Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo are the husband and wife team that created the ten books in the The Inspector Martin Beck Mystery Series, when ended when Per died of cancer. They are currently being reprinted in trade paperback — only the last two stories wait to be reissued.
Don’t forget to check out the other blog posts listed below for more information.
The Martin Beck Mystery Series
Most weekends I pick a new series and detail it here — giving you the proper order. Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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Roseanna (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #1)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The masterful first novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck hunting for the murderer of a lonely traveler. On a July afternoon, a young woman’s body is dredged from Sweden’s beautiful Lake Vattern. With no clues Beck begins an investigation not only to uncover a murderer but also to discover who the victim was. Three months later, all Beck knows is that her name was Roseanna and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people on a cruise. As the melancholic Beck narrows the list of suspects, he is drawn increasingly to the enigma of the victim, a free-spirited traveler with a penchant for casual sex, and to the psychopathology of a murderer with a distinctive — indeed, terrifying — sense of propriety. . . . |
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The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #2)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The masterful second novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck searching for a well-known Swedish journalist who has disappeared without a trace. Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad has his summer vacation abruptly terminated when the top brass at the foreign office pack him off to Budapest to search for Alf Matsson, a well-known Swedish journalist who has vanished. Beck investigates viperous Eastern European underworld figures and — at the risk of his life — stumbles upon the international racket in which Matsson was involved. With the coolly efficient local police on his side and a predatory nymphet on his tail, Beck pursues a case whose international implications grow with each new clue. |
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The Man on the Balcony (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #3)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The chilling third novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Martin Beck investigating a string of child murders. In the once peaceful parks of Stockholm, a killer is stalking young girls and disposing their bodies. The city is on edge, and an undercurrent of fear has gripped its residents. Martin Beck, now a superintendent, has two possible witnesses: a silent, stone-cold mugger and a mute three year old boy. With the likelihood of another murder growing as each day passes, the police force work night and day. But their efforts have offered little insight into the methodology of the killer. Then a distant memory resurfaces in Beck’s mind, and he may just have the break he needs. |
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The Laughing Policeman (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #4)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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Winner of the 1971 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel The incredible fourth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Martin Beck heading a major manhunt in pursuit of a mass-murderer. On a cold and rainy Stockholm night, nine bus riders are gunned down by a mysterious assassin. The press portrays it as a freak attack and dubs the killer a madman. But Superintendent Martin Beck thinks otherwise — one of his most ambitious young detectives was among those killed — and he suspects it was more than coincidence. Working on a hunch, Beck seeks out the girlfriend of the murdered detective, and with her help Beck reconstructs the steps that led to his murder. The police comb the country for the killer, only to find that this attack may be connected to a case that has been unsolved for years. |
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The Fire Engine That Disappeared (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #5)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The lightning-paced fifth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck investigating one of the strangest, most violent, and unforgettable crimes of his career. The incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the building’s eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Beck’s colleagues hadn’t been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe because somehow a regulation fire-truck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what if, anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a 46-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: “Martin Beck”? |
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Murder at the Savoy (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #6)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The shocking sixth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck investigating a brutal assassination. When Viktor Palmgren, a powerful Swedish industrialist is shot during his after-dinner speech in the luxurious Hotel Savoy, it sends a shiver down the spine of the international money markets and terrifies the tiny town of Malmo. No one in the restaurant can identify the gunman, and local police are sheepishly baffled. That’s when Beck takes over the scene and quickly picks through Palmgren’s background. What he finds is a web of vice so despicable that it’s hard for him to imagine who wouldn’t want Palmgren dead, but that doesn’t stop him and his team of dedicated detectives from tackling one of their most intriguing cases yet. |
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The Abominable Man (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #7)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The striking seventh novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck facing one of the greatest challenges in his professional career. The gruesome murder of a police captain in his hospital room reveals the unsavory history of a man who spent forty years practicing a horrible blend of strong-arm police work and shear brutality. Martin Beck and his colleagues feverishly comb Stockholm for the murderer, a demented and deadly rifleman, who has plans for even more chaos. As the tension builds and a feeling of imminent danger grips Beck, his investigation unearths evidence of police corruption. That’s when an even stronger sense of responsibility and something like shame urge him into taking a series of drastic steps, which lead to a shocking disaster. |
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The Locked Room (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #8)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The stunning eighth installment in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is a masterful take on a classic locked room mystery. A young blonde in sunglasses robs a bank and kills a hapless citizen. Across town, a corpse with a bullet shot through its heart is found in a locked room — with no gun at the scene. The crimes seem disparate, but to Martin Beck they are two pieces of the same puzzle, and solving it becomes the one way he can escape the pains of his failed marriage and the lingering effects of a near-fatal bullet wound. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance and gravity of real life. |
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Cop Killer (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #9)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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Martin Beck investigates the murder of a woman in Southern Sweden, and begins by looking at the murderer he put away in “Roseanna”. At the same time, Malm leads a manhunt for the surviving partner of a teenage criminal who killed a policeman during a gunfight. Description provided by Wikipedia: Cop Killer (novel) page. |
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The Terrorists (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #10)Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo |
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The story opens with a trial where an eighteen-year old woman is accused of a bank robbery she never intended to commit. Later, a pornographic film producer is found murdered at the home of his mistress. The main plot of the book involves Martin Beck leading a team of policemen to prevent a presumed terrorist attack on a highly unpopular American senator who is paying an official visit to Sweden. The attack is led by terrorist Reinhard Heydt, born by a Danish mother in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Description provided by Wikipedia: The Terrorists page. |
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For More Information:
Jo Ann “The Head Rat” Vicarel talks about Sweedish mysteries in the article: Scandanavian Mystery Writers — Then and Now.
Pat “The Excitable Rat” Gray discusses The Laughing Policeman in her post The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo: Sweden in the 1960′s.
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