This is the first in Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series. It’s a competent thriller, but it clearly shows that he hadn’t yet hit his stride. Wallander comes across as a stereotypical depressed policeman: miserable because his wife has left him, out of touch with his daughter, fighting with his father, and getting drunk far too often. He is also the stereotypical highly committed policeman: working until all hours, doggedly following down leads that others had given up on, and racking up large numbers of cuts and bruises in the course of the investigation. In the end he fights against his own personal decline as much as he fights against the decay he sees creeping over Swedish society. You’re left with the impression of a capable character: one who can overcome the obstacles thrown at him. But is he really likeable? Would I have read more Wallander books if this was the first one I had picked up? Maybe not.

When I bought Sidetracked, I had no idea that Henning Mankell is Swedish, and that this is an English translation of his book. Being bilingual, I’m always a bit wary about reading translations. I’m always wondering how much of the author’s original tone is being lost. How many figures of speech just do not survive being moved out of their original tongue? What is the translator adding in order to compensate? So usually I consider a translated work to be a collaborative effort between the original author and the translator. In this case it’s Steven T. Murray, who has also translated many of Mankell’s other novels, and he does a fine job.

Inspector Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police finds himself investigating a series of brutal murders where the victims have been scalped. The victims are also rich and well-known, and so there is a lot of outside interest and pressure for him to solve the case. At the same time he has to deal with his sick father, and figure out a way to tell his girlfriend that the case will mean he’ll have to cancel their holiday. It’s these family connections that lend Sidetracked a lot of its interest. You get the impression that Wallander (and the rest of the Ystad police force) is much more than just a cop: he is a son, a father, a lover, and a friend. Despite the viciousness of the crimes, the book feels gentle and innocent. Wallander is constantly wondering how the Sweden he loves so much can produce such a deranged killer. Despite his cynicism, he genuinely believes in the goodness of his country and its people.

Although the writing is dry in places (especially at the start), this is a fascinating insight into the NSA and signals intelligence. The book doesn’t go into details about how the NSA breaks codes; recent years have seen plenty of books on codebreaking. Instead it focuses on the history of the NSA, the tough, dangerous, yet often tediously boring job of signals operators in the field, and the role that electronic intelligence gathering has played since the Second World War. But as well as notes of historical interest, Bamford has dug up an astonishing amount of inside information about incidents that security agencies and politicians would prefer stayed buried. His desciptions of incidents surrounding the lead-up to the Cuban missile crisis, and the Korean and Vietnam wars are eye-opening. He digs deeply into the question of who knew what and when, and comes up with some shocking answers. Definitely a must-read.