Nobody, even in fiction, should be perfect! br / br /He yearns for the solace of a loving partner but life and circumstances move against his rather shy approach to solving this problem. Thanks to the TV shows, I can assume he doesn't progress too far. He also always seems to manage a swipe at the social problems in his native country, something which adds a little flavour to his dour attitude in general! br / br /I'm away to read the next book (and the others) now that I am hooked on another great detective character. I understand the author is considering - or may well have begun - another Wallander book. I hope so. br / br / br / br / br / br /

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review by: gaskella2 date: 2008-07-22 rating:
In which a dogged Scandinavian detective goes 'Le Carre'
Rather different to the first Wallander novel, this one took me by surprise by venturing into Le Carre territory involving our dogged detective in an international conspiracy in Latvia - so less of a police procedural and more of a spy thriller. br /It starts off with two bodies in a life-raft, who turn out to be Latvian. When the Latvian major who comes to Sweden to help investigate is murdered on his return to Riga, Wallander is asked to help the Latvian police, but becomes embroiled in the nationalist struggle to free Latvia from Soviet shackles - it is 1991 and the Baltic states are not yet free. br /Although this is only the second Wallander novel I have read, (and I like to stay with the order), I prefer the police procedural - I think it suits the dour Scandinavian inspector's character better. My one quibble with Wallander though is that he is meant to be in his mid-late 40s, but feels ten years older to me with his world-weariness - heavens I'm about the same age as him, but being an optimist mostly feel very much younger! br /


review by: dutch-traveller date: 2007-05-23 rating:
Entertaining story, but too many twists and turns
This time inspector Kurt Wallander has to solve the murder on two very well-dressed men, who float ashore the Swedish coast on a raft. The trail leads to Latvia. After his Latvian colleague is also murdered, Wallander ends up in a web of intrigues in an unstable country that is unknown to him and where he does not speak the language. Soon he finds out that one of his two nearest Latvian colleagues is the villain, but which one of the two? br / br /In contrast to Faceless killers by the same author, this book contains much more action, but after a while I became quite dizzy with all the twist and turns that the story took. It is an entertaining story, but Wallander appeared less real to me than in the previous book. After reading the whole series this is actually the weakest one.

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Similar products

Faceless Killers
The White Lioness
The Fifth Woman
The Man Who Smiled
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Similar categories

Books . Subjects . Crime, Thrillers Mystery . Mystery . General AAS
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Books . Subjects . Fiction . General
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Books . Refinements . Language (feature_browse-bin) . English
Books . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . Paperback
Books . Refinements . Font Size (format_browse-bin) . Regular Size

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