Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Sidetracked. One frozen January morning at 5am Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call-out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured & beaten to death his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body both victims of a violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press it unleashes racial hatred. Kurt Wallanders life is a shambles: his wife has left him his daughter refuses to speak to him & even his ageing father barely tolerates him. He works tirelessly eats badly & drinks his nights away in a lonely neglected flat. But now with winter tightening & his activities being monitored by a tough-minded district attorney Wallander must forget his troubles & throw himself into a battle against time & against mounting racial hatred.