The first in the series. Kurt Wallender is a contemporary Swedish policeman who true to the genre of crime fiction is recently divorced, has trouble with women, gets his face bashed in, and drinks too much. And yet Faceless Killers is a page turner mostly because of its ordinariness. Most of the action takes place in a police station where a group of cops goes over the clues and gets nowhere, just like in real life. They check bank statements, interview people who are of no help, the Swedish sky is gray and wintry, and they come back to the police station to discuss it all again. You understand exactly why Kurt Wallender has such troubles. November 2006.