A LITERARY EXIT . . .
The Wallander series set the bar for Scandinavian noir, but its creator was more than a crime writer. Legacy,
So far as literary heroes went, Henning Mankell’s Insp. Kurt Wallander was a mess. Through 11 novels, the perpetually dour Swedish detective solved crimes as an anti-social alcoholic and diabetic racked by selfdoubt, gluttony and later, dementia.
In other words, he was human. A human cop.
Considered the dean of the socalled Scandi-noir crime writers, Mankell, who died of cancer on Monday in Gothenburg, Sweden, at age 67, gained global renown for his novels that blended suspense, deeply flawed characters and social themes.
Fellow genre stalwarts include Jo Nesbo and Karin Fossum of Norway, and Stieg Larsson of Sweden. Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason’s Reykjavik Nights is also hot.
For Mankell, it wasn’t all Scandinavian sullenness. He also explored touchy topics like racism and national identity in his native Sweden and seemed especially sensitive to the treatment of foreigners in that supposedly progressive country.
Mankell’s Sweden “is no utopia and Wallander himself is no hero,” noted Vicki Delany, chair of the Crime Writers of Canada. Mankell “turned a sharp lens on society’s and his country’s problems and inspired many writers to do so.”
Mankell was doing Nordic Noir “before we knew it was a thing,” related Oakville-based Linwood Barclay, also an internationally bestselling crime author. “Like the greatest of crime writers, he used the conventions of the novel as a vehicle for social criticism.”
The prolific writer cranked out children’s books, screenplays and nearly 100 novels and plays. The Wallander series went on to sell some 40 million copies in dozens of countries.
They reached an even bigger audience through television adaptations, including actor Kenneth Branagh’s take on BBC-TV. But Mankell even- tually grew weary of his creation. He did the literary unthinkable by ending the detective’s career with the publication of The Troubled Man, in which Wallander retires from the police force because of Alzheimer’s disease. “I shall not miss Wallander,” Mankell told the Guardian in 2013.
Barclay — after mostly writing stand-alone novels the last eight years, with no central Wallander-type protagonist — doesn’t have anyone to retire “but I understand how authors of series can feel like they want to be free of their character, to do something totally different. The problem can be when fans won’t let you.”
Loyal readers were “devastated” when Mankell announced his last Wallander book, said Marion Garner, avice-president at Random House of Canada, the author’s Canadian publisher. Mankell set the bar for the “Scandi-crime” genre, but he was more than a crime writer, Garner said. “Much of his writing, including his crime fiction, touched on social injustice and the political state of the world today. The world is a lot worse off without Henning Mankell in it.”
Did Mankell influence Jack Batten, author of the crime series starring Crang, the Toronto criminal lawyer who carries on more like a private eye? No, yet . . .
Mankell, the “best of all crime writers,” produced work that was “far too complex for me, and for most other crime writers, to even think about emulating,” Batten said in an email.
“I’ve read most of his books twice and one of them three times. Mankell was far more daring than most crime writers.”
Batten cited one volume, One Step Behind, as “a masterpiece.” (That’s the one he read three times.) “Nobody, not me anyway, would dream of aiming at a masterpiece.”
In turning a mirror on Sweden, Mankell showed a new generation of Canadian crime writers “that we could proudly feature our country too, warts and all,” said Delany.
“And we have done so ever since. His influence on the world of crime writing, including Canada, cannot be overestimated.”