Henning Mankell has spoken: Detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander has solved his last case. Making this news more bitter, the alcoholic, diabetic, antisocial and perpetually dour Swedish detective is at his gloomy best in THE TROUBLED MAN...

Though shivering in the winter of his discontent, Wallander will grip the reader hard. Flawed and occasionally exasperating, he is that rare thing: a true original.

Wallander might be aging, but Mankell is dead on in crafting an intricate plotline equal to the skills and insight of his famous detective. This is essential for fans of the series, and it succeeds as a stand-alone in the crowded field of dark, psychological Scandinavian thrillers.

INSPECTOR KURT WALLANDER made his first appearance in 1991 in Faceless Killers, pursuing the murderers of an elderly farming couple in rural Sweden. Nearly 20 years and nine books later, his creator, Henning Mankell, swears he is poised to finish him off for good.The final Wallander novel, The Troubled Man, will highlight his family even more, Mankell promises. Already acquired by British publisher Harvill Secker, and sold to ten other countries, the book opens when Håkan von Enke, a retired high-ranking naval officer, disappears during his daily morning walk in the forest near Stockholm. Von Enke is the father-in-law of Wallander's daughter Linda, who is expecting their grandchild. The story ranges back to the early 1980s, and Cold War rows when Russian submarines probed Swedish waters...But Mankell has not written a Wallander novel for ten years. The Troubled Man, published later this year in Sweden, marks his belated return to the redoubtable detective. "It's the last time," he says. "When you read it, you will understand. It doesn't mean that he dies – he doesn't die – but you will understand it's not possible to write any more about him."