TV News: Young Wallander

It's recently been announced that Netflix has ordered a UK-Swedish production of a "Young Wallander" series, a six-parter featuring a 20-something Wallander and his first case. Details via Variety:

The adventures of “Young Wallander” are coming to Netflix. The streaming giant has ordered a U.K.-Swedish series based on the early life of Henning Mankell’s popular police inspector, who has already been already depicted on the small screen in the BBC “Wallander” series with Kenneth Branagh and a Swedish version with Krister Henriksson.

“Young Wallander” will see the titular detective tackling his first-ever case. Netflix’s VP of international originals, Erik Barmack, announced the project Wednesday at C21’s Content London event.

“We’re looking at Wallander when he was in his early 20s, before he became so jaded,” he said, noting that Mankell’s books had sold 50 million copies around the world in multiple languages. “When we talked to Berna [Levin] at Yellow Bird and saw the opportunity to work on a project like this, we got really excited.”

Production starts on the serialized six-parter, which will be in English, in 2019.

Levin, creative director at Banijay-owned Yellow Bird U.K., said that “getting to meet Wallander as a young man and explore how the times and his new experiences will shape him to eventually become the man we already know and love is a thrilling opportunity. We are confident he will captivate new audiences and delight longstanding fans once again with his sharp intelligence, youthful enthusiasm and unmistakable humanity.”

Review Roundup: Bolton, Carol, Carter, Den Tex, Edwards, Gordon-Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Kelly, Mankell, Marklund, Mogford, Patterson & Ellis, Staalesen

Here are sixteen reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

If you like translated crime fiction then you may be interested in the International Dagger 2016 Speculation list of titles.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Michelle Peckham reviews Sharon Bolton's Little Black Lies, set in the Falklands;

Susan White reviews James Carol's Prey, the third in the Jefferson Winter series set in the US;

Amanda Gillies reviews Chris Carter's I Am Death, the seventh in his Robert Hunter series set in LA;


Guest reviewer Bob Cornwell reviews the Dutch thriller Mr. Miller by Charles Den Tex tr. Nancy Forest-Flier;

Rich Westwood reviews Martin Edwards's The Golden Age of Murder - a history of the Detection Club;


Terry Halligan reviews Dolores Gordon-Smith's The Chessman, the ninth in the 1920s Jack Haldean series;

Terry also reviews The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson, the sequel to the award winning The Devil in the Marshalsea;


Geoff Jones reviews J Sydney Jones's The Third Place, the sixth in the Viennese mystery series;

Geoff also reviews Jim Kelly's Death on Demand, the sixth in the Shaw & Valentine series set in North Norfolk;


Lynn Harvey reviews Henning Mankell's An Event in Autumn tr. Laurie Thompson;

Michelle also reviews Liza Marklund's Without a Trace tr. Neil Smith - the tenth and penultimate entry in the Annika Bengtzon series;

Lynn also reviews Thomas Mogford's Sleeping Dogs which takes Gibraltar-based lawyer Spike Sanguinetti to Corfu;

I review parts Three, Four and Five of Murder House by James Patterson and David Ellis


and Ewa Sherman reviews Gunnar Staalesen's We Shall Inherit the Wind tr. Don Bartlett which is the sixteenth in the PI Varg Veum series though only six are currently available in English and is the first of three from Orenda Books.

Review: An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell tr. Laurie Thompson

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell, tr Laurie Thompson (September 2015, Vintage, ISBN: 1784700843)

There was no sign of other bones. Just that hand sticking up out of the ground. He bent down again and poked cautiously into the earth. Was there a whole skeleton under there, or was it just the hand? He was unable to decide for sure.

I was writing this piece about the “Wallander” novella AN EVENT IN AUTUMN when the news broke that it's author, Swedish writer and playwright Henning Mankell, had died. Mankell was my first introduction to Scandinavian crime fiction and for me he was its yardstick. As such, the quote that starts this review is not just an example of good writing but could well stand for the essence of good crime fiction. The irony is that Mankell never set out to be a crime writer. He had returned to Sweden from a long stay in Africa in the early 1990s and was struck by the increase in racism in Swedish society. He decided he wanted to write about it and he also decided that a crime story was the perfect vehicle for writing about the subject and that he would need “a policeman” to carry out the investigation. Thus Kurt Wallander, a character intrinsic to Scandinavian crime fiction, was born.

