The Fifth Woman

by Henning Mankell

Book Overview

The mystery thriller series that inspired the Netflix crime drama Young Wallander - From the dean of Scandinavian noir, the sixth riveting installment in the internationally bestselling and universally acclaimed Kurt Wallander series.

In an African convent, four nuns and a unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered--the death of the unknown woman covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400031540
• ISBN13: 9781400031542
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Swedish serial murder mystery

Henning Mankell once again demonstrates his masterful creativity in his police procedural thriller "The Fifth Woman". What makes Mankell's work so special is his ability to humanize his protagonist Kurt Wallendar, police detective inspector of the Ystad police department. Wallendar, the senior inspector has personal issues that Mankell delves into, that have a profound effect on his actions. While conducting an investigation into a series of bizarre murders, Wallendar's father dies. He is also struggling emotionallly with a long distance relationship with his girlfriend Baiba who resides in Latvia. The novel commences with the murder of a wealthy, aged and retired auto salesman, Holger Eriksson, in very strange fashion. The gentleman, an avid ornithologist, while walking across a footbridge on his property was impaled on a series of sharpened bamboo poles as the sawed through planks of the bridge collapsed under his weight. The poles had been set in the fashion of a tiger trap in the ditch beneath the bridge. Wallendar soon becomes aware that Eriksson has a history of abusing women. We also get an insight into the motivation of the nameless killer of Eriksson. She apparently was incited by a letter she received against regulations from Africa. Her mother who was traveling got caught up in religious and social upheaval there and was murdered along with four nuns, effectively becoming the fifth woman. A sympathetic investigator aware of the cover up of the murders released the personal effects of the mother. Soon the killer commits another murder of a florist who it turns out was also abusive and possibly killed his wife. Wallendar with scant clues to go on leads the investigation in a methodical, analytical manner which slowly uncovers the answers to solving this series of crimes. Unfortunately more murders are committed and because of the violence citizens begin to form militias which hamper the investigation. Mankell has proven to be a very capable author and deserves a higher level of notoriety than he currently receives. His novels are gripping with a large dose of believability. He represents a noteworthy benchmark in his genre

Worthy Successor to Sjowall and Wahloo.

I picked up "The Fifth Woman" by Henning Mankell because a reviewer favorably compared it to the classic "The Laughing Policeman" by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo (Swedish wife/husband writing team). It doesn't disappoint. This is a book that is worth the price of a hardcover -- meaty, substantive, intricately/well plotted, with great characters.The three things I noticed that bind all three authors in their works are: 1) the Swedish people's dislike and distrust of the police, 2) the chill and loneliness that seems to pervade human relationships, and 3) police inspectors who are brilliant, meticulous, conscientious, introspective and given to depression. These Swedish police procedurals are not a barrel of laughs, but rather they are thoughtful, well written, and original."The Fifth Woman" starts out with the murders in Africa of 4 nuns and a female visitor. The rest of the novel takes place with these murders' ramifications in Sweden where a serial killer is dispatching men, each very differently. The title refers not only to the 5th woman murdered in Africa, but also the 5th woman in Sweden who leads police inspector, Kurt Wallander, to the Swedish serial murderer.American police procedurals tend to reveal more murder motives from the get-go. In this novel the motive is a core plot element and isn't revealed until later in the book. The reader also knows a few things about the killer early in the book that the police don't know and it is fascinating to watch the police reach the "same place in the book" as the reader. I was reading a well regarded American mystery writer and stopped the book to read "The Fifth Woman". When I returned to the American book after finishing Mankell's opus, it was sophmoric in comparison. This is a book for the serious mystery reader and well worth the effort.

One step behind

Henning Mankell really nails you to your reading chair from page one with his subtle and quiet horror stories where there is a minimum of the graphical violence you so often see in American thrillers these days. Mankell has an ingenius way of building up his stories which will keep you mystified till the end. He is also weaving into the fabric a honest description of Sweden on the social level and of how police work is developing in the Scandinavian countries. You get to like this Wallander and his Swedish colleagues so much that you are sad when the last page is turned.

a great suspense novel

With Kurt Wallander swedish author Henning Mankell has created one of these sympathetic if low-key protagonists that become very dear to the readers' heart as the single story and ultimately the different mysteries continue. He reminds me in many ways of his Israeli counterpart Miachael Ohayon, created by the great mystery writer Batya Gur. But of course Sweden is very different from Israel and the small town of Ystad is no Jerusalem. When two gruesome murders happen in the small community, Kurt Wallander is immediately torn out of reminiscences from his recent Italy vacation with his father and has to immerse himself in a strange and very dark reality. At the same time the reader follows the steps of the killer and sees a complex personality and story build as a race against time heats up for the Ystad police. The novel is well-written, atmospherically dense, intense and keeps a good pace all the way to the well-developed conclusion. Mankell has no loose ends remaining at the end of this story, yet the reader is sad to say farewell to Kurt once more.

Gripping thriller with melancholy atmosphere

Swedish writer Mankell's graceful, unadorned prose provides an affecting voice for his melancholy protagonist, Ystad police detective Kurt Wallander, whose own mid-life difficulties give way to the pursuit of a cunning serial killer.As the book opens, a woman receives information that her mother has been murdered along with four nuns in an African convent, the crime hushed up. Then an old man who writes bird poetry is impaled on sharpened bamboo stakes embedded in a ditch on his property while the woman watches from his bird tower.Wallander, just home from a pleasant trip to Italy with his father, a rejuvenation of their taciturn relationship, investigates a break-in at a flower shop from which nothing was taken, receives reports of a growing vigilante militia movement and eventually discovers the body of the bird poet. Meanwhile the reader learns that the flower shop proprietor is a captive, slowly starving. He is missing more than a week - supposedly on an orchid-buying trip - before anyone realizes.The grisly narrative builds slowly, in plain, unhurried cadences. The fits, starts and frustrations of police procedure mingle with Wallander's concerns for his father and plans for a future with his lover, Baiba - all against a thrum of background tension - the bound, terrified man, the woman ticking off plans on a meticulous schedule, selecting her next victim.As the murder count rises, Wallander and his team delve into the background of the victims, uncovering dark secrets, making tenuous connections, inching toward a solution that horrifies them all. Mankell's ("Fearless Killers," "Sidetracked") plot organization and pacing is masterful and his perplexing, atmospheric story is all the more gripping delivered in measured, understated prose.