Resumo de Firewall - Henning Mankell

This latest book in Mankell''s ever popular Kurt Wallander detective series presents a fascinating and chilling picture of the vulenerability of our technologically dependent world. Not since The Matrix has such an ominous view of the weaknesses cyberspace has created in our society. Wallander investigates what at first appears to be a straightforward if disturbingly cold blooded murder. The two teenage girls responsible are Wallanders first point of disillusionment with modern society. However, as a seemingly accidental death suddenly seems more complex, and a gruesome killing plunges 25 percent of Ystad into black-out, Wallander comes to fear that the case is much more sinister and dangerous than it initially appeared. The black-out itself marks the first symptom of our weakened society. If the source of eletrical power can be disrupted, we are left without light, without our basic security systems. As Wallander is drawn deeper into the case he has to contend not only with his ignorance of the computerised landscape, but with back stabbing colleaugues and a growing sense of the world having passed him by. This book paints a haunting portrait of a man who feels he is coming to the end of his usefulness, but is nowhere near the end of his life. Few of us live untouched by this figure, whether we recognise it in our grandparents, our parents or ourselves, and the aging dectective''s struggle for purpose and companionship is as moving as it is familiar. Also eerily recognisable is the often repeated phrase that the new wars fought will be on computers. As the case builds, the growing certainty that somehow, some great world disaster could be brought about by one small computer in the small Swedish city of Ystad is frightening and very real. In a time when one small clerical error on a computer system can deny you your own university graduation or access to your bank account, this novel reminds us of the fact we bury for our own comfort. All it takes is one computer plus modem in the hands of someone with the right knowledge to bring the whole world to it''s knees. However, as well as the grim warning that Manning weaves into his excellent thriller, there is another kind of reminder here. A note of hope. Manning points out that in order to stay on top of this new kind of vulnerability, we muct look to the genaration born into the computer culture. The new genaration will provide us with a new kind of solution.

With a page turning pull of suspense, Firewall is not to be missed by any lover of the detective genre. If you have not encountered Kurt Wallander before, this is your chance to meet a character that will give you much hope for the human race.

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