THE WHITE LIONESS: HENNING MANKELL

I am beginning to understand Mankell's modus operandi.  He decides to set his novel in Sweden, but always relates it to what's currently happening in the world. In his previous novel, it was set in Latvia, during the fall of the Soviet Union.  This time the novel moves to South Africa, to the pivotal time when white rule gave way to black rule, a result of the trust between President DeClerk and Nelson Mandela.  This time a random killing of a female real estate agent in Sweden leads Wallendar to uncover an attempt by the Committee, a racist anti Black group in South Africa, to assassin Nelson Mandela, leaving South Africa in chaos, allowing the white, Apartheid government to take control.  The assassin is sent to Sweden to be trained by an ex Russian KGB agent named Konovalenko.  When the real estate agent makes a wrong turn, she ends up at the farm when Konovalenko is training the black assassin and is executed.  From this, Wallander discovers the threads that lead him to the assassin, Mawasha, who he ironically ends up befriending, learning about the Apartheid system in Africa, and helping to return to Africa.

Of course, the plans go array, a new assassin is sent, Wallander singlehandedly and without a gun tries to corral Konvalenko, who outsmarts him at first by kidnapping Linda, Wallander's daughter.  I have to say I am getting tired of Wallander going it alone, without a gun, failing at first but inevitably triumphing over the villain.  Much of the story is set in South Africa, as we see the racist Committee, setting up the the assassination and the police, led by the shy but pertinacious Scheepers, eventually discovering the plot, with info from Wallander.

At the last moment, Scheepers dramatically thwarts the killer on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town.  By the way, I have been there.  This is my third Kurt Wallander novel and I am getting a bit tired of his melancholy, self pity and carelessness leading to serious complications which he ends up overcoming.  I do like the presence of the same cast in each novel, his difficult father,  selfish daughter, and his fellow policemen.   Though I have the next two novels, I am going to take some time off and read something else.