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Don't waste your $$$.

Customer Rating:
I think I've read of all of Mankell's books. This one is def' off-the-tracks. The explanation is in the Epilogue where the author affirms the book was written in anger. It looks it, too. Just one long series of clues that, in the end, go nowhere.

"Kennedy's Brain"

Customer Rating:
I'm a fan of Henning Mankell, so any book of his has my guaranteed interest. I haven't yet read "Kennedy's Brain," but I'm grateful to Amazon for supplying me with this book speedily and at a reasonable (i.e., reduced) cost.

Disappointing

Customer Rating:
This seemed to be a very rambling story. Although written in Henning Mankell's wonderful literary style it did not seem to be up to his usual plot line standards

Entertaining, but disappointing

Customer Rating:
Mankell is a master mystery writer, and this novel will not disappoint from that standpoint. He knows how to maintain tension, how to thread a complex story and how to provide the color of context and place. Kennedy's brain is an entertaining novel. But when Mankell gets on his high horses and gives us the nasty, brutish forces of the West being responsible for a cloak and dagger explanation of the Aids epidemic, then he loses me altogether. I do not discount the bad behavior of Western companies and individuals, but the Aids epidemic in Africa has a much more complex story to it: for example, how do you classify the Aids denial of Thabo Mbeki, the former President of South Africa? Mankell gets so wrapped up in his anti-Western yarn that he messes things up a bit: nobody explains why this horrible man (the nasty brute at the center of the web) can kill several men but somehow lets the central character go free and unharmed, and other such inconsistencies. For Mankell, who is a tight and disciplined writer, these are bad mistakes. A good mystery novel, but not one of his best. Scandinavian guilt interfering with Mankell's good -or great- gifts as a writer.

First rate international thriller

Customer Rating:
Hard core mystery readers my already be familiar with Henning Mankell through his popular Wallender mysteries. This novel strays from that series but is every bit as much of a satisfying read.

Mankell's strength is the vivid scene he sets. His narrative pulls the reader into the scene with the main character. His main character is believable and real. I felt her conclusion that her son was murdered, though not supported by evidence made available to her at the time, still felt real. The information introduced along the way causes doubt, but not enough to sway her opinion. Again, the balance still allows the reader to believe in Louise.

This is masterful thriller writing. But, for fans of the Wallender mysteries, understand that this is not strictly a mystery. It is a thriller and succeeds as one. The only weakness I felt was that the author's personal rage over politics of AIDS in Africa interfered with the power he might have brought to that issue had he not let it boil over.