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Martin Beck #3
El hombre del balcón
Esta es la turbadora tercera entrega de la serie detectivesca protagonizada por Martin Beck, serie iniciada en los años sesenta einspiradora de gran parte de la novela negra escrita a partir de entonces. Alguien se dedica a asesinar niñas en los ya no tan pacíficos parques de Estocolmo: las asesina después de haber abusado de ellas.Los ciudadanos están preocupados y temerosos. El inspector de policía Martin Beck tiene dos testigos: un insensible maleante que nopiensa hablar y un niño de tres años que no puede decir demasiado. El abnegado trabajo de la policía parece no conducir a ningunaparte, y cada día que pasa, mayor es la probabilidad de que se produzca otro asesinato. Pero entonces Beck recuerda a alguien -o recuerda algo- que conoció u oyó por casualidad. Un thriller de ritmo implacable, que mezcla el más inhumano de los crímenes con la humanidad de los hombres que deben resolverlos.La perseverancia, la frustración y el horror se entretejen en una labor policial tan conmovedora y creíble como cautivadora.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Maj Sjöwall
105 books489 followersMaj Sjöwall was a Swedish author and translator. She was best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel. They also wrote novels separately.
Sjöwall had a 13 year relationship with Wahlöö which lasted until his death in 1975.
Sjöwall had a 13 year relationship with Wahlöö which lasted until his death in 1975.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 546 reviews
February 3, 2012
I am a big fan of multi-multi-part series. Series that follow the same character(s) for eight, nine, ten or even dozens of books have an ability to play with characters and let them grow and breathe that one shots or even trilogies don't.
The best, like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin Series, do such a fine job that their characters become members of the family. People you know intimately and love despite all their flaws. The worst, like most of the Fantasy and Sci-Fi series that have multiple authors, remain a fascinating way to examine how different authors present their different takes on the characters they're writing about. They're often worth reading despite the contradictions and lapses in authorial judgement.
The mystery genre is probably the most prolific producer of multi-volume sets -- especially when it comes to the Police Procedural. It makes perfect sense to follow a cop or forensic examiner or whatever else over the length of his/her career, and their stories have the easy crime hooks that land our attention. Fans of crime novels all have a favourite detective -- mine is Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander (I am setting aside Mr. Holmes for this discussion) -- and we all have plenty that do nothing for us. But the one thing that can be said for all the "big" characters of the genre, whatever the skill of their creators