An Event in Autumn: A Kurt Wallander Mystery

Kurt Wallander #9.5

by Henning Mankell

After nearly thirty years in the same job, Inspector Kurt Wallander is tired, restless, and itching to make a change. He is taken with a certain old farmhouse, perfectly situated in a quiet countryside with a charming, overgrown garden. There he finds the skeletal hand of a corpse in a shallow grave. Wallander’s investigation takes him deep into the history of the house and the land, until finally the shocking truth about a long-buried secret is brought to light.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Sweden, Mystery Thriller, Nordic Noir

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Henning Mankell was an internationally known Swedish crime writer, children's author and playwright. He was best known for his literary character Kurt Wallander.

Mankell split his time between Sweden and Mozambique. He was married to Eva Bergman, Swedish director and daughter of Ingmar Bergman.

Reviews

[Rachel (not currently receiving notifications) Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Event in Autumn was an unlikely starting point for an introduction to the legend that is Henning Mankell and his creation, Kurt Wallander, but enough to see why he has acquired the cult status he has gained. Having never read any of the Wallander novels nor seen the TV adaptions, I was unsure whether starting with a novella set in his final years before retirement would allow me to appreciate his character. The print version of this novella covers just over one hundred and fifty pages and is set prior to Wallander's final outing, The Troubled Man. The story was originally distributed as a free incentive with other book sales to popularise reading in Holland and on the strength of this short and very sweet meeting with Kurt Wallander, I most definitely would have been back for more! Gloomy and despondent undoubtedly, but a man of depth with a remarkably dry humour.

Opening at the beginning of October 2002, Wallander is grouchy and morose about everything from the seasonal weather to the overdue ending of his career. Reflecting on over thirty years spent in the force which have see him progress from probationer to detective, he ruminates on the changes in crime, most notably the increased availability of drugs. He wonders if it is more difficult to be a police officer or if he is just making excuses and ripe for retirement. His daughter, Linda, has completed her training and is working at Ystad station alongside Wallander and also sharing his flat, much to his chagrin as he reflects on the 'strange marriage' they are now engaged in, reflecting how much Linda reminds him of former wife, Mona. In the prelude to his retirement, Wallander is on the lookout for a home in the country and a dog to keep him company and his loneliness is evident.

When colleague Martinson disturbs Wallander on his day off and offers him first refusal on a home in Löderup that belongs to a cousin of his wife, now resident in an old people's home and riddled with dementia, he is tempted to take a look. Surprisingly impressed with the potential for the house, things take a turn for the worse when Wallander stumbles over the remains of a skeleton in the garden. Why this would suddenly become visible after being evidently long buried is the first mystery which forensic officer Nyberg solves for Wallander, with explanations about groundwater and soil subsidence. From then on the problem plagues Wallander and colleagues Martinson, Linda and Stefan Lindman. With limited resources being available for the most important cases, there is little allocated to a long dead mystery, but nevertheless Wallander needs an identity for the buried skeleton before he can even begin to track down a killer. As the team work through the deeds of the house which tell its story, discover the distinct lack of missing persons that fit the criteria and ponder how people can go unreported, there is precious little to build on. False trails aplenty hinder the route to resolution, including a red herring that itself has gone unsolved for over fifty years. As Kurt Wallander attests:

"In many cases it is just as important to eliminate leads as it is to find them."

More surprising is when Wallander makes headway and comes face to face with a haunted pensioner who has never forgotten the incidents, and lived in fear of eventual discovery. Although I have read several stories where a historic crime has taken place and is therefore statue-barred, this novella was exceptionally well done and culminates in a brush with his own mortality for Kurt Wallander. Watch and learn from a master at work!

The printed version of this novella also includes some thoughts on the character from Mankell, including some real gems:

"It seemed to me that the police officer I shall describe must realise how difficult it is to be a good police officer. Crime changes in the same way that a society changes. If he is going to be able to do his work properly, he must understand what is going on in the society he lives in."