AN EVENT IN AUTUMN started as a novella for the Dutch market. Some of its plot points were later taken as foundation for an episode in the third season of Kenneth Branagh's BBC television's Wallander series. The novella itself was translated into English by veteran Mankell translator Laurie Thompson (who, sadly, also died earlier this year) and published in the UK for the first time in 2014. It is beautifully written and equally beautifully translated.

Ystad, Sweden. October, 2002.
Wallander has worked until the early hours. He is tired. He reviews his feelings about being a policeman, now, at this time, then leaves the office for his flat which he currently shares with his daughter Linda. It's Linda who wakes him next morning with news of a phone call, much to Wallander's annoyance. It is his day off, he shouts. But Martinson isn't calling about a case, he is calling about a house. It belongs to a relative of Martinson's wife. The relative has had to go into a home and now they want to sell the house. Is Wallander interested in looking at it? That dream of a house in the country and the companionship of a dog? Wallander walks to the police station where Martinson gives him a bunch of keys and tells him that the house is not far from where Wallander's father used to live. Wallander isn't too sure about that but takes the keys, collects his car and drives out into the countryside – to what turns out to be an old farmhouse standing in a neglected garden of fruit trees and currant bushes. He enters the house and walks around the rooms. It would need work. It's been neglected. Then he rings Martinson and after some cautious, reluctant haggling he says that he will take it but that he wants to discuss it first with his daughter. He walks around the house again, taking note of things to be done, trying to imagine living there. Once more he goes out into the garden, tasting the water from the pump, imagining a bowl of water set out for a dog. Back in his car he hesitates. He had seen something when he had tripped in the garden. A small rake? A root?….

What Wallander has found is a hand – the bones of a hand which lead to a search for the rest of the skeleton and an investigation into the past of the house and of its successive owners, their putative crimes and real crimes. This short novella, a crime story about a buried victim and a buried crime, successfully carries us from beginning to end in contemplative, smooth-flowing and psychologically observant narrative. For many reasons this is a book you cannot miss. Ending with an essay by Henning Mankell on the genesis of the Wallander novels and the relationship between the writer and his character “Kurt Wallander” (as seminal a character in crime fiction as Maigret, Marlow or Poirot) it also gives those who found THE TROUBLED MAN to be a difficult farewell to the character and series – a gentler, more autumnal remembrance of Wallander and his creator.

Lynn Harvey, England
October 2015

(Read an earlier Euro Crime review of AN EVENT IN AUTUMN.)

New Reviews: Broadfoot, Hawkins, Lawton, Mankell, O'Brien, Persson, Quinn, Thomas, Weeks

A belated Happy New Year and a big thank you for all the visitors to Euro Crime and to the regular commenters. An equally big thank you to the review team who keep me supplied with quality reviews. The reviewers are currently sharing their favourite reads of 2014 and I'll shortly be announcing the overall favourites. The 'new discoveries' posts, which I normally release before Christmas will follow soon - delayed due to illness.

Without further ado, here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, two have appeared on the blog since last time, and seven are completely new. Several of these are of favourite books of last year.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Neil Broadfoot's Falling Fast is one of Amanda Gillies's top 5 reads of 2014; set in Edinburgh it introduces journalist, Doug McGregor;


Michelle Peckham put Paula Hawkins's debut The Girl on the Train on her top 5 reads of 2014. Lots of Gone Girl-type buzz about this one;

Terry Halligan reviews John Lawton's Sweet Sunday which gets a welcome reissue and is set in the US mainly in 1969.


