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Firewall (Mankell novel)

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Firewall
First edition (Sweden)
AuthorHenning Mankell
Original titleBrandvägg
TranslatorEbba Segerberg
LanguageSwedish
SeriesKurt Wallander #8
GenreCrime novel
PublisherOrdfront
Publication date
1998
Publication placeSweden
Published in English
2002
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages436 pp (Eng. hardback trans.)
ISBN1-84343-112-2 (Eng. trans.)
Preceded byOne Step Behind 
Followed byThe Pyramid 

Firewall is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell.

Synopsis

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A series of bizarre incidents sweep across Sweden: a man dies in front of an ATM, two young women slaughter an elderly taxi driver, a murder is committed aboard a Baltic Sea ferry, and a sub-station engineer makes a gruesome discovery while investigating the cause of a nationwide power cut. As Wallander investigates, he uncovers a sinister plan to bring the Western world to its knees.

Theme

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The major background theme around which the action takes place is the dilemma of the Western economic system versus poverty. The criminal mastermind is a persuasive and talented IT specialist who plans to right the wrongs of the world by deleting vast quantities of money from multinational banks' accounts system, so bringing on a credit and financial panic.

The criminals believe their intended cybercrime is justified; for them the big picture involves the sacrifice of the banking system in order to wipe out third world debt. At a crucial moment Wallander unwittingly manages to persuade a key accomplice that, ethically, there is in fact no big picture, that instead we just have lives that are fragile but also miraculous.

Adaptations

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In 2006, Swedish production company Tre Vänner Produktion produced a four-part television miniseries adaptation of Firewall, starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander. In 2008, British broadcaster BBC One broadcast a 90-minute adaptation as part of its Wallander television series starring Kenneth Branagh.