The White Lioness cover art

The White Lioness

An Inspector Wallander Mystery

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The White Lioness

By: Henning Mankell
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
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.
Cancel

About this listen

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The White Lioness by Henning Mankell, read by Sean Barrett.

In 1992, in peaceful Southern Sweden, Louise Akerblom, an estate agent, pillar of the Methodist church, wife and mother, disappears. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Wallander and his team are called in to investigate. As Inspector Wallander is introduced to this missing person's case, he has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in search of the killer.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela has made his long walk to freedom, setting in train the country's painful journey towards the end of Apartheid. Wallander and his colleagues find themselves caught up in a complex web involving renegade members of South Africa's secret service and a former KGB agent, all of whom are set upon halting Mandela's rise to power.

Faced with an increasingly globalised world in which international terrorism knows no national borders, Wallander must prevent a hideous crime that means to dam the tide of history.

©2003 Henning Mankell (P)2009 Random House Audio Crime Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Sweden

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Long Time Dead cover art
The Holy Thief cover art
Cold City cover art
Relic cover art
The Black Echo: Special Edition cover art
Iron Lake cover art
Ratking cover art
First Blood cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Loved the amazing narration by Sean Barrett who is incredible at all the different characters and accents. Great story telling. Loved it

Complex and exciting story read brilliantly

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
All of his books are excellent and very well read but this one I felt was an 11 hour bonkers fantasy which I wanted to abandon halfway through due to the constant tiresome patronising liberal nonsense against the backdrop of the demise of white rule in South Africa.

It’s good of course

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s rewarding to tackle this Author’s work even though a listener might sigh-often - at the too too didactic tone, the absurd coincidences and essential lack of enough convincing variety. Locales and characters hover close to but do not become quite rounded enough to be convincing. People pop up fortuitously then vanish again. It’s as if Markell became more obsessed with sharing his beliefs than developing a story.

A thing I found rewarding, as I listened, was to juggle the renditions of this tale which I have seen both by Branagh and the Swedish Television Wallander. By doing this you get a far better sense of all that was attempted in the novel.
What each of these different writers from different cultures and with varying budgets chose to foreground was enormously helpful when listening became a chore.

Fond regards for Author but too clunky.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a magnificent narrator reading a brilliant book. one of wallenders very best books. no need for BBC TV here

close the eyes and listen. really listen to this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One cannot help but get the impression that Mankell used this novel to vent his anger at pre-ANC South Africa. The story spends a lot of time in SA and Wallander becomes a bit part actor at times instead of the lead. this means the book doesn't work as well as the others in the series but it's still a very worthwhile read, especially with the peerless Sean Barrett narration.
Mankell never convinces on Southern Africa in spite of the time he spent there. He takes the easy but very lazy line of painting Afrikaners as nothing but conniving evil monsters. The Zulu character here is treated with sympathy although he is a very unsavoury, unethical murderer. Mankell bends over backwards to seek out tiny elements of good left in him, but cannot bring himself to do so with the Afrikaners. It does his reputation no service and grossly misrepresents the Afrikaans people.

Not the best Wallander but still worth reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
On the whole a very good read, exciting in parts, and very well read by Sean Barrett. Some parts a little drawn out, particularly the ending but certainly not disappointing for me, I do like this author and will continue to read his books without doubt. I like the idea of a provincial police detective gets to stray out of his comfort zone and although successful (so far) makes many mistakes. Definitely worth a read!

The White Lioness

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good book. a decent number of story lines that kept interest through the whole book.

Story lines

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am rapidly becoming a Wallander fan and already look forward to the next in the series. As always, Barrett is a superb narrator who effortlessly transports one into the story.

The best yet

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Gripping read excellently narrated found it difficult to put it down and sad when it ended looking forward to listening to his next book

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Gripping story full of surprising and one small coil in an excellent series of books.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews