Red herrings

Here is a three-sentence summary of Henning Mankell's Sidetracked:

When a young woman sets herself on fire in a cornfield, and shortly thereafter a series of gruesome, ritualistic axe murders of prominent citizens takes place, Inspector Kurt Wallander is faced with a mystery. Under immense pressure from the media and his own deteriorating health, he tries to find the dark connection between the victims and an elusive, terrifyingly young perpetrator. Ultimately, Wallander uncovers a shocking network of abuse of power and corruption, revealing the murderer to have a motive as tragic as it is ruthless.