Kurt Wallander is a police inspector in the Swedish town of Ystad . Shortly after he has seen a young girl kill herself by self-immolation, he is called to investigate the murder of government minister Wetterstedt. He has been scalped. Wealthy business-man Carlman is murdered in the same fashion, and a serial killer is clearly responsible. Drunken ex-journalist Lars Magnusson points Wallander towards Sandin, a retired and corrupt cop, who admits that he once ’cleaned up’ for both the dead men but will offer no more information. The next murder is that of an habitual....