Kennedy's Brain (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) | 
 enlarge | Author: Henning Mankell
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 156559
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307385914
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.7374
EAN: 9780307385918
ASIN: 0307385914
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20090107232017T
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
From internationally bestselling author Henning Mankell comes a gripping mystery and a depiction of every parent's worst nightmare.
When Louise Cantor finds her twenty-eight year old son dead in his apartment, everything indicates it was a suicide. Louise, however, refuses to accept this, and with nothing more than few suspicions and a mother's intuition, she and her ex-husband set out to find what happened. What they discover is a dark underworld of people exploiting the victims of the AIDS epidemic: corrupt businessmen dealing infected blood, suspicious researchers carrying out dangerous tests, and lecherous drug dealers peddling black market medicine. Their investigation takes them across three continents, and leads them into some mighty financial institutions and highest corridors of power, where suddenly their own lives are at stake.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Don't waste your $$$. December 29, 2008
I think I've read of all of Mankell's books. This one is def' off-the-tracks. The explanation is in the Epilogue where the author affirms the book was written in anger. It looks it, too. Just one long series of clues that, in the end, go nowhere.
 "Kennedy's Brain" December 12, 2008
I'm a fan of Henning Mankell, so any book of his has my guaranteed interest. I haven't yet read "Kennedy's Brain," but I'm grateful to Amazon for supplying me with this book speedily and at a reasonable (i.e., reduced) cost.
 Disappointing December 12, 2008
This seemed to be a very rambling story. Although written in Henning Mankell's wonderful literary style it did not seem to be up to his usual plot line standards
Entertaining, but disappointing December 9, 2008
Mankell is a master mystery writer, and this novel will not disappoint from that standpoint. He knows how to maintain tension, how to thread a complex story and how to provide the color of context and place. Kennedy's brain is an entertaining novel. But when Mankell gets on his high horses and gives us the nasty, brutish forces of the West being responsible for a cloak and dagger explanation of the Aids epidemic, then he loses me altogether. I do not discount the bad behavior of Western companies and individuals, but the Aids epidemic in Africa has a much more complex story to it: for example, how do you classify the Aids denial of Thabo Mbeki, the former President of South Africa? Mankell gets so wrapped up in his anti-Western yarn that he messes things up a bit: nobody explains why this horrible man (the nasty brute at the center of the web) can kill several men but somehow lets the central character go free and unharmed, and other such inconsistencies. For Mankell, who is a tight and disciplined writer, these are bad mistakes. A good mystery novel, but not one of his best. Scandinavian guilt interfering with Mankell's good -or great- gifts as a writer.
First rate international thriller September 22, 2008
Hard core mystery readers my already be familiar with Henning Mankell through his popular Wallender mysteries. This novel strays from that series but is every bit as much of a satisfying read.
Mankell's strength is the vivid scene he sets. His narrative pulls the reader into the scene with the main character. His main character is believable and real. I felt her conclusion that her son was murdered, though not supported by evidence made available to her at the time, still felt real. The information introduced along the way causes doubt, but not enough to sway her opinion. Again, the balance still allows the reader to believe in Louise.
This is masterful thriller writing. But, for fans of the Wallender mysteries, understand that this is not strictly a mystery. It is a thriller and succeeds as one. The only weakness I felt was that the author's personal rage over politics of AIDS in Africa interfered with the power he might have brought to that issue had he not let it boil over.
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