Just when we thought Henning Mankell had forsaken the crime novels that made him famous and disappeared into a world of meditative literature and quiet human drama, he comes back with a vengeance in The Man from Beijing.

A complex and satisfying story beginning with a grisly mass murder in rural Sweden, it spans 150 years and several continents, and proves that post-Wallander, he can still deliver the goods. I’ve sometimes felt Mankell didn’t write particularly strong female characters. However, the main protagonists of Beijing, a sharp-minded investigating police officer and a judge struggling with an intense career and an indifferent marriage, are well-drawn and interesting.