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sé por qué me negaba a leer este libro. Aunque fue escrito en el 2004, fue publicado después de acabar la serie. Tal vez porque sabía que era lo último de Wallander. Porque sabía que me causaría nostalgia... y así ha sido. Se me ha quedado un nudo en la garganta igual que cuando terminé El hombre inquieto, último libro de la serie. Fue emocionante leer del propio Mankell cómo surgió el personaje, cómo surgían las ideas según los acontecimientos políticos y sociales de la época y hasta de qué manera se anticipaba a los hechos que luego sacudían la región. La historia es corta, se lee en poco tiempo. Mankell en estado puro, con sus manías, con sus corazonadas y razonamientos a la hora de resolver un caso y su mala costumbre de siempre irse solo a donde no tiene que hacerlo. No soy objetiva con Mankell y mucho menos con Wallander. Seguirá siendo en número 1 en la lista de mis polis preferidos.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything published by Henning Mankell is must reading for me, especially this novella featuring my favorite Swedish detective, Kurt Wallender. At this point in the series Wallender, closing in on retirement, is thinking about a house in the country, a dog and maybe a girlfriend, not necessarily in that order. Inspecting a country house that was recommended to him, he literally stumbles on a human hand reaching out of the garden. This discovery leads to evidence of a murder committed sometime in the mid 20th century, a textbook cold case that Wallender is committed to solving.

My only complaint was the length of the book (118 pages) but it was still vintage Henning Mankell, who made the Ystad Sweden coastal area come alive as a landscape for brilliant non-US crime fiction. Fans of the Wallendar series will also appreciate the Afterword where he comments "there will be no more stories about Kurt Wallender" and his very interesting notes about each book in the series titled "How it Started, How it Finished and What Happened in Between". Very disappointing news for fans of the series of course but he did leave open the possibility of a new crime fiction series that centers on his now police officer and outspoken daughter Linda. Unfortunately as Mankell explains, his age at 65 makes writing crime fiction more problematic but we remain hopeful his creative juices will trump his biological clock.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I shall never find a house, he thought. No house, no dog, no new woman either. Everything will remain the same as it always has been."

The last Wallander mystery, Troubled Man, was published in 2011, but this novella was released in 2014, and fits in chronologically just before that last novel. Written for a Dutch Crime Festival, it features an (of course) aging Wallander, living now in Ystad with his daughter and now police colleague, Linda. He's been thinking of moving out of the city for many years (as his father did), finding a mate (he's been living alone for a long time, as his father did) and getting a dog. It's beginning to feel like the autumn of his life, as he is now older than any other colleague on the force.

Looking at a house he's considering buying, he finds a human hand in the back yard emerging out of the ground. Mystery! And the crime, while grisly, is rather straightforward. It's a well done story, welcomed by all Wallander fans. Solid, with the sad character of Wallander emerging more and more. One bonus that makes this a must for fans is an essay he appends here about how he began writing the series initially to combat racism, which he saw really emerging in Sweden after the fall of the Soviet Union. He thought: This is like a mystery that needs to be solved, so imagined a detective who sees the need to confront it as it comes into his country.

The essay, published after Troubled Man, includes the sad sentence: “There are no more stories about Kurt Wallander.” He said he wouldn't miss Wallander, but knew his readers would. Mankell died of cancer in 2015. I just learned (from Wikipedia) that his father-in-law was Swedish movie and theatre director Ingmar Bergman, one of my favorite directors of all time!

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurt Wallander is drifting into retirement, and wants to buy a small farm out in the countryside. Unfortunately, he finds the hand of corpse while looking around. He and his team, including his daughter, investigate.

Very elegiac.

[Martin Rondina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó! es mi primer acercamiento al autor y su serie del inspector Wallander, ya quiero empezar la serie desde el inicio.

[Jonathan K (Max Outlier) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfamiliar with the author this was on the library popular list, though I honestly have no idea why. Characters are blah as is the plot and reads like a novice wrote it. I found Wallander, the central character about as interesting as watching paint dry :)

[Ivy_Lost_inside_Pages · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idk why I missed this little novella out because I thought, I have read all the Wallander Books ...here it goes. I missed the writing style of Mankell. It’s so well written and the Protagonist gets my fully sympathy. Kurt wants finally slip a bit into retirement and for this he wants to maybe buy a house. He still lives with his Daughter in his apartment...he wants his silence. Butttttt....the house he wants to maybe buy keeps a secret. This little story is interesting and has the well known kind of extra Mankell.

[Alejandra Arévalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Será que me había acostumbrado a los librotes que sentí que este no dio mucho. Bastante sencillo para Wallander pero tampoco horrible.

[Noella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wallander is op zoek naar een huis op het platteland om na zijn pensioen in te gaan wonen. Martinson biedt hem aan om eens een kijkje te nemen in het huis van een verre neef van hem, dat te koop staat.
Als Wallander het huis bekeken heeft, en de tuin ingaat, struikelt hij over iets. Omdat het al bijna donker is, kan hij niet zien wat het is. Het blijft hem echter dwars zitten en nadien gaat hij terug. Er blijkt een skelet van een hand uit de grond te steken.
Wallander verwittigt de politie, en al gauw vinden ze een volledig skelet, van een vrouw, die daar al zeker 50 jaar begraven ligt. Later wordt de hele tuin onderzocht, en wordt er nog een skelet van een man gevonden, ongeveer van dezelfde leeftijd, en begraven rond dezelfde tijd.
Het is natuurlijk uiterst moeilijk om een misdaad van zo lang geleden op te lossen...