I review Henning Mankell's An Event in Autumn tr. Laurie Thompson a Wallander novella written for the Dutch market around ten years ago and now available in English;

Terry included Martin O'Brien's Knife Gun Poison Bomb in his top reads of 2014. This is the eighth in the Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot series set in Marseilles and at the moment is (I believe) only available for Kindle;


Laura Root reviews Leif GW Persson's Falling Freely, As If In a Dream tr. Paul Norlen, the final part of the "Story of a Crime" trilogy investigating the murder of Olaf Palme;

Lynn Harvey's top 5 reads of 2014 included Anthony Quinn's Disappeared, the first in the Police Inspector Celcius Daly series set in Northern Ireland;


Terry also included David Thomas's Ostland in his top reads of 2014, the story of SS officer Georg Heuser's journey from policeman to criminal

and Amanda also reviews Lee Weeks's Frozen Grave, the third in the series featuring DI Dan Carter and DC Ebony Willis.


Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell tr. Laurie Thompson

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell, tr Laurie Thompson (September 2014, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846558077)

This Wallander novella, AN EVENT IN AUTUMN was written in 2004 as a freebie for Dutch crime readers and has been televised in the Kenneth Branagh Wallander series and is now available in English.

It is set before the final Wallander book, THE TROUBLED MAN, and Wallander is house hunting. His colleague Martinson suggests a house owned by a cousin of his wife's, out in the country. When Wallander visits however, he discovers a skeletal hand in the back garden.

The story is a straightforward investigation into the identity of the skeleton, which has been there many years, and into the history of the house's previous owners.

It features a typically grumpy and reflective Wallander and is entertaining enough for fans wanting a final glimpse of this iconic character.

Of even more interest is the ten or so pages at the back: 'Mankell on Wallander' which covers "how it started, how it finished and what happened in between". Mankell didn't want to just write Wallanders books because they were popular with readers but wanted to use them to say something and AN EVENT IN AUTUMN is a hint of what could have happened if Mankell hadn't been so principled. Granted it is fairly short but it feels quite sparse, lacking the social commentary that the Wallander books and Swedish crime fiction in general is associated with. Unfortunately this is it now for the series as Mankell concludes his afterword with "There are no more stories about Kurt Wallander".

AN EVENT IN AUTUMN is one for existing fans definitely, but readers new to the series might be better off starting with book one, FACELESS KILLERS, instead.

New Reviews: Forsyth, Mankell, Robertson, Seeber, Tope, Wagner

New Competition for June:
Win four books by S J Bolton (UK & Ireland)

Do please vote in the International Dagger polls (top right of blog).

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the paperback release of Frederick Forsyth's The Cobra, and give his reasons why Forsyth stays ahead of the competition;

Susan White reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, tr. Laurie Thompson, also out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's follow-up to the well-received Random: Snapshot calling it "truly scrumptious";

Michelle Peckham reviews one of Claire Seeber's earlier books, Bad Friends which she found to be more chick-lit than crime;

Lizzie Hayes enjoyed Rebecca Tope's A Grave in the Cotswolds which brings two of her series together

and Maxine Clarke says it's worth reading Jan Costin Wagner's Ice Moon before The Winter of the Lions, tr. Anthea Bell to get the full impact of the events in the personal life of the lead character.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Mankell and Tremayne

Two competitions for March, both close 31st March:
1.Win a signed copy of Complicit by Nicci French UK only
2.Win From the Dead by Mark Billingham UK & Europe only

Here are this week's reviews (apologies for the reduced number which is due to circumstances beyond my control):

a few days ago, on this blog, I reviewed Henning Mankell's The Troubled Man, tr Laurie Thompson, the last of the Wallanders

and Amanda Gillies reviews Peter Tremayne's latest Sister Fidelma, The Chalice of Blood which is now out in paperback.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Non euro but I also reviewed a YA mystery last week on my teenage blog, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead which was charming and enthralling.

Review: The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell

I thought I'd post my review straight into the blog so people can comment on it and the Wallander series if they so wish. The Troubled Man is published today.

The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell, tr Laurie Thompson (March 2011, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846553717)

Is there something special about having a ten-book series? Sjowall and Wahloo wrote ten Martin Becks, Stieg Larsson was set to write ten about Millennium and now Henning Mankell's tenth and final book about Kurt Wallander has been published in English.

