The Return of the Dancing Master

The Return of the Dancing Master is Henning Mankell's first crime novel after the Wallander series. And, even if the subject matter and environment is different, it has the same kind of drive, the same anxious pulse.

»It would be nearly two hours before he died. As if in a borderland of horror between the nagging pain and the hopeless will to live, he was taken back in time, to the occasion when he engaged the fate that had now caught up with him.« December 12, 1945. Nazi Germany lies in ruins as a British warplane lands in Buckeburg. A man carrying a small black bag quickly disembarks and travels to Hameln, where he disappears behind the prison gates. Early the next day, nine male and three female war criminals are hanged.

Fifty-four years later, retired policeman Herbert Molin is found brutally slaughtered on his remote farm in Härjedalen, Sweden. At the murder scene, the police discover strange tracks in the blood on the floor... as if someone had been practicing the tango.

Stefan Lindman, a young police officer on extended sick leave, hears about the murder of his former colleague and decides to investigate it himself. Lindman’s inquiry becomes increasingly complex and dangerous as he uncovers the links between Herbert Molin’s death and a global web of neo-Nazi activity.

Translator Laurie Thompson lives in Wales and has translated fifteen books from Swedish.

Reveiws of the book:
»The Boston Globe
»The Observer

Facts

The Return of the Dancing Master
Translated by Laurie Thompson. Original title: Danslärarens återkomst. First published by Ordfront förlag, Stockholm, November 2000. 464 pages. Published in USA by The New Press (ISBN 1-56584-860-8).

Rights sold

• Germany: Zsolnay Verlag
• Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag
• Denmark: Klim
• Finland: Otava
• Italy: Marsilio
• Holland: De Geus
• France: Seuil
• UK: Harvill
• USA: The New Press
• Russia: Inostranka
• Spain: Tusquets
• Catalan: Tusquets

Updated: June 20, 2005.