Faceless Killers: A Kurt Wallander Mystery

Meet the detective who changed crime fiction forever: Kurt Wallander’s first case launched Scandinavian noir, won the Glass Key, was twice adapted for screen, and has been read by millions worldwide

“Intelligent, moving and topical, this is a thriller of the very best kind.” —The Times (London)

A retired farming couple, alone in a remote Skåne farmhouse. One dead. One barely breathing, a noose around her neck—and a single whispered word on her lips: foreign. With this chilling opening, Henning Mankell introduces readers to Detective Kurt Wallander, a brilliant but battered forty-two-year-old investigator whose personal demons—alcoholism, an estranged daughter, a life fraying at the edges—are no match for his relentless pursuit of the truth.

As Wallander digs deeper, the case grows darker: a victim who led a secret double life, an unusual knot that no one has ever seen before, and a careless press leak that ignites anti-immigrant hysteria across the country, turning a murder investigation into a race against mob violence. Faceless Killers is more than a crime novel—it is a searing portrait of a society fracturing under the weight of its own fears.

Winner of the inaugural Glass Key Award for Nordic crime fiction and the novel that launched one of the most celebrated detective series of our time, this is the book that established Henning Mankell as the defining voice of Scandinavian noir. Adapted for television twice and beloved by millions of readers worldwide, Faceless Killers belongs on every crime fiction shelf. This relaunch edition presents the complete Wallander series in a bold new light, as every volume features a striking, newly commissioned cover design and a fully redesigned interior, built for a new generation of readers.