Goed verhaal.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kurt Wallender is an aging police detective who wants to buy a house in the Swedish countryside. Wallender is a morose individual who lives with his daughter. One of his colleagues mentions that a relative’s house is for sale. When Wallander tours the home, he can envision himself buying it, but he comes across a human hand protruding from the garden. This sets off a cold-case investigation. The storyline follows the police procedures involved in figuring out what happened decades ago. It is a book in the Nordic noir genre and part of a series. I have not read any of the other Wallender books, so perhaps I should not have started with this one. The characters are not developed in depth and the plot is not particularly noteworthy. For me, it is difficult to find a detective story or mystery that stands out. It is one of those middle-of-the-road types – not bad but not great, either.

[Matthieu Wegh · Rating 4 out of 5]

? Een boekje uit eigen kast, dat ook nog binnen "de boekenwurm" challenge paste.
🤔Ik ben niet zo van de thrillers, maar dit boekje smaakte naar meer. Ik heb een tijd geleden wel eens een aflevering van Wallander op de Nederlandse tv gezien, maar dit was mijn eerste boekje over deze Zweedse inspecteur dus.
MW6/4/24

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mankell wrote this for his Dutch readers as a promotional giveaway. It’s relatively short, with a short essay by the author about his detective in the edition I read. I found the book was nice as an example of a Wallander story. Wallander stories are known for their description of location and the feeling of dreariness. This had that in spades, taking place in a dark autumn. I got cold shivers when reading this, and it’s the first day of summer for me now. Books in the series can weigh on you. And as Wallander ages, he is getting more curmudgeonly. Here, he is downright grumpy throughout, and to excess. There’s lots of gruff complaining. If this was the first Wallander you read, you probably wouldn’t want to spend more time with him. I don’t recall any description of food or (non action related) illness or injury, other hallmarks of the series. But as I check Amazon’s Look Inside for this book, I see coffee is actually mentioned 17 times, or about once every 10 pages. That’s about right. You need warm fortification for dealing with the approaching Swedish winter and a historic murder. The mystery itself was a little weak.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A forgotten Novella; I read the book version and had the bonus of author's comments.
Wallender lives in print and this short story helps one visualise his personna far better than all the TV series and films recreating his exploits.
This is near the closing of Mankell's writing about many peoples favourite detective; just prior to the last book - The Troubled Man. Autumn is indeed that start of the on-set colder times and death in nature and this wonderful tale is about Wallender's thoughts of retirement and in the process a brush of mortality as a case stretches the team as they investigate a sixty year old crime.
Terrific writing as usual; with many insights into getting older and the changes in season.
Makes one want to start it all again with Faceless Killers or The Pyramid.

[Gisela Hafezparast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't know how I missed this little gem by one of my favourite writers of all times. It's a typical Wallander, with all his grumpiness and dodged determination to get to the truth never mind what. I have to re-read the series, nothing compares.

Miss Henning Mankell and the books he was never able to write.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE LAST, LASTER, LASTEST KURT WALLANDER BOOK

For years now, Henning Mankell has been telling us he’d written the very last Kurt Wallander tale. Now, another one has turned up. Mankell explains in an Afterword that he’d actually written An Event in Autumn many years ago as a bonus for Dutch readers. Since he was recently asked for a complete list of the Wallander stories, he felt compelled to include it . . . which, for some reason, meant getting it republished.

He mightn’t have bothered.

Mankell is probably incapable of writing a bad book. An Event in Autumn isn’t awful – it throws a little more light on Chief Inspector Wallander’s endlessly complex character — but it offers little of the highly charged action that appear in other novels in this widely acclaimed series. It might be said that Autumn‘s brevity — it’s a novelette, really — has something to do with the lack of energy the work generates, but I’ve read ten-page stories in which more happens.

However, Mankell’s Afterword and an essay that follows entitled “Mankell on Wallander” make the book well worthwhile reading after all. Mankell writes about how he came up with his detective’s name; the origins of the series in his desire to write about racism in Sweden; the halting, step-by-step process through which a standalone novel (Faceless Killers) actually became a series of eleven books; his relationship with Wallander fans; and his complex relationship with his most famous character. It’s not often that the reading public gets such a chance to peer into the gray matter of a favorite writer. I loved it.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first and probably only Mankell novel; I have a bad habit of trying mystery series and giving up after one book, or not even making it through a whole one. This was written for a Dutch promotional deal and falls chronologically between The Pyramid and The Troubled Man, making it #9.5 in the Kurt Wallander series. It opens in late October 2002. After 30 years as a police officer, Wallander is interested in living in the countryside instead of the town center flat he shares with his daughter Linda, also a police officer. A colleague tells him about a house in the country owned by his wife’s elderly cousin and Wallander goes to have a look.

