num_pages: 420
description: In the award-winning Sidetracked, Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day he is called to a beach where Sweden’s former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer, and Wallander is frantic to find him before he strikes again. But his investigation is beset with a handful of obstacles—a department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, a tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow, and the unshakably haunting preoccupation with the young girl who set herself on fire. Fascinating and astute, Sidetracked is a compelling mystery enhanced by keen social awareness.
language: English
title: Sidetracked
titlecomplete: Sidetracked (Kurt Wallander, #5)
characters: Kurt Wallander
genres: Thriller, Detective, Swedish Literature, Scandinavian Literature, Crime, Sweden, Nordic Noir, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction
ratings_count: 23010
places: Sweden
series: Kurt Wallander, Wallander
awards: awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Glass Key Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: The Macallan Gold Dagger
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 788947200000
name: Svenska Deckarakademins pris för bästa svenska kriminalroman
publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard