I am not a big short story fan. Don’t really know why but I just never get into them a lot. I have read all of Jeffrey Archer’s and they are great but these are really good as well and give an insight into the characters and their lives. Apparently, according to the author, this book is the result of fans asking for more details on Wallander’s life prior to his first books i.e. before January of 1990. Mankell chose to write the stories in the 90s to also address the general anxiety felt as a Swedish nation with regard to the state of the country and the relationship between the welfare state and democracy.
There is more anxiety and anger about these issues than ever and the question of what was happening to the Swedish welfare state especially in the 1990s remained. Wallander in 1990 was already 42 and divorced with a daughter. He had been a policeman for many years and also moved to a different station with a different boss. The first story is his first case and starts in 1969. He is a beat officer whose neighbour dies and he suspects wrongdoing although the police have written it off as suicide. He is told to back off which of course he doesn’t especially when he catches someone in the dead man’s apartment after the crime. Mankell writes about the stormy beginning of Wallander’s relationship with Mona, who becomes his wife, as well as his father who we know is strongly opposed to his choice of career. It is great to be able to look back at where they all came from and put pieces together to make a complete picture of Wallander’s life.

This was the first in the Joanna Brady series set in Bisbee, Arizona. Having read all the others, this one was rarely available, one knows the eventual outcome but not the details. Joanna is still working for an insurance company and on the night of her 10th anniversary her sheriff’s deputy husband, Andy, is late home. He had arranged a duplicate of their wedding night with an overnight stay at a local hotel. Joanna did not start to worry about him until he was over two hours late and no one had seen him since he had left the station.

Taking matters into her own hands she drives out of their ranch to try to find him only to get to the scene of what looked like a car accident. The car is Andy’s. Joanna arrives and her husband is close to death. He had been shot and locked out of his car. This is really where the story begins. Why was he shot? Who shot him? There are rumours of suicide and drug running associated with his name which she is adamant about clearing. We meet the people in Joanna’s life who are so much a part of all the other stories and the town. Her relationships with her mother, her in-laws as well as her best friend are established and one can’t help feeling like they know all these characters. I love the way Jance writes and am immediately captivated as soon as I open one of her books. If you haven’t read any of her Brady mysteries this is the one to start with but there is no harm if you haven’t as it sets a lot of the ground work for who Joanna is and why she does what she does.