Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Firewall

  • An Inspector Wallander Mystery
  • By: Henning Mankell
  • Narrated by: Sean Barrett
  • Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (293 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Firewall cover art

Firewall

By: Henning Mankell
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Whisky from Small Glasses cover art
The Poet cover art
Speaks the Nightbird cover art
The Black Echo: Special Edition cover art
The Coldest Case: A Black Book Audio Drama cover art
Relic cover art
Song of the Dead cover art
The Girl in the Ice cover art

Summary

Stopping to use a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead.

A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenage girls. Quickly apprehended, they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without a trace.

Soon afterwards, a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery.

Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked - somehow. Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to loose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace. Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move and Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them.

©2004 Henning Mankell (P)2009 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Firewall

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    177
  • 4 Stars
    88
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    164
  • 4 Stars
    38
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    125
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Immensely enjoyable

Wallander is under pressure, but at his excellent best. sit back, clear your diary and enjoy an excellent thriller, and excellent naration. This is probably my favourite listen from 150 books!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent - one of the best

I enjoy Henning Mankell's Wallander novels and this is the one I have enjoyed the most so far. The story is well put together and moves along at the right pace with good twists and turns in the plot. Sean Barrett's narration is excellent and this was one of the best listening experiences I have had.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

somewhat disatisfying

You have to be in the right mood to listen to a Wallander book. He's so miserable most of the time that if you're feeling a bit down he could send you spiraling down yourself. That though is something to be accepted.

What I found dissatisfying about this story was that it had lost its internal logic. I kept expecting the police to be asking questions about why a body was stolen and an item left in its place. As far as I could tell, had that not happened they would never have started the investigations into that person, leading them to uncover the plot. For a long time I thought a rival set of 'baddies' was going to appear, but no, there was no reason given for this set of events it was simply something to intrigue the reader at the beginning, then be left unanswered.
I realise that not all questions in a thriller will be answered, but I do expect the detective to notice and ask himself why something happened.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Ignorance wrapped up in repetition and cliché

If you write a book about cyber crime called "firewall", you should at least find out what a firewall is. Mansell clearly did not. In fact, pretty much everything technology related in this book is about as realistic as Harry Potter. It is cringe worthy at times.

The number of times Wallander has "just one more thing" to say, or has some inexplicable feeling, or knows he should do something but decides not to (as a clumsy plot device) starts to grate. At times the writing is stilted and sounds more like a journal than a novel.

On the positive side, Mansell does manage to create some tension at times. Sean Barrett's narration is solid as always, but can't rescue this book. I got the feeling that he knew how bad it was as he was reading it.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story

I have listened to all the Wallander books except one. I think that this is the best one I have listened to so far although I have enjoyed them all

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping to the end

I loved this, the pace was good, and the characters engaging, this novel unfolded nicely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best of the series by far

I have read all the books in the series in order and this is so far the best of the all in terms of intrigue and character development. Looking forward to the next one

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A few loose ends

I am a big Wallender fan but this intriguing story left a few loose ends, things which, for me, needed explaining but were just swept away as though they were of no consequence. The story involving computers was and quite scary in that the whole premise seemed feasible. It certainly kept me listening and the iPad went with me from room to room.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

another superb listening experience. .

This is one of the best Wallander audio books I've listened to...the classic style of master detective writer Henning Mankell along with the prefect voice and tone of Sean Barrett as narrator make this a wonderful listening experience.
I'd give more than 5 stars if I could and would recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • A
  • 25-10-16

A good listen

Interesting plot with some good character development. Conclusion not as convincing as it might have been but nevertheless still worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!