Of course things aren’t going to go smoothly with this venture. You have to suspend disbelief when reading about the adventures of investigators; it’s like they attract corpses. So it’s not much of a surprise that while he’s walking the grounds of this house he finds a human hand poking out of the soil, and eventually the remains of a middle-aged couple are unearthed. The rest of the book is about finding out what happened on the property at the time of the Second World War. Wallander says he doesn’t believe in ghosts, but victims of wrongful death are as persistent as ghosts: they won’t be ignored until answers are found.

This was a quick and easy read, but nothing about it (setting, topics, characterization, prose) made me inclined to read further in the author’s work.

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best parts of this book, apart from the story, is the Afterword in which Henning Mankell explains how the story was published and where it fits in the continuum of the Wallender stories. There is a longer section titled HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT FINISHED AND WHAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN which is also worth reading. In it he talks about his relationship with Wallender, and how he feels about the depictions of Wallender in the three TV series that have been produced.

AN EVENT IN AUTUMN comes just before the last in the Wallender series, THE TROUBLED MAN, which I have yet to read. Wallender is living and working with his daughter Linda, with who he has a rather crusty relationship. He is looking to buy a house and looks at one which Martinson's wife has inherited. He has made up his mind to buy the house when he stumbles over something in the back yard. The object turns out to be a skeletal hand sticking up out of the soil.

This is a novella and doesn't feel as if it has the depth, or the number of plot lines, of a full blown novel. The characterisation is a bit thin, but nearly all the characters are those we have met in earlier novels. Nevertheless Wallander fans will enjoy it.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first introduction to the Nordic novels was a Wallander, this was many years ago.I have since read them all, though I have never watched the series where this character is featured.

In this one, a novella, Wallender is older, getting close to retiring. His daughter Linda is living with him and has just joined the police force. Wallander's dream is to buy a house and move out of the city. Finding the house will turn out very differently than he thought.

Rather slowly paced, I still enjoyed the unraveling of the trail and of course the inner thoughts and feelings of this celebrated solver of mysteries. The author's note explains how this story came to be and how the character of Wallander was envisioned at the start. It also included the statement "There are no more stories about Kurt Wallander." Found this quite upsetting.

ARC from NetGalley.

[pearl_seeker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read more about the weather in Sweden than about any character or event! And the weather was just as uninteresting as the plot. There is no character development, no tension, no plot twists/turns! This book was as dry and uninteresting as a history book. If you want to engage us in a 50+ year-old murder, you either have to take us back in time or tie it to the present in a way that makes us care. This book does neither.

This Kurt Wallander book appears to have been written solely to inform us that people migrated to Sweden during World War II. Well, there you go! I've informed you of same and have saved you reading the book! The ONLY thing this book has going for it is its extreme brevity (149 pgs in the English translation).

[Eva Gat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Z dlhej chvíle a strachu zo smrti a nečinnosti som si vymyslela taký osobný projekt s názvom"Čo na tom tí ľudia vidia?" Začala som severským thrillerom. Vzhľadom na to, že toto je podľa viacerých zdrojov najslabšia Mankellova kniha (ja osobne nemám s čím porovnať) ju budem brať asi trochu s rezervou. Zápletka, ktorá vyvrcholila až na posledných pätnástich stranách by si kľudne zaslúžila viac pozornosti, celé mi to prišlo dosť "zbrklé", ako keď sa vás niekto pýta, čo je nové a vy odpoviete len zo slušnosti, lebo sa vám skrátka nechce vysvetľovať. Čo sa týka slovenského vydania, tak ma najviac udivuje fakt, ako sa dá natiahnuť v podstate veľmi krátka novela na 174 strán. 14-ka písmo, 1,5 medzery ako keď píšete seminárku a predávate za 10€.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novella and a delight! A writer that can tell a good story with less is excellent at his craft.
Very much enjoyed reading the essay at the end where Henning Mankell described his creation of and the flow of Wallander over the years. His views of events in Europe 1990 onwards are so well expressed in the various books of the series and I delight in reading how he created the stories and indeed the ending....
Many wonderful hours spent reading the series and many more watching the many more episodes on tv than there are books, with three actors creating Wallander for the screen. Sad to see it end....

