The Dogs of Riga

An easy read, but gripping. Characters are people, not just names. The story moves but details are there to keep you satisfied when you want it to speed up! Very enjoyable.

This had a slow build-up and was very entertaining with an action packed ending!

This is the second book in the Kurt Wallander series, and I found it much more compelling than the first, although I thoroughly enjoyed that one also. Once again there is a mystery to be solved, in this case the appearance of two corpses washed up on the Swedish shore in a life raft. The initial question is, of course, who are these men and where did they come from? Once that is established, and it's not easy, Kurt is dispatched to Latvia to help in solving the murder of the Latvian policeman sent to Sweden to assist. This is a Latvia in the midst of its struggle to free itself from the grip of the Soviet Union, and it is a drab and cheerless place, where the citizens are frightened and distrustful of almost everyone around them. Wallander meets a group of folks organizing against the government, and when he returns home he goes back into Latvia by means of smuggling routes to help those people. There is a scene of great carnage, and Wallander must decide which of two high ranking police officers is the person responsible. The ending is exciting in the extreme, and you just keep turning the pages to find out what happens. I've enjoyed the first two books in the series, and am now reading the third. I hope to get through all of the ones published in English as they become available to me.

Monk, the character on television, has extreme anxiety and is obsessive compulsive. A far more interesting character than Monk is to be found in crime novels, Kurt Wallander the Swedish detective created by the author Henning Mankell. Wallander suffers deeply from anxiety. He even (like many people) self-medicates by drinking too much. Like so many cops, he's divorced and very isolated. Wallander is drowning in doubt even though he solves difficult crimes. Michael Ondaatje, my favorite NY Times book reviewer says "For me, Henning Mankell is by far the best writer of police mysteries today." The second book in the series is The Dogs of Riga takes place in Sweden and Latvia in 1991. Most people in Latvia live in fear because the communists are in charge. Reading this shows how fear infiltrates daily life. Wallander is besieged with worry because he sneaks into the country (legitimate fear) and never trusts his own tenaciousness. His ordinary life is constantly interrupted because of the disease of anxiety. When people are anxious they tend to want to people please, and then too much truth goes ignored. When hurts and wants are unspoken they go underground and build into resentments. Anxious people suffer with short term thinking and are afraid of hurting others. One of the most important things anyone can do to build more authentic relationships is to be able to talk about hard things. Inability to talk about hard things means the pile of resentments deepens and it can be tough to dig out from under it. People tend to get self righteous about their resentments which then makes it hard to consider the truth of the other person's point of view. Truth always lies in between people. Hearing the truth from someone who loves you is one of the most important ways to grow. If you are anxious and people please you will lose track of yourself. Love is meant to help you be more of yourself, not less. Diane Keaton was asked why she never married and she responded that she knew she would lose her identity. Kurt Wallander does get lost. His father was disgusted he became a policeman. Kurt still plays with the idea of quitting to be a security guard, to regain his father's approval. Though he's in his early 40's, his anxiety clouds his ability to recognize he only needs his father's love. These are a terrific series of novels and Wallander is a very three dimensional character who makes mistakes in relationships because of anxiety.

This was my 1st Henning Mankell book and I thought it was great!! I couldn't put it down. I like Inspector Wallander's down to earth, everyman kind of approach to life. And this is coupled with a strong policeman's street sense and the natural innate ability to come up with the right conclusions every time. I like how the author often refers to his dead and departed police friend and asks himself how he would see a particular situation. I'm definitely going to buy more of these books.

i see a lot of disappointed reviews here--personally i think this is one of the best in the whole series. it has more unrealisitic spymovie sequences--but they are breathtaking. i honestly had no idea if wallender would survive--and i've read the later books. dont be put off--this book is angry, venomous really, driven and tough. like wallender. i compare it to early LeCarre.

"The Dogs of Riga" is one of the earlier books in Henning Mankell's series about his somber fictional Swedish police Inspector Kurt Wallendar and the plot is darker and jerkier than in later stories. I first read the book when it was published in German in 1993 and it's the only one of the series that I regularly enjoy re-reading. There's nothing slick about the story telling: it has a very raw edge to it.The story follows the traditional Wallendar plotline: an exotic foreigner arrives in the peaceful coastal town of Ystad, accompanied by a slew of violent acts and connections to powerful people that shock the overworked local police force. In this case, the foreign dogs who wash up on Sweden's shore are two very dead businessmen with drugs in their systems.Wallendar follows the trail back across the Baltic Sea to Riga, the capital of newly independent Latvia. There he involves himself more in local "affairs" than is politic or safe. Mankell kicked up some dust with this book. The Latvia described is a chaotic mix of gangland crime and corrupt officialdom. Some Latvians took exception to that bleak picture. (Latvia became independent in 1991 and "Hundarna i Riga" was published the following year.)Kommissar Wallendar is often compared to Georges Simenon's Inspecteur Maigret or Colin Dexter's Chief Inspector Morse. In this book, he also shows traces of John Le Carré's Smiley. Mankell has been extremely popular in Europe for a long time. Maybe his books are better read in a cold, damp climate like that of Sweden, but I can't see anything that makes them "difficult for some American readers" as Publishers Weekly advises.