The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell and Laurie Thompson

Una fría mañana de febrero llega un bote salvavidas a la costa sueca arrastrado por la corriente. Dentro encuentran los cadáveres de dos hombres que, como confirma el inspector Wallander, han sido asesinados hace días. Aquejado de estrés y de intensos dolores de pecho, con remordimientos por su anciano padre y sin haber encajado bien la separación de su mujer, Kurt Wallander, una vez abierta la investigación, debe hacer de tripas corazón y posponer sus buenos propósitos de cuidarse más. Al averiguarse que los dos hombres asesinados eran letones, Wallander no tiene más remedio que viajar a Riga, donde se introduce en los ambientes más corruptos, gobernados por bandas criminales.

Another political, adult thriller from one of my new favorite authors. What a wonder to discover someone who has been writing such engaging and thought-provoking books for such a long time! Wallander is a fascinating mope, and I really adore his commitment to his melancholy and his life: his misery doesn't stop him from being a genuinely good person.

This is the second Kurt Wallander mystery I've read, and it's #2 in a series. The first one I read was #3 in the series, so I'm going backwards in Wallander's life. In this book he is something of a sad sack, drinking too much, thinking about getting out of the police force and taking a job as a security guard, wondering why he puts so much of himself into his work only to get frustration and health problems out of it. While he's in this emotional morass, two dead men in a red life raft wash up on shore and an investigation begins that eventually sends him to Riga, Latvia. At this time, Latvia is still a totalitarian society under the control of the Soviet Union. His movements are watched, and he suspects that the police who are hosting him, who he is supposed to be assisting, are actually in on the crime.

This is a nice, moody mystery of the Cold War era.