Abominable Man

Rating:
Summary: This book is a brilliant police procedural.
Review: "The Abomidable Man" is one of the better entries in the ten "Martin Beck" mysteries by the husband-and-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It features the unforgettable characters of Martin Beck, Leonard Kollberg, and their colleagues at the newly nationalized Swedish Police Force as a particularly brutal murder of a police officer in a hospital is investigated. With few clues, Beck and his colleagues eventually solve the case, but are overtaken by events in the sort of bleak existential denouement that characterizes this unmatched series of crime stories. The authors use the police procedural as a prism through which to look at society, and their liberal outlook seems innocent and quaint given the passage of time. Search your local used bookstores and garage sales for any entries in this series (not too uncommon in paperback) and let's hope that Black Lizard rereleases the whole series. NOTE: This book was made into an outstanding Swedis! ! h film called "The Man on the Roof", available on video at certain outlets.

Rating:
Summary: NOT one of the best Martin Beck books
Review: After reading all ten of the Martin Beck series, I'll contest the other reviews: This is one of the two lame-ducks of the lot. ("Murder at the Savoy" is the other.) The socialist commentary is ladled on like chocolate syrup at an unsupervised birthday party for four-year-olds. The action is limited to one day (unlike the careful development of time in other Beck books) and places an emphasis on the stupidity and brutatlity of Swedish police, and it's far over-the-top when compared to other works in the series, such as "Cop Killer" and "The Laughing Policeman."

Whatever you do, DON'T start with this one. "Roseanna" and "The Laughing Policeman" are better bets to ease into the Beck series.

Ironically, the book ended up as an excellent Swedish movie -- "The Man on the Roof" -- that's subtitled in English and available used in VHS. The movie stripped out the socialism and other extraneous commentary to focus on action and plot development.

Rating:
Summary: NOT one of the best Martin Beck books
Review: After reading all ten of the Martin Beck series, I'll contest the other reviews: This is one of the two lame-ducks of the lot. ("Murder at the Savoy" is the other.) The socialist commentary is ladled on like chocolate syrup at an unsupervised birthday party for four-year-olds. The action is limited to one day (unlike the careful development of time in other Beck books) and places an emphasis on the stupidity and brutatlity of Swedish police, and it's far over-the-top when compared to other works in the series, such as "Cop Killer" and "The Laughing Policeman."

Whatever you do, DON'T start with this one. "Roseanna" and "The Laughing Policeman" are better bets to ease into the Beck series.

Ironically, the book ended up as an excellent Swedish movie -- "The Man on the Roof" -- that's subtitled in English and available used in VHS. The movie stripped out the socialism and other extraneous commentary to focus on action and plot development.

Rating:
Summary: The best in the series
Review: The sixth Martin Beck novel. The crime this time around is the brutal murder of a decorated police officer in his hospital bed. Beck (now divorced from his shrewish wife) and his partner Kollberg, are on the case again.

This is the best novel in the series, masterfully interweaving the virtues of Beck's patient, methodical style of detection with a damning indictment of the pointless brutality and general incompetence of modern law enforcement. The point of the book, made in a variety of ways, is that law enforcement needs better cops, not bigger guns. Excellent as both a crime thriller and social commentary.

And don't miss the cliffhanger ending.

Unfortunately, it's out of print, and hard to find. Beg, borrow, or steal a copy, and read it.