Wallander is now sixty and there are few recognisable faces from the earlier books, except for his colleague Martinsson and daughter Linda. Linda has settled down with a financier, Hans von Enke and they have a new-born daughter. Wallander meets Hans's parents Louise and Hakan, and Hakan, a former high-up in the navy, makes him feel very welcome, and at Hakan's 75th birthday party he corners Wallander and tells him a tale about a cover-up of Russian submarines being in Swedish waters back in the 80s. Wallander thinks Hakan looks worried and sure enough, he vanishes; he goes out on his regular walk and does not return. Though not in charge of the case Wallander makes enquiries of his own. He concludes nothing and then there is a second disappearance and then a body is found.

Wallander's investigation reveals deep family secrets and quite a bit about recent Swedish naval history, and eventually he gets to the bottom of the case, but THE TROUBLED MAN is more than a straightforward police procedural. Wallander is not a particularly happy person at the best of times but working on his own, during his summer holiday, there is plenty of time for morose introspection; he revisits his life and achievements, his relationships with Linda, his ex-wife Mona and other people that meant something to him. There are also references to the earlier cases and there is a sense of all loose ends having been tied up.

The mystery is intriguing and there is the fascination to see how an established series is concluded – see Ian Rankin's Rebus – and this series is well wrapped up but the final few sentences left me quite upset, even though the signs were there all along. THE TROUBLED MAN had me gripped but ultimately, saddened that there would be no more in this series and just plain sad at the way it ended.

The Troubled Man - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US, UK, Swedish, French, Dutch and Polish covers for Henning Mankell's The Troubled Man, translated by Laurie Thompson.

So what are you thoughts on the top: US (LHS) and UK (RHS), middle: Swedish (LHS) and French (RHS), bottom Dutch (LHS) and Polish (RHS) covers? Which would entice you most to pick the book up in the unlikely event that you were not familiar with Henning Mankell?

The Troubled Man will be published 29 March (US) and 31 March (UK). Here's the synopsis:

The much-anticipated return of Henning Mankell's brilliant, brooding detective Kurt Wallander. Every morning Håkan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. However, one winter’s day he fails to come home. It seems that the retired naval officer has vanished without trace.

Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation but he has personal reasons for his interest in the case as Håkan’s son is engaged to his daughter Linda. A few months earlier, at Håkan’s 75th birthday party, Kurt noticed that the old man appeared uneasy and seemed eager to talk about a controversial incident from his past career that remained shrouded in mystery. Could this be connected to his disappearance? When Håkan’s wife Louise also goes missing, Wallander is determined to uncover the truth.

His search leads him down dark and unexpected avenues involving espionage, betrayal and new information about events during the Cold War that threatens to cause a political scandal on a scale unprecedented in Swedish history. The investigation also forces Kurt to look back over his own past and consider his hopes and regrets, as he comes to the unsettling realisation that even those we love the most can remain strangers to us.

And then an even darker cloud appears on the horizon...

The return of Kurt Wallander, for his final case, has already caused a sensation around the globe. The Troubled Man confirms Henning Mankell’s position as the king of crime writing.

Henning Mankell on Open Book

Here's another programme to listen to online or download the podcast of, from the BBC Open Book website:

James Naughtie talks to Sweden’s most celebrated literary export: Henning Mankell. He talks about his creation, the detective Kurt Wallander – and his appearance in his fifth novel Sidetracked.

Here is Henning Mankell's Euro Crime bibliography with links to reviews.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Krajewski, Mankell, Nesbo & Sjowall & Wahloo

This month's competition:

Win a copy of Daisychain by G J Moffat (UK only)

This week's reviews are all of translated crime fiction:

Maxine Clarke reviews the US edition of Andrea Camilleri's The Wings of the Sphinx, tr. Stephen Sartarelli (the UK edition is out in June);

Laura Root reviews the paperback edition of Marek Krajewski's The End of the World in Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok;

Double Henning Mankell reviews this week, as reviewers Terry Halligan and Michelle Peckham contrast the books of Faceless Killers and The Fifth Woman, both translated by Steven T Murray, with their BBC TV counterparts;

