Roseanna: A Martin Beck Police Mystery (1)

This book is a superb whodunit as well as being steeped in local color that is not commonly seen by American readers. The corpse is discovered in the very first sentence on page 1, and after that, the entire page is devoted to an explanation of why several bureaucratic offices denied responsibility for the dredging operation and thereby facilitated the discovery, revealing a wry, almost British type of humor that rings profoundly true to anyone who has worked for a government.Moreover, a murder mystery set in the Sweden of the 1960's is a stroke of genius. The Sweden revealed in the book, an insular place off the beaten track, where English-speaking tourists were as rare as Swedes who could converse in English, rings profoundly true to someone who was there - in childhood, I spent six weeks in Stockholm, in the summer of 1963, and reading the book now in late middle age I find lots to like. I was there because my father, a criminology professor at an American university, had arranged a study tour to investigate why Sweden, which had none of the triggers that were (and are) believed to cause crime in the US, still had a crime problem. Sweden was an early Socialist welfare state. It had free universal health care, free guaranteed pensions, a near-equality of income that made for essentially no poverty, strict gun control laws, and hardly any controls on pornography but very strict controls on what movie violence children could watch. Practically every Swede was white, in fact, most were blond and blue-eyed, so racism had little room for development. Our host, Professor Carl-Gunnar Jansson (deceased so I can use his real name), admitted he was paying 80% of his income in taxes, "But it doesn't matter - I'm not saving because my medical care and pension are guaranteed." Those of us who have enjoyed sports cars, boats, and horseback riding are perfectly aware that having your physical needs guaranteed does not mean you are immune to the desire for additional funds! Also, even though a child at the time, I accidentally discovered that a nearby park was "home" (at least in summer) to a number of drunks who erected shacks out of scavenged materials. With ordinary greed, sex, and substance abuse, there is no need of other excuses for people to go to the bad - plenty of crimes will still be committed, as officials informed my father during our visit.Martin Beck, the police investigator who is the hero of the piece, is a middle-aged family man whose wife tries to pamper him but he would rather she didn't. He builds ship models and fondly remembers sailing in the Archipelago in his youth; the irregular hours are doing bad things to his health - perhaps he's also suffering psychologically from "Scandinavian gloom" - but he's totally committed to finding the murderer once he is put on the case. He rings profoundly true as a character. He persists in the chase over many months, involving police professionals in several countries, until he gets the perpetrator.The book moves along briskly even though it's page 5 before we meet Mr. Beck. Longer than average for a detective novel, it never drags, and for someone who remembers the Sweden of the time there are also occasional place-names, although descriptions are very spare as is appropriate to the genre, to bring back memories. While the book was originally in Swedish, the translation is excellent, very literate and certainly must be faithful to the original (or the translator actually improved the text). I recommend it without reservations except for the usual warnings about sex and violence. If you're afraid to read about those things you wouldn't read murder mysteries anyway!

This is the first book in a 10 book series by a Swedish husband and wife team. They were written and set in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s.So there is a lot of smoking and telephoning from phone booths and taking messages.The "Martin Beck" books defined the Scandinavian Noir Detective Genre.Each is a gem and I am putting this review at the first of the series.You read about Martin Beck and his colleagues. They act like any team: each has his own set of skills, each has his own personality, there are some friendships, some deep friendships, and some folks who do not like each other. They solve crimes by doggedly working at them, following up on details, and working until they are lucky. They deduce more than they detect. For example, Martin Beck is annoyed by how various of his colleagues enter his office (knocking, scratching, not knocking) and you come to understand that he is a grumpy introvert. When they come together to discuss and solve, he stands with his right elbow on a filing cabinet.The writing is lovely and I am quite sad that I have finished the series and they are no longer in my life. Even though these are translations, and even though they are translated by different people, the authors' distinctive voice(s) shine in each novel: the language is tight and fond and quite funny. There is distinctive imagery that helps you to know each character. There are Shakespere-like fools for comic relief who are either totally incompetent policemen or more senior police officials. Many of the comic parts parody the overuse of weapons and violence. The structure is strong. Each book has 30 chapters. Similar to Edgar Allen Poe, while there is lots of detail, all of it contributes either to our understanding of the characters or the policemen's understanding of the crime. I read that each author wrote an alternating chapter, and then they edited each other's chapters.Roseanna is about the corpse of an unknown young woman who is found beside a canal. In the beginning, they do not know who she is or where she was killed. The policemen are affected by the poignancy of a young woman dying and no one missing her. In 60s fashion, they contact Interpol and eventually learn that she is from Nebraska and get important help (via correspondence in letters and telegrams) from an American policeman. They think through details and determine which ship she was on, and then track back by gathering images in a very ingenious way. I will let you read the rest.The subtitle is "The Story of a Crime". The Crime is the deterioriation of the Swedish police force and Swedish society toward violence, abuse of others and institutional failures symbolized by the harm done by nationalizing, and militarizing, the Swedish police force. The authors are communists. While I am not a communist, I found the commentary trenchant and interesting. I shudder to think of how they would respond to America in the present. The problems and abuses that they address are timeless. This habit of societal critique continues in the other Scandinavian authors in the genre they started.The people in the books come right off the pages and I felt as though I had a relationship with them.I think that these are the best books that I have read in a very long time. They were apparently quite hard to find in bookstores and I expect that they will zoom in popularity now that they are available electronically. Per Wahloo died as the last book was written and Maj Sjowall is alive today, but these 10 are the totality of their work. I am so glad that two generations of Scandinavian authors have followed their lead.

