One frozen January morning, Inspector Wallander responds to a seemingly routine call out. But when he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body. 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. 2000. (Kurt Wallander mystery ; 1).