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A gruesome murder in a remote farmhouse; a detective with a long list of personal demons; and the bleak backdrop of a harsh Swedish winter: add Henning Mankell’s explosive prose and you have the novel that brought Nordic noir to the attention of crime-fiction fans worldwide. The first book in Mankell’s best-selling ‘Wallander’ series, Faceless Killers is a page-turning thriller of the highest order, as well as a frank snapshot of Sweden’s political and social landscape in the 1990s. Patti Smith’s original introduction is reproduced in English for the first time in this edition, to accompany Steven T. Murray’s translation, while award-winning illustrator Morgan Schweitzer elevates the tension with a series of atmospheric illustrations that culminates in the stark binding design, encased in an eye-catching die-cut slipcase.

Production Details

Bound in blocked and printed textured paper
Die-cut slipcase

Dimensions

9 inches x 5¾ inches

Font

Set in Garamond with Avenir as display

Pages

312 pages

Author

Henning Mankell

Illustrated By

Morgan Schweitzer

Illustration

Frontispiece and 4 full-page colour illustrations, including a double-page spread
Black & white map

Publication Date

09/05/2023

Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers

£55

Book 1 in the Wallander series

Henning Mankell’s Faceless Killers made detective Wallander a household name and catapulted Nordic noir into the mainstream. The first ever illustrated edition, with an introduction by Patti Smith, is a must-have for fans of the genre.

Illustrated By Morgan Schweitzer

Introduced By Patti Smith

Translated By Steven T. Murray

Faceless Killers

£55

About the Illustrator

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

1 of 5

About the Illustrator

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

2 of 5

About the Illustrator

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

3 of 5

About the Illustrator

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

4 of 5

About the Illustrator

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

5 of 5

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) was a Swedish novelist best known for his ‘Wallander’ series of crime fiction published between 1991 and 2009; he also wrote plays, fiction for children and screenplays for film and TV. In total his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won numerous prizes, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (for Faceless Killers). As a young man Mankell worked as a merchant seaman and spent time writing in Paris and working in the theatre in Stockholm. In later life he divided his time between Sweden and Africa: having lived in Zambia and elsewhere on the continent, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique, and many of his novels feature African settings.

Patti Smith

Patti Smith is a writer, performer and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary mergence of poetry and rock. Her seminal album Horses (1975) has been hailed as one of the top albums of all time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Smith’s books include Witt (1973), Babe (1978), The Coral Sea (1996), Woolgathering (1992), Auguries of Innocence (2005) and three books of memoirs, the National Book Award-wining Just Kids (2010), chronicling her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, M Train (2015) and The Year of the Monkey (2019). Patti has introduced the Folio editions of Wuthering Heights (2014), De Profundis (2020) and Faceless Killers (2023).