The Return of the Dancing Master

Reviews

“Violence strikes with quick and shocking ferocity…The story has a density that demands—and rewards—intellectual movement.”

“Mankell weaves a mournful spell through all his mysteries by adopting a calm, dispassionate tone that artfully underlines an abiding humanism for psychic as well as physical suffering…Sends a shiver down the spine.”

“Delightfully morbid…Steering between literature and suspense, [Mankell’s] measured prose recalls those gloomy precisionists Peter Handke and Patricia Highsmith.”

“Irrestible…[Mankell] is a master at constructing gripping, intricately plotted police procedurals with a strong dose of social commentary…The appeal…[is] the sheer brutal imaginativeness of the crimes.”

“Henning Mankell is by far the best writer of police mysteries today. He is in the great tradition of those whose work transcends their chosen genre to become thrilling and moral literature.”

“The characters drawn by Henning Mankell are so real you can hear them breathe…Grover Gardner is unemotional and straightforward as he narrates Mankell’s terse descriptions and painstakingly precise details. Gardner is extremely affecting without becoming melodramatic, especially as Lindman ponders his own mortality…Gardner’s performance transcends the dreary, sunless Swedish landscape, bringing just the right tone to Mankell’s gritty police procedural.”

“As always, Mankell tells somber, deeply pessimistic stories about widespread hatred lurking below the multicultural surface, but at the same time, he never fails to find a rich vein of humanity deep within the perpetually furrowed brows of his troubled cops.”

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