The phoniness of Kurt Wallander's love of opera

OK so Henning Mankell's detective, Kurt Wallander, is an opera buff. Every detective, or so it seems, have to have some little identifying quirk, an interest, passion, habit, or preference - and that seems to help us identify them and keep them straight. But just because the lead detective likes opera - as opposed to, say, jazz - does that make this a classier book, a work of literary fiction and not crime/suspense? That could be the case - if the author actually did something with the lead character's quirk or defining trait - if, in this instance, the passion for opera played a role in the plot rather than filled time between episodes. All Mankell does with this passion of Wallander's is, from time to time, say something like: He put in a cassette of Aida (this is the early 1990s). The opera references are just name checks, really. For some readers, perhaps, they give the novel a bit of class and a touch of obscurity as well - but, trust me, all of the operas he listens to in this first volume of the series (Faceless Killers) are the chestnuts; there's nothing unusual at all about his taste - and one would certainly expect a 40-year-old who has been devoted to opera his whole life to listen to more esoteric works and not the familiar ones over and over. Worse, Mankell even seems to lose interest in these culture checks: early in the novel he mentions operas by name, but later he just says stuff like: He listened to a Rossini opera. Gee. Which one? And does it make a difference? Yes, it could, if the selection of opera, or even of aria, shed light on Wallander's mood or bore some kind of relation to the plot (e.g., might he listen to Fidelio after visiting a prisoner in his cell?). And the whole theme would seem more authentic and less of a device if he actually had a word or two to say about opera, if he discussed it with someone, or even w/ himself. But, no, not only does this novel read like a screenplay - it's a screenplay with soundtrack. Reminds me of a crappy contemporary Western I once saw in which laconic rodeo rider lived out of a camper in which he kept - shelves of novels, Dostoyevsky et al - so what? He's an intellectual? Not in the entire movie did he say one word about anything he'd read, ever - so what we've got is a screenwriter who's a would-be intellectual.