-
Faceless Killers
- An Inspector Wallander Mystery
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.52
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death; his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of violence beyond reason. Wallander's life is a shambles. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, and even his ageing father barely tolerates him. He works tirelessly, eats badly, and drinks his nights away in a lonely, neglected flat. But now Wallander must forget his troubles and throw himself into a battle against time.
More from the same
Author
Related to this topic
-
Mad Love
- By: Wendy Walker
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Alexis Bledel, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were madly in love. The perfect couple. That was the story everyone in South River believed...until Gin Talcott and Adam Archer are found shot in their bed. Adam is dead at the scene. Gin is fighting for her life. Detectives Greta Jessup and Finn Pate are assigned to the case. Greta has a long history with Gin’s first husband, Eddie, and is determined to protect his 18-year-old twins. Piper discovered the bodies. Daniel is missing—and so is Adam’s gun.
-
-
Surprised
- By marcie on 05-25-24
By: Wendy Walker
-
A Murder to Remember
- By: Brynn Kelly
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Max Roll
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jane Austen fan Amelia Bennett sneaks away from a dull tour of an English country manor, only to run into a man more dashing than Mr. Darcy himself. About to lose his ancestral home to family debts, charming aristocrat Tom Calder invites his American guest to join him in drinking his way through the estate’s priceless wine collection. But when they wake in his bed the next morning, they’re convinced that in their drunken haze they witnessed a murder. Problem is, the body has vanished and no one believes them.
-
-
Fun rom-com mystery
- By C. Wright on 03-01-24
By: Brynn Kelly
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Verity
- By: Colleen Hoover
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Amy Landon
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.
-
-
intriguing but skip if triggered by child abuse
- By Amazon Customer on 05-16-19
By: Colleen Hoover
-
Dietrich
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ed Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of ’77 in New York City, and the only thing more unnerving than the scorching heatwave is the rampant murder, leaving washed-up homicide detective Richard Dietrich on edge. When Dietrich investigates a brutal mob hit the brass doesn’t want him to solve, he goes from phoning it in to getting in over his head. Caught up in a mysterious second homicide with an even more perplexing perpetrator, Dietrich starts to second guess his instincts—and his memory—as he searches for answers at the bottom of a bottle.
-
-
Haunting ending
- By Shirley Anderson on 04-21-24
By: Don Winslow
-
The Coldest Case: The Past Has a Long Memory
- By: James Patterson, Aaron Tracy, Ryan Silbert
- Narrated by: Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter, Beau Bridges, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Someone is committing random murders across Chicago—and making sure detectives Billy Harney (Aaron Paul) and Patti Harney (Krysten Ritter) are first on the crime scene. What connects the victims, and why is the killer leaving clues behind with each body? Billy and Patti are scrambling to stop the next killing when their father, Chief of Detectives Dan Harney (Beau Bridges), is kidnapped. But in their race to track him down, they uncover pieces of his past that simply can’t be true. Could their own flesh and blood be covering up a dark secret?
-
-
It’s Billy of course it’s good
- By Rachel Johnson on 06-15-24
By: James Patterson, and others
-
Mad Love
- By: Wendy Walker
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Alexis Bledel, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were madly in love. The perfect couple. That was the story everyone in South River believed...until Gin Talcott and Adam Archer are found shot in their bed. Adam is dead at the scene. Gin is fighting for her life. Detectives Greta Jessup and Finn Pate are assigned to the case. Greta has a long history with Gin’s first husband, Eddie, and is determined to protect his 18-year-old twins. Piper discovered the bodies. Daniel is missing—and so is Adam’s gun.
-
-
Surprised
- By marcie on 05-25-24
By: Wendy Walker
-
A Murder to Remember
- By: Brynn Kelly
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Max Roll
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jane Austen fan Amelia Bennett sneaks away from a dull tour of an English country manor, only to run into a man more dashing than Mr. Darcy himself. About to lose his ancestral home to family debts, charming aristocrat Tom Calder invites his American guest to join him in drinking his way through the estate’s priceless wine collection. But when they wake in his bed the next morning, they’re convinced that in their drunken haze they witnessed a murder. Problem is, the body has vanished and no one believes them.
-
-
Fun rom-com mystery
- By C. Wright on 03-01-24
By: Brynn Kelly
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Verity
- By: Colleen Hoover
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Amy Landon
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.
-
-
intriguing but skip if triggered by child abuse
- By Amazon Customer on 05-16-19
By: Colleen Hoover
-
Dietrich
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ed Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of ’77 in New York City, and the only thing more unnerving than the scorching heatwave is the rampant murder, leaving washed-up homicide detective Richard Dietrich on edge. When Dietrich investigates a brutal mob hit the brass doesn’t want him to solve, he goes from phoning it in to getting in over his head. Caught up in a mysterious second homicide with an even more perplexing perpetrator, Dietrich starts to second guess his instincts—and his memory—as he searches for answers at the bottom of a bottle.