Maxine also reviews Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, tr. Don Bartlett which she says is the best yet

and Terry Halligan enjoyed The Locked Room by Sjowall and Wahloo.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Goddard, Hannah, Mankell, Robertson, Rowson, Welsh

This month's competitions:

Win the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on Unabridged Audiobooks (UK & Ireland)
Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard;

Maxine Clarke reviews A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah;

Maxine also reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, calling it "marvellous";

Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's debut novel, Random which is published this week;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the DI Horton series from Pauline Rowson Blood on the Sand set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight

and Michelle Peckham reviews Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh and reports that it's as enjoyable as Welsh's previous books, The Cutting Room and The Bullet Trick.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

Trailer - The Man from Beijing

We had a bit of a cover discussion recently about Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, with most favouring the UK edition over the US. I've now found the US trailer which I like though the music seems familiar:

Henning Mankell - Cover Opinions

If you hadn't heard of Henning Mankell, which one of these covers would entice you to pick the book up? The US one has a little of the US Stieg Larsson covers about it I think?

UK on the left, US on the right:

January 2006. In the Swedish hamlet of Hesjövallen, nineteen people have been massacred. The only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene.

Judge Birgitta Roslin has particular reason to be shocked: Her grandparents, the Andréns, are among the victims, and Birgitta soon learns that an Andrén family in Nevada has also been murdered. She then discovers the nineteenth-century diary of an Andrén ancestor—a gang master on the American transcontinental railway—that describes brutal treatment of Chinese slave workers. The police insist that only a lunatic could have committed the Hesjövallen murders, but Birgitta is determined to uncover what she now suspects is a more complicated truth.

The investigation leads to the highest echelons of power in present-day Beijing, and to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But the narrative also takes us back 150 years into the depths of the slave trade between China and the United States—a history that will ensnare Birgitta as she draws ever closer to solving the Hesjövallen murders.

New Reviews: Edwards, Grimsdale, Guthrie, Kitson, Maclean, Mankell

Many thanks for the kind comments about my back/health. Fortunately I'm ok now and I hope to do a bit more blogging next week compared to this previous one.

Here are this week's new reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards, fourth in his Lakeland series which Maxine believes is "is one of the very best crime-fiction series being written today";

Terry Halligan reviews Peter Grimsdale debut novel, Perfect Night;

Amanda Gillies is very enthusiastic about Allan Guthrie's Slammer;

Paul Blackburn reviews Bill Kitson's debut Depth of Despair set in Yorkshire;

Rik Shepherd reviews the paperback edition of The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona Maclean and

Michelle Peckham reviews Henning Mankell's The Man Who Smiled, tr. Laurie Thompson and compares it to the tv show.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

Publishing Deal - Henning Mankell

No surprises here - Harvill Secker will be publishing the new Wallander novel:

...The Troubled Man from Anneli Hoier at the Leonhardt & Hoier literary agency and will publish it in hardback in February 2011.

The Troubled Man tells the story of a retired naval officer who disappears during his daily walk in a forest near Stockholm. It is described as a "deeply personal" case for Wallander, because the missing man is the father-in-law of Wallander's daughter Linda. Clues point back to the Cold War, and to right-wing extremist groups, said the publisher.

Mankell said: "I really thought that I had written my last novel about Wallander, but then I had this distinct feeling that there was one more story to be told."

Read the whole article at The Bookseller.

More Wallander for Branagh...

The Guardian is reporting today that three more episodes of Wallander have been commissioned:

Three further novels, Faceless Killers, The Fifth Woman and The Man Who Smiled, will be filmed, with the drama shot on location in the Swedish town of Ystad once again.

BBC1's new Wallander adaptations, which will see Branagh reprise his role as the moody detective Kurt Wallander, created by Swedish novelist Henning Mankell, will be filmed this summer.

Read the whole article, here.

The first series of Wallander won a BAFTA for "best drama series" and is available on DVD (episodes are: Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind).

