by Kate O'Leary

Created on: June 05, 2010

I had high, high hopes for "The Man From Beijing" by Henning Mankell.   It had gotten fantastic reviews from around the world and promised a story the reader would never forget it was originally written in Swedish and the copy I read had been translated to English.  I do not know if it was the translation or the book itself but the book did not live up to my preconceived expectations and hopes.  However I tend to read two to five books a week and have a fairly high standard for what I consider to be a fantastic read.  The Man From Beijing was a good read but it was not fantastic.

The book opens with the grisly murders of an entire village of comprised of mostly elderly residents all of them somehow related to one another and one couple who are the adoptive grandparents of a woman who now sits as a judge in one of the large Swedish Cities.  I found the names of all of the characters to be very similar and it was not always easy to follow the movements of the man character as she traveled throughout the country.  I am willing to concede that this is most likely because I am not familiar with the host country and I should have gotten a map but I did not and it ended up distracting my from the story.

The main character is a woman who is in her fifties.  Her children are grown and she and her husband have drawn apart resulting in a questioning of her marriage and her life.  While I can certainly understand the frustrations of the middle aged it was hard to garner a lot of sympathy for the character as she had plenty of money and her hobby of choice was collecting very expensive bottles of wine.

After reading about the murders and connecting them to her mother's childhood the hunt begins and our main character drives up to the village where the murders have taken place.  She meets the local investigators who are a colorful bunch and breaks a few law but it does give her a lead, one that she shares with th man investigator.

Along the course of the investigation China and Hong Kong come into play along with a gentleman who ended up in America.  The book is about revenge (though an unexpected revenge) and a letting go and moving forward.  While I would not rave about this book if you see it pick it up there are worse ways to spend your time.  With that said at the same time buy a map and learn a little Swedish it will make the experience more enjoyable

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