-
-
Haunting ending
- By Shirley Anderson on 04-21-24
By: Don Winslow
-
The Coldest Case: The Past Has a Long Memory
- By: James Patterson, Aaron Tracy, Ryan Silbert
- Narrated by: Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter, Beau Bridges, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Someone is committing random murders across Chicago—and making sure detectives Billy Harney (Aaron Paul) and Patti Harney (Krysten Ritter) are first on the crime scene. What connects the victims, and why is the killer leaving clues behind with each body? Billy and Patti are scrambling to stop the next killing when their father, Chief of Detectives Dan Harney (Beau Bridges), is kidnapped. But in their race to track him down, they uncover pieces of his past that simply can’t be true. Could their own flesh and blood be covering up a dark secret?
-
-
It’s Billy of course it’s good
- By Rachel Johnson on 06-15-24
By: James Patterson, and others
-
Bluebeard
- By: Jim Clemente, Peter McDonnell
- Narrated by: Joseph Fiennes, Karen David, Holt McCallany, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, Kathryn Wombacher finds a lonely-hearts ad placed by one Walter Andrew: "Would be pleased to correspond with a refined young lady or widow. Object, matrimony.” Kathryn and Walter fall in love and marry within weeks. What Kathryn doesn’t know...is that her new husband is really James “Bluebeard” Watson, a notorious West Coast serial killer who catfished and married 22 women, murdering 10.
-
-
Performances
- By HappyMom on 05-24-24
By: Jim Clemente, and others
-
Home Is Where the Bodies Are
- By: Jeneva Rose
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Cassandra Campbell, Brittany Pressley, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before. While going through their parents’ belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories.
-
-
Great story but performance is cringey
- By Stephine on 05-30-24
By: Jeneva Rose
-
The Worst of You
- By: Sarah Richards
- Narrated by: Sarah Desjardins
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Worst of You, just-wed architects Timo and Nia flee a murder scene, setting in motion a chain reaction of lies and betrayals that threaten to unravel everything they have built together. Twisted and propulsive, this thriller is told from the alternating perspectives of the couple and those close to them on Williwaw Island, each with their own motive to use the outcome of the murder case to their advantage. When a huge storm sweeps up the coast, trapping everyone on tiny Williwaw Island, it’s a race against time—and the elements — to stop the murderer from striking again.
-
-
A boring drawn out simplistic plot
- By RJD on 05-31-24
By: Sarah Richards
-
Too Late
- Definitive Edition
- By: Colleen Hoover
- Narrated by: Ryan Gray, Maxine Mitchell, Joe Arden
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does so, every single day. Caught up with the alluring Asa Jackson, a notorious drug trafficker, Sloan has finally found a lifeline to cling to, even if it’s meant compromising her morals. She was in dire straits trying to pay for her brother’s care until she met Asa. But as Sloan became emotionally and economically reliant on him, he in turn developed a disturbing obsession with her—one that becomes increasingly dangerous every day.
-
-
Triggering and poor narration
- By Katherine Epperson on 07-11-23
By: Colleen Hoover
-
Oregon
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ed Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was 1970 in a defeated Rhode Island fishing town. Vietnam and Nixon dominated the national news. Both the near and distant future looked bleak. But they were five inseparable high school friends with something incredible in common: an unwavering resolve to look after each other no matter what hell life threw at them. And they were on a mission. The plan was simple: Go off the grid before they turned 18 to avoid the draft. They’d sell some grass, stack some cash, then head west and start a commune. What could possibly go wrong?
-
-
This really hit home.
- By Ray Beaulieu on 05-26-24
By: Don Winslow
-
Bloodhound
- By: Thomas Page McBee, Todd Ellis Kessler
- Narrated by: Elliot Fletcher, Alice Kremelberg, Stephen Root, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of M. Night Shyamalan and Stephen King, Bloodhound is a coming-of-age suspense drama about Jay Pulver, a trans college student who discovers he has mysteriously acquired superhuman abilities when he accidentally kills his sister’s ex-boyfriend. Recruited by a brilliant but eccentric scientist at the FBI, Jay is tasked with employing his unique powers to track down a domestic terrorist group currently setting off bombs around Washington, DC.
-
-
Great Brother and Sister Duo
- By Rachel on 06-06-24
By: Thomas Page McBee, and others
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about Faceless Killers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lila
- 08-12-19
Totally Enjoyable
I always enjoy Henning Menkell's books
especially the ones narrated by Sean Barrett.
I wish he read more of Mankell's books.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patricia
- 04-30-12
MANKELL HITS THE SPOT AGAIN
Would you consider the audio edition of Faceless Killers to be better than the print version?