Sjowall and Wahoo have written a rare and marvellous detective story. From the mystery of the identity of the body, to the development of the characters, to the final unravelling of the murderer, they have written the perfect murder story. Evidence of their writer's craft is found in the gripping finale. It literally had me in the edge if my seat. Bravo!

This book is a fascinating story of the search for the murderer of a young sexually active woman on a boat trip down a river in Sweden. An interesting aspect of the Sjowall and Wahloo mysteries is that they are a realistic depiction of a policeman's life where there's long periods of time where nothing much happens and then suddenly they discover who committed the crime and have to figure out how to get enough evidence to charge the murderer. This is the second mystery I've read by these authors and I plan to read many more.

There was tension and some humor in the story, but no real mystery. Still, I’d give this series another try …

Ever wanted to see the real way of a police investigation? This book, written more than 20 years ago and before the popularity of reality TV, gives the reader a real window into just how unexciting, yet important and yes, unappealing, police work can be when there is a murder with few clues.In this story we follow a police officer who has not quite settled into middle life with children, marriage issues and the every day or seasonal flu. Working can be a struggle but finding the solution still is uppermost in the mind. This is hard work to find out who and why, as well as how, a young woman is killed on a pleasure boat sailing through the locks.Interesting and highly entertaining reading.

Is this the best police procedural whodunnit I've ever read? Probably yes. This book is long considered as the first big thing that emerged from the now-phenomenon Scandinavian/Nordic thriller factory. And rightly so. The plot, the atmosphere, and the character development is so nuanced and standalone that even almost after 5 decades this book holds its temperament intact. I'll certainly read the other nine books written by the author duo. But they are not easily available even on Amazon, so that is the concern. Anyway, anyone loves to read police procedurals or books which unfolds its storyline in a step-by-step leisurely manner, and without any haste or speed of the usual "page-turners", you must read this gem of a thriller.

This book is the first of a series of ten. I've read all of them. Of course, this book is also the oldest of the series. Like most of them, it's set in Sweden. All of the people's names and all of the place names are in Swedish, but the rest is in English. It's a good mystery story, showing the slow and tedious collecting of clues that lead to identification of the killer. The story never drags and never becomes boring.

This is the first in the 'Martin Beck' crime novel series. Author giants like Henning Mankell have written about how Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö changed the crime novel genre with this series of books. Roseanna is the first in the series. For my money these books have held up extremely well (as literature does). I love everything Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö have written. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll get back to reading them...

Henning Mankell wrote the intro and credits Söjwall and Mahlöö as influences. He, and a number of others call the Martin Beck series a game changer in European crime fiction. The cases, especially this one, which takes around six months to solve, are agonizingly slow sometimes, for the investigators anyway. Beck and his team are not Supermen, but more regular guys who stumble, get up and try again in all aspects of their lives. They have hangovers, bad stomachs and bad backs. They are not rogue lawmen who antagonize everyone around them, but plods kind of, though each with distinct gifts and personalities, who do what they can to get at the truth.One of the main characters in the novel is the Swedish landscape and how it changes with the passing of the seasons, which adds another layer to the novel. The context is the sixties, with the loosening of social mores, widening of women's experience, experimentation and risk-taking forming the backdrop for both the action and the crime.The translation is charming, kind of with a Swedish accent, but ultimately a bit wooden.

Read this classic and really enjoyed it. It gives one a sense how difficult some cases are to resolve when the clues are hard to come by. Quite suspenseful by the end. Everything I enjoy in a good mystery.