Before the Frost by
Henning Mankell
hbk out October 04
Published by Harvill
at £14.99
We first came across Linda, Inspector Kurt Wallander's daughter, in Faceless Killers,
the first Mankell crime novel. Though Linda is little more than a distant voice on a
phone, that voice is enough for her father to recall her 'defiant beauty' and her
troubled history, in particular her suicide attempt at age 15. It's not surprising then, as
Linda, now 30, having survived police college, prepares to join her father's force in
Ystad, that the relationship between fathers and daughters is at the centre of Before
the Frost. And not only that between Linda and her father, but that of Linda's friend,
the 'vulnerable...secretive' Anna Westin and her father, who abandoned her as a five
year-old child.
And there it is, summed up in the following exchange as Linda and her father
warily circle each other early in the book, both contemplating yet another dripping
Swedish afternoon. "It's Noah and the flood all over again," he said. "I don't
remember rain like this since I was a child." replies Linda, "it rained a lot when I was
young." There is a tension throughout the early pages of this novel which perfectly
complements the tension of the story as, against a background of some vicious attacks
on birds and animals, a woman is reported missing.
Anna, meanwhile, confides to Linda that she has recently seen a man resembling her
long-lost father. Shortly after, Anna too goes missing from her flat. Preoccupied with
his investigations, Linda's father dismisses her fears. So it is Linda who discovers a
possible link to her absent friend when she finds the missing woman's name in a diary
kept by Anna...
This is the first of perhaps three novels where Linda, as her father approaches
retirement, will play a leading role. She proves to be no less an interesting character
than her father, with some of the same traits, and throwing new light on both her father
and her own childhood. She also brings her own unique perspective to the
investigation. And nor does Mankell ignore his usual broader themes, this time rooted
in the fugitive who, in the opening pages, escapes from the mass suicides that took
place at the charismatic Jim Jones's People's Temple in Guyana back in 1978. But it
is frustrating that the conventions of the crime novel (which ones will become clear
as you read the book) only allow Mankell to explore the relationship of Anna and her
father in a limited way.
Nevertheless it's another utterly gripping piece of work, fascinating on several
levels, with a climax that, as George Bush is elected for a second term, brings both
story and theme together in grim relevance.
Before the Frost by
Henning Mankell
