The Man from Beijing

 The Man from Beijing (aka Kinesen; 2008) by Henning Mankell (trans. by Laurie Thompson)

The story begins in the tiny village of Hesjovallen in the north of Sweden. A photographer who has been taking pictures of small villages on the verge of extinction is set to complete is project. One of the elderly men who makes the village his home had heard of Hoglin's project and written an impressive letter on the uniqueness of Hesjovallen. But when Hoglin arrives that cold, January morning there is no sign of life in the village at all. He can't believe that the writer of the letter had lied to him and is about to leave, when something strikes him about the eerie quietness. He decides to investigate and makes a horrific discovery--nineteen people, all elderly except for one young boy, have been brutally killed, slashed to death. When the police arrive, they find that all but three people were killed--and all those who were killed shared the same three surnames. In fact the three families represented seem to have intermarried, creating one huge family. The three who were spared had no connection to others beyond sharing the village.

Judge Birgitta Roslin hears about the tragic murders and realizes that her mother's foster parents were among the victims. She knows very little about the Andrens, but has some letters and documents that her mother passed on to her. When she tries give the investigating officers what information she has, they listen but don't seem particularly interested in finding out much about the victims. Roslin feels impelled to keep digging and she discovers that another family of Andrens, living in Nevada, has also been wiped out. She's certain that this crime--as big and terrible as it is--is even bigger than the police imagine. The threads of the story lead back to the western United States in the 1860s and then to present-day China and Africa. It's a story full of suffering and death....and there is a cunning mind seeking revenge for the evil deeds of the past.

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Spoilers ahead! I don't reveal the killer, but I do reveal details that might make the reading experience less than it could have been...continue at your own risk.

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This story has quite an opening. Very arresting and horrifying. I'm not a big fan of mass murder or serial killer mysteries, but in the past Mankell has done well with similar plots and I was prepared for a good mystery. The opening delivers without going into too much gory details on the killings--short descriptions and then we're done. And I was definitely intrigued when Roslin found the connection to her mother's foster family. I wanted to find out all the details about the family and why they all had to be eliminated. But then....it slowly went downhill. Without more background on the person behind the killings and what makes them so invested in the deeds of the past, it just doesn't work for me. Especially when they don't actually do the killing--they just arrange for it to be done. When someone is that set on revenge, I would think that part of the interest would be in carrying it out not experiencing revenge vicariously or from afar.

Much is made of the the red ribbon left at the crime scene in Sweden. It's listed in the synopsis as the only clue found. But it's never explained. Yes, Birgitta figures out where it came from and the fact it came from a lantern in a Chinese restaurant ties the crime to China. But why did the killer take the ribbon and leave it at the village? Was it a message to one of the victims? Did it represent more than just a connection to China? We'll never know. Of course, in real life there are often unanswered questions, but one does expect mystery fiction to be a little tidier than real life.

But that's not the most baffling part of this novel--what baffles me the most is why Mankell took a perfectly good plot idea (the bones are good--he just didn't flesh it out properly) and decided to weigh it down with all kinds of Chinese political intrigue. We really don't need the treatise on the state of Chinese affairs after the death of Mao. I understand what he was trying to do with the parallels from the past and all, but it just doesn't work in the middle of a mystery thriller where we really just want to know who did it and why. So, in the final analysis--this book had a great set-up that just failed to meet its potential. ★★ and 1/2 (all for the opening chapters and the glimmerings of good story throughout)

First line: Frozen snow, severe frost. Midwinter.

Memory is like glass, she thought. A person who has died is still visible, bery close. But we can no longer contact each other. (p. 71)

Rumor always tells the truth. When lies and exaggerations have been filtered out, there is always a kernel of truth left behind. (p. 327)

Last line: People were beginning to prepare themselves for the long winter.

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Deaths = 39 (six natural; twenty-three stabbed; two drowned; two hanged; two hit on head; four shot)