Sidetracked is a novel in the Wallander series by Henning Mankell, translated from Swedish.   The Ystad police force investigates a series of murders, seemingly unrelated.    The author injects chapters seen from the killer’s perspective, limited in detail to keep the reader interested. Wallander and his team go down a number of avenues, all “sidetracks” without narrowing down a suspect.

At the same time, Wallander is a bit of a trainwreck in his personal life, and his family and colleagues gingerly step around the problems on a daily basis.

The story starts with Wallander witnessing a teenage girl lighting herself on fire in a field and it ends with an anticlimax capturing the killer, an abused youth who just gives up.    the story moves very slowly, but it is a strong procedural detective story nonetheless.    The Wallander series are worth reading, but they are an acquired taste.   After finishing one, we know what to expect and choose to read another or not.    I have been reading most of the series, but I wait for the right time to tackle another one.

Recommended to fans of procedural crime stories – 4.3 stars out of 5.