Lo ultimo que ha visto un abogado, antes de ser asesinado, es un muñeco del tamaño de un hombre atravesado en la carretera, donde se vio obligado a detenerse en medio de la espesa niebla. Este extraño comienzo, cargado de una atmosfera de misterio tan clasica, es el punto de partida de un complicado caso de delincuencia economica en las altas esferas. Pero es tambien el inicio de un enfrentamiento cada vez mas personal del inspector Wallander con un adinerado, sonriente y autoritario mecenas. Sintiendo a cada paso su vida amenazada, el inspector se ganara el respeto de su enemigo pero no se detendra hasta borrar esa sonrisa de su rostro. / First published in Sweden in 1994, Mankell's terrific fourth Kurt Wallender mystery opens with the kind of startling image typical of this internationally bestselling series (Firewall, etc.): a lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees ""a human-sized effigy"" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was ""dead before his body hit the damp asphalt."" The police accept the assailant's claim that it was an accident, but when Torstensson's son, Sten, is shot dead just two weeks later, the brooding Wallender, who's on sick leave and vowing to retire from the Ystad police force, decides to pursue the killer and resume his career. The chief suspecta powerful, globe-trotting Swedish businessman who's the smiling man of the titleleads Wallender on an exquisitely plotted search for motive and evidence. Dark and moody, this is crime fiction of the highest order. Reed Business Information