[Linda Lipko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wallender is a police officer in Ystad. He is tough, seasoned and unrelenting when solving a crime. Thirty years in the police force, and now he longs for peace and quiet. His drive takes a lot out of him and his health is failing. As he searches for a home to live, near the ocean, in the country, with a plot of land, he believes he found the perfect place. When walking in the old, overgrown gardens, he finds a hand sticking up from the ground. Thirty years in the police force, and now he longs for peace and quiet.

Immediately, his positive thoughts turn negative and does not want to buy a house where a murder occurred. As his team examines the site, they find two bodies, long ago buried, one a man and another a woman.

Clues don't come easy in solving this, unil a woman with a criminal background, provides information of her gypsy grandparents from Eastonia who traveled in this area during WWII, seeking refuge from German Nazis.

As always, there are twists and turns to any Wallander plot. This book seemed simplistic by others, but it was well worth the read. And, I would recommend it.

3.5 Stars

[Κατερίνα Θεοδώρου · Rating 2 out of 5]

Πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο μικρής έκτασης, γρήγορα έφτασα στη μέση και εξακολουθούσε να μου φαίνεται χλιαρό. Ποτέ δεν είχα τον ψυχαναγκασμό να τελειώσω ντε και καλά ένα βιβλίο και δεν θα μπορούσε να συμβεί με αυτό, αφενός λόγω των λίγων σελίδων του, αφετέρου λόγω του Μάνκελ που έγραψε το συγκλονιστικό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα "Εκτελεστές δίχως πρόσωπο" (ΒΡΕΙΤΕ ΤΟ!) οπότε περίμενα κάτι να έρθει σύντομα και να με εκπλήξει.
Η ιστορία εδώ απλοϊκή, τύπου: "Εσύ τον σκότωσες;" "Ναι, οκ με βρήκατε"... Όλα εντελώς επιφανειακά και άνευρα.
Μου έδωσε την αίσθηση αρπαχτής, ότι γράφτηκε δηλαδή σε πολύ μικρό χρονικό διάστημα και στη σελίδα 139, από την διευκρίνιση του συγγραφέα για την εν λόγω κυκλοφορία, επιβεβαιώθηκε σε μεγάλο βαθμό η πρότερη υποψία μου. Το πιο ενδιαφέρον κομμάτι του βιβλίου βρίσκεται στο τέλος, όταν η συγκεκριμένη ιστορία έχει τελειώσει και ο Μάνκελ μάς δίνει στοιχεία για την προσωπικότητα, τον οικογενειακό, φιλικό και συναδελφικό περίγυρο του Βαλάντερ. Παρόλα αυτά θα ψάξω και τις άλλες ιστορίες του επιθεωρητή Βαλάντερ καθώς αυτή εδώ για συγκεκριμένους λόγους δεν είναι τόσο αντιπροσωπευτική της σειράς και στο προαναφερθέν "Εκτελεστές δίχως πρόσωπο" είδα τον Μάνκελ στα καλύτερά του. Άλλα δύο εκτός σειράς που διάβασα δεν με συγκλόνισαν ιδιαίτερα.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het meest spannende was dat ik heb bijgehouden hoe vaak Wallander koffie dronk (iemand vertelde mij meermaals dat hij nogal vaak koffie dronk en een keer een worstje at). Het antwoord is 13. Houdt hem scherp zullen we maar zeggen binnen 90 blz.

Makkelijke schrijfstijl, leest wel lekker weg. De tweede spannende vraag was wanneer hij nou dat ene worstje zou eten. Zoals het moet in een goed spannend verhaal: ergens richting het einde (pas).

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for my first book in this series.

[Mr. e-bok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quizá no el mejor, pero si con el mejor epílogo. Amé esa contundente despedida

[Glenda Nelms · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting short mystery novel. Kurt Wallander is a Swedish detective approaching retirement and reflecting on his 30 year career on the Police Force. Wallander received from his colleague about a small house that his uncle used to live he wants to sell. He inspects a small farm house in the country, then stumbles on a human hand of a corpse reaching out of a garden. He and his team, including his daughter Linda investigates the case. The discovery of the hand leads to a murder that was committed during the mid 20th century. Wallander’s complex character helps get to the bottom of the case. Mankell writes an afterword and an essay where he explains his creation and how the story was published. An event in Autumn was well written and plotted. If you love reading international mystery books that has twists and turns, read the Kurt Wallander Mysteries.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó más zapatos italianas pero está novela policiaca tiene un fondo dulce a Menkel que ha hecho que me volviese a gustar.
Gran autor.

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prima novelle om even lekker tussendoor te lezen.