It is the n. 3 of the series of the famous commissioner Kurt Wallander who works in the district of Ystad in Sweden. A lifeboat washed up on the Swedish coast and inside are two dead men who were killed days ago. It is discovered that they were Latvians. The investigation falls to Wallander, the best police inspector who moves to Riga. The context of the early 1990s is very interesting, dealing with the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Baltic states. It shows how difficult the transition from communism to democracy was. Kurt knows he is being watched by "the dogs of Riga", the dogs of Latvian colonels who never let their guard down and were invisible.
The thriller is enriched by the life of the detective who is a character of contrasts who always puts his work before his personal life. He wins the reader's affection because he is endearing, very human, supportive, courageous, willing to help anyone in need; at the same time he has vulnerable aspects that he reveals with transparency: he is lonely because his wife left him, he drinks a lot, he has constant regrets because he rarely visits his elderly father and his daughter does not empathize with him. On a personal level, he has a fractured life, very low self-esteem and does not know the meaning of his life. He does not believe in God like the majority of the Swedish population. The book is superb in its genre: it has literary quality, human and sociological interest. It is more introspective