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This offering by Swedish author, Henning Mankell, featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, is difficult to categorize.

Is it a Mystery? It's mysterious in the sense that there are many surprises along the way but it's not really a classic Mystery because reader knows who the killer is long before Wallander does.

Is it a Police Procedural? Sort of since the reader is privy to how the police go about their work but only to highlight Wallander's thinking.

Is it a Thriller? Wallander is targeted by the killer and his daughter is stalked. He and another policeman are shot at and Wallander's companion is wounded. However these events comprise a very small part of the book.

Is it a Psychological Study? Mankell spends a lot of time exploring Wallander's thinking as he tries to solve the murders and the sub-plot involving his relationships with his woman friend, his daughter and his father are well documented from his point of view. Yet, the thrust of the story is not to analyze why Wallander thinks the way he does but rather to explore his thought processes as they occur.

In the end, it really doesn't matter because the story of the search for a serial killer is totally absorbing on its own.

This particular offering is a good example of the best that Mankell has to offer: literature offered up as a detective story.