Once it becomes clear that this story involves South African politics being honest the heart sinks as you start to brace yourself for a repeat of Dogs of Riga. It also starts to become clear that this is a crime writer that allows himself to surf a wave of fiction rather than base the story in the nitty gritty of the police station.
So there is an introduction in the second part to an assassin who is taken on to kill Mandela but assumes that he has been hired to kill de Klerk the leader that has been identified as letting down the whites.
As part of the preparation for the killing the killer is flown to Russia to meet with an ex KGB contact to get trained and then they both move to Sweden to hide out in a safe house. The problem is that the house they choose is discovered by a lost estate agent who is rewarded with a billet in the head after she asks directions.
The killing of the woman disgusts the hired killer and he decides to kill the KGB agent but fails, loses his finger and then is on the run in Stockholm. As the KGB man chases him down another police officer is shot after a bank robbery and a shop assistant dies of a heart attack after being robbed at gun point.
The second section is interesting not only because it moves around locations but also because the name Wallander is absent. No doubt he will reappear to pick up the threads of the case. In the meantime I’ll stick with it but if it becomes more fantastical then the prospect of reading more in the Wallander series is becoming less attractive.
More tomorrow…
