One Step Behind

<b>Sweden's most tenacious detective races to unlock the twisted logic behind a madman's crimes: Lyrical meticulous and stunningly suspenseful (<i>St. Petersburg Times</i>).</b><br> <br> On Midsummer's Eve three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight they don eighteenth-century costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets three corpses. And his plans have only just begun to take shape.<br> <br> Meanwhile Inspector Kurt Wallander is just back from vacation. Constantly fatigued he soon learns his health is at risk-but there's no time for rest when a fellow officer is murdered. Wallander soon discovers that the two grisly crimes are connected. A serial killer is on the loose and the only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know. Forced to dig into the personal life of a trusted colleague Wallander steps into a nightmare worse than any he could have imagined. Can he find his way out of the darkness before it's too late?<br> <br> A pulse-pounding thriller and an incisive investigation into the mysteries of human nature <i>One Step Behind </i>is typical of the dense intricate intelligence that Mankell brings to detection and crime writing (<i>The Washington Post Book World</i>).