Byline: LINTON WEEKS
He writes darkly, Henning Mankell. Of ice-cold Scandinavia, family woes, irritable bowels. And man's ever-creative inhumanity. Near the beginning of his new novel ``Before the Frost'' (New Press; 383 pages; $24.95) , for instance, a sinister man douses several white swans with gasoline and then sets them on fire. It is an arresting scene in an arresting story by an arresting writer you have probably never heard of. Why isn't Swedish writer Mankell better known in the United States? After all, he has written 40 books that have been published in more than 35 countries and sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. He has outsold Harry Potter in Germany, his American publisher, the New Press, likes to point out. His recurring detective, Kurt Wallander, is quirky, wise, …
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