there is one abiding irony of classic crime fiction their writers are in as big a rush to retirebump off their detectives as their manic followers are to read the next case look at holmes look at morse look at rebus and now look at henning mankells muchloved swedish detective kurt wallanderthe morose pigheaded but brilliant wallander is now set for a tragic turn in the troubled man says the swedish author the detective is headed for alzheimers and as the last book ends he gazes on his grandchild without recognising it this might greatly upset wallander followers but mankell is stoic about the impending tragedy he says it cannot be helped because his detective has to reflect his own fears and thoughts on lifei am not afraid of dying but i am really scared that one fine morning i find or my wife finds that there is something wrong with my head so i allowed wallander to enter the world of alzheimers and think about life and ageing the series has been a marvelous success and i feel tragic ending it too but i also want to write about the humiliation of having to deal with this terrifying disease says the 62yearold mankell in delhi on his way to the jaipur literary festival where he will be in conversation with bangalorebased swedish writer zac oyeahthere was hope for wallander fans that his daughter linda also a struggling sleuth in the books would inherit the series but here again reality clashed with literature the young actress who played linda johanna sallstrom committed suicide this distressed wallander so much that he could not bring himself to continue with a new female face in his booksnow she is back in the last book because she had to give that grandchild mankell says matteroffactlyit has been 20 years since the first wallander book faceless killers made its appearance and mankell says that he never expected to write so many ten years ago i thought that i had written the last of it but i realised that maybe i had one more wallander story to tell about himself he saysmankell does not really see himself as a crime writer for him the genre is only a tool to put all the contradictions of life on an edge and his mysteries he says are not meant to be literary nightcaps to be read in the warmth and safety of ones bed that accounts for their extremely graphic content and horrific violence i would say it is negative to read my books as pastime however graphic my books may be the reality is actually much worse nothing i can imagine can compare with the reality many pages are actually very difficult to write but i do it because it cant be helped he confessesthe millennium mania does not impress him at all larsson fought neonazism commitedly and i liked the first book but the rest benefitted from the cult status that came with the circumstances of