Despite efforts by stalwarts of the seventies and eighties such as Sven Sörmark and Ulf Durling, many felt the Swedish crime-fiction industry was in need of a refuel before Henning Mankell made his crime-fiction debut in 1991. This first crime novel, Mördare utan ansikte (Faceless Killers), won him a prize for best Scandinavian crime novel of the year. Mankell's nine novels about Chief Inspector Wallander have been extremely popular, with most of his books having sold over 2 million copies each. Mankell's novels have also been made into films and television programmes and Mankell himself — as he notes in the interview with Bob Cornwell — has been very happy with the portrayal of his chief character Inspector Wallander, by the actor who appeared in films based on Sjöwall and Wahlöö's Martin Beck series as Gunvald Larsson.

Mankell's crime novels share social themes and an international flavour. In Villospår (Sidetracked) Mankell takes advantage of the location of Ystad (in southern Sweden) to point to international crime, in this case prostitution rings. With its Prologue set in Germany during the aftermath of World War Two, Danslärarens återkomst (The Return of the Dancing Instructor) uncovers in the present day a network of neo-Nazi activity.

Mankell's crime novels have elements of the police procedural — the forensic details, the concentration on the whole team of investigating officers — but are also thrillers. Readers are thwarted in their desire to play detective themselves and solve the crime, and the emphasis on action and violence is akin to the thriller. His works are certainly a far cry from the cosy whodunnits of the pre-war period in Britain and the early post-war years in Sweden.

Conan Doyle tried unsuccessfully to kill off Sherlock Holmes. In his interview with Bob Cornwell, Mankell tells us of his plans for Kurt Wallander. The extract reproduced in the 2001 Supplement, however, is the prologue to a novel which introduces a new policeman. Stefan Lindman becomes involved in a murder investigation in the far north of Sweden whilst on sick leave. He has cancer. As Ulf Örnkloo writes in the Swedish detective-fiction journal Jury, "it is difficult, of course, not to draw a parallel between Lindmann's cancer and what seems to be happening in society."