What I've looked up thus far for Faceless Killers

So, I'm winding up my holiday mystery sojourn. Some of it was at least on the heavier side, like the current one I'm reading by Henning Mankell. The overarching theme of his series is what has caused the decay of Swedish society. At least they've been successful in keeping up appearances. I think of Scandinavia in general and Sweden specifically (along with Denmark) as being somewhat Utopian. Vast social welfare networks, high literacy and a nearly atheist society. However, there are also serious problems such as human trafficking, racism and Nazi movements and increased violence towards women. Although on the last one, some Swedes dispute the meaning of that statistic, saying women are simply more likely to report acts of rape, etc. in Sweden because they are encouraged to do so which means its a positive.

(then again, the Swedes' history of collaborating with the Nazis in WWII is kind of murky so is their society really degenerating or are they fighting their way up?)

Faceless Killers is the first book in the Wallander series. The farmer who opens the story by discovering his neighbors have been murdered makes several references to the county of Skåne (which seems to be pronouned "Skoanay" according to Wikipedia.) Skåne is known to English speakers by the exonym Scania which is preferable because I don't have to mess with the crazy Swedish diacritic. And speaking of Scandinavia, that's where the word comes from.

Scania is the Southernmost county in Sweden. Its seat is Malmo (where the Oresund Bridge now connects Sweden to Denmark although the ferry they mention in the book still exists.) It's small but contains ~13% of Sweden's total population-which makes sense when you look at a map.

Wallander is based in Ystad which is on the Southern coast. According to Wikipedia, it's small. Like 17,000 people. Curious to read a mystery set in a fairly obscure place. According to Forvo.com, it is pronounced "ee-stad" with a soft "d." If you Google Ystad, btw, you invariably get references to Wallander. A whole tourism industry is set around him. Also, Ystad is apparently very picturesque and one of the best preserved old towns in Sweden.