Faceless Killers was the first of the Kurt Wallander series that I read; since then I've read several others when I'm in the mood for a mystery. I appreciate the bleak Scandinavian landscape and Wallander's bleak outlook on life, although he's never dismal enough to give up altogether, on his solitary life or on his cases. In this one an elderly couple is found in their home, the husband murdered and the wife near death. With no apparent motive for the attack and no leads, Wallander inherits a case seemingly destined for the "cold case" file, but his deductive mind goes to work.