The order of filming seems to take the same random approach as the translation to English did. The books were written in the order:

Faceless Killers
The Dogs of Riga
The White Lioness
The Man Who Smiled
Sidetracked
The Fifth Woman
One Step Behind
Firewall

Wallander - BBC Interviews Branagh & Mankell

The BBC Press office now shows that the first of the three Wallander films, Sidetracked, is due to be shown on the 30th November between 9 and 10.30pm. A related press release also contains interviews with Kenneth Branagh, who is playing the title role, and Henning Mankell, the author of the best-selling series.

A couple of snippets:

To KB:
What did you enjoy about the role?

"The world that Wallander lives in is a raw world where people have to deal with terrible news and with the death of loved ones in terrible circumstances. Wallander is very self-aware and perceptive and intelligent about human behaviour.

"For me, this is more of a straight part as Wallander's character does not have all the same eccentricities that would normally appear in these types of stories."

To HM:
What do you think of the British Wallander?

"I saw the tape of the show and I liked it enormously. I liked it because they had showed Wallander's warmth and also that the director and producers had gone in their own direction to create something that was completely new."

What crime drama do you enjoy?

"I really dislike characters like Poirot and Miss Marple as they never change – they are the same from the beginning to the end of the story. You and I are different each day because of what happens to us and that is how I write about Wallander and my characters.

"My readers are always looking forward to seeing what direction Wallander will go in next."

Read the whole article, here.


Synopsis of Sidetracked:

In this first film, Sidetracked, a girl is seen wandering alone in a rapeseed field. Inspector Wallander is called to investigate. Before his eyes, the girl douses herself in petrol and burns to death – the event is both shocking and baffling for Wallander. A hunt for the girl’s identity begins.

On the home front, Wallander, recently estranged from his wife, has moved into his own place. Linda, his grown-up daughter, is keeping an eye on her dad as he adjusts to bachelor life. Wallander’s relationship with his own father, Povel, is difficult and, as it becomes clear that Povel’s health is in decline, Wallander strives for a reconciliation with him.

Meanwhile, Wallander’s workload soars as three apparently motiveless murders are committed. The victims are all male: a former minister of justice, a small-time criminal and a rich playboy. All are viciously killed, their scalps inexplicably taken. Wallander and his team investigate, determined to discover who the killer is and how these murders are connected.

WhereDunnit has further information about Ystad and the Wallander tours you can take there.

BBC1 - Wallander update

Following on from the announcement earlier in the year that Kenneth Branagh is to play Wallander, the press release accompanying The Pyramid, a collection of 5 Wallander stories to be published in October, suggests that the air date will be 23 November.

One Step Behind, Firewall and Sidetracked will be shown as 90 minute episodes. The tie-in paperbacks will be published on 20 November.

(Kenneth Branagh and director Philip Martin)

And good news for the other side of the pond, according to the Kenneth Branagh Compedium: "Shot in rarely seen locations in southern Sweden, "Wallander" is to air on "Masterpiece Mystery" on PBS in the spring or summer of 2009."

Ken's going to be busy...

Not only was it recently announced that Kenneth Branagh is to play C J Sansom's Shardlake then news comes via Digital Spy that he's also taking on the role of Kurt Wallander:

Kenneth Branagh has landed the role of a Swedish detective in a new BBC drama series.

The actor-director will play Kurt Wallander in the £6m production, based on the novels of Swedish writer Henning Mankell.

The 47-year-old will film three 90-minute episodes of Wallander, which is set in the town of Ystad in the Scandinavian country.

He told Broadcast magazine: "Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character and I am excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed but deeply human detective."

Producer Andy Harries said: "This is more than just a detective series. It's fantastic drama, great stories and an absolutely beautiful setting. Visually these films are going to be very strong. Ken Branagh is perfect for the title role."

The books depict Wallander as a detective in his fifties who is beset by problems including a failed marriage, excessive alcohol consumption and diabetes. He was sued for brutality during his early career and has been known to break the rules when he feels the situation demands it.

and from The Stage:

Each 90-minute episode is an adaptation of a different book from the Kurt Wallander Mysteries. The three chosen for the BBC series are One Step Behind, Firewall and Sidetracked.