The Fifth Woman

Infobox Book |
name = The Fifth Woman
title_orig = Den femte kvinnan
translator = Steven T. Murray


image_caption = British first edition cover
author = Henning Mankell
cover_artist =
country = Sweden
language = Swedish
series = Kurt Wallander #6
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Harvill Secker
pub_date = 1996 (orig.)
english_pub_date = 2000 (Eng. trans. )
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 428 pp (Eng. hardback trans.)
isbn = ISBN 1860468543 (Eng. trans.)
preceded_by = Sidetracked
followed_by = One Step Behind

"The Fifth Woman" is a crime novel by Swedish writer Henning Mankell, part of the Inspector Wallander series. It was first published in 1996, and translated into American English by Steven T. Murray in 2000.

A brutal serial killer is stalking and killing male victims. A prominent and wealthy poet is found horribly and grisly murdered in the outskirts of Ystad, impaled and partly eaten by crows. Shortly after an owner of a flower shop disappeares, at first believed to have gone to study flowers in Kenya. Later he is found starved and garotted by brutal means out in the woods. Both men were considered wealthy and prominent in society, both share a common secret: their wives died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago. When another man is found drowned in a lake inspector Kurt Wallander is convinced they are on the trail of a brutally vengator prepared to every move and perfectly ready to execute a plan of cold-blooded revenge...