YES
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
YES
What does Sean Barrett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
YES HE IS A VERY GOOD READER AND WE BOTH ENJOYED HIS PRESENTATION
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Neither but kept us guessing to the end
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Allan Cumming
- 11-29-11
Solid police procedural
One of the problems with this title is the unavoidable comparison with Nesbo, especially given Sean Barrett's excellent narration of both authors. Wallander is, for me, a less interesting and less well developed character than Harry Hole, but this is the first in the Wallander series (apart from the more recent "prequel") so maybe he will develop over the subsequent books. The story is solid, and sufficiently complex to maintain interest, so I will be giving the rest of the series a go. I just have yet to develop an empathy for the characters
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Earnest
- 07-11-20
A good example of the series.
Enjoyed making the comparisons with the old, original Wallender series and the modern, Branagh one.
Interesting what a scriptwriter chooses to focus on, what they leave out and how they resolve the plot often quite differently.
Thank you Sean Barrett again. My favorite voice actor.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jefferson
- 05-10-14
“What kind of world are we living in?”
Faceless Killers (1991), Henning Mankell's first Kurt Wallander detective/police novel, opens with an aged Swedish farmer waking up in the middle of the night on January 7, 1990 trying to dismiss his feeling that something dreadful has just happened: “After all, what could happen here? In the little town of Lenarp, just north of Kade Lake, on the way to beautiful Krageholm Lake, right in the heart of Skane? Nothing ever happens here." He knows that "People like us don't have any enemies." Alas, as he soon learns, his neighbors have just been savagely attacked, the husband bashed and cut to death and the wife beaten and noosed. Who could do something like that? And why? And why did the attackers feed couple's horse before vacating the scene of the crime? And can veteran detective Kurt Wallander apprehend the criminals?
At forty-two, Wallander is not in great shape. His wife left him three months ago, his once suicidal daughter is now estranged, his demanding and resentful father is going senile, he's visited by a black woman in lonely erotic dreams, he is overweight, and he is not pretty when he drinks. The only thing that gives him pleasure (albeit mixed with melancholy) is listening to opera. For the rest of the novel, Wallander wrestles with (or ignores or exacerbates) his personal problems as he marshals his policeman techniques, colleagues, and instincts to try to solve the brutal mystery.
Mankell efficiently and compellingly fulfills the mystery-police-procedural genre requirements: brutal murders, red herrings, dead ends, epiphanies, media leaks, social problems, ineffectual government officials, unpredictable action scenes, believable supporting characters, and a flawed but good protagonist. And it feels interesting and fresh enough, perhaps partly because it takes place in Sweden, land of exotic names, bitter winters, and police who don't carry guns. Small touches in the novel hold up an interesting mirror to America, as when a policeman says about a "slaughterhouse" of a crime scene, "It was worse than you could imagine . . . Like an American movie." And through Wallander's point of view Mankell captures the dramatic and unsettling changes going on in Sweden in the 1990s: disorganized multi-ethnic refugee camps, organized nationalist neo-Nazis groups, increased drug and violent gang activity in previously quiet rural areas, and so on. At one point Wallander thinks, “A new world had emerged, and he hadn’t even noticed it. As a policeman, he still lived in another, older world. How was he going to learn to live in the new?” For "We're living in the age of the noose," a new age of senseless violence and fear.
Despite the barren and silent Swedish autumn and winter, despite moments when Wallander does something “unforgivable and dangerous,” despite moments when he thinks, “Somewhere in the dark a vast meaninglessness was beckoning. A sneering face that laughed scornfully at every attempt he made to manage his life,” the novel is not a downer. There is the appealing grim humor. The human characters. The neat lines sprinkled throughout. (E.g., “Every time he stepped into someone’s home, he felt as though he were looking at the cover of a book he’d just bought.” And “There’s no such thing as a murderer’s face.”) And, after all, Wallander is "a policeman to the core."
It is not a perfect novel. At one point, for instance, Wallander receives a call from a woman who whispers, “They’re here!” and he with unbelievable obtuseness says, “Who?” If the reader immediately knows "their" identity, surely Wallander, a veteran policeman with great instincts who's been living the case for months, would surely know it at the same time, if not first.
Sean Barrett gives a professional and appealing reading of Faceless Killers. I've listened to him read Kafka on the Shore, Waiting for Godot, and The Silver Sword, and each time he's been great. I appreciate that his women sound like people, not like a man striving to sound like women. He enhances the book. I am curious, though, why the Swedish original lasts 9+ hours, the Dick Hill read version about 9 hours, and Barrett's only about 8 hours. . .
Since the realistic contemporary detective-mystery-police-procedural is not my favorite genre, I'm unsure whether or not I'll continue the Wallander series, especially because the remaining books available are not read by Sean Barrett, but fans of that genre (especially examples set in an exotic country) should enjoy Faceless Killers.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!