The Pyramid (Swedish: Pyramiden) was published by Ordfront in 1999 and collects five novellas that fill in the gaps of Wallander’s biography between 1969 and 1990 — from his early twenties as a young policeman in Malmö to the eve of the events depicted in Faceless Killers. The stories are arranged chronologically and provide the origin story for the character whose middle and old age the novels have depicted.
“The Knife” (set in 1969) shows a twenty-one-year-old Wallander barely surviving a stabbing by a drunken man and deciding, against his father’s wishes, to remain in the police. “The Man with the Mask” (1975) finds him investigating a murder while his marriage is collapsing. “The Man on the Beach” (1987) shows him at midcareer, competent but already showing signs of the isolation that will characterize his later years. “The Death of the Photographer” (1988) gives him a case involving small-town secrets and historical guilt. “The Pyramid” (1989) — the longest story, giving the collection its title — involves a crashed light aircraft, drug smuggling, and a connection to the pyramids of Egypt.
The novellas serve a dual purpose: they satisfy readers’ curiosity about Wallander’s past while also demonstrating how a character is formed by experience — how the accumulation of violence, failure, loneliness, and moral compromise transforms an idealistic young man into the troubled middle-aged detective of the main novels. Read after the series, they provide context; read before, they provide foreshadowing.
Collecting The Pyramid
First Swedish edition (Ordfront, Stockholm, 1999): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First Swedish edition: $20–$50
- First English edition (New Press, 2008): $10–$25
- First UK edition (Harvill Secker, 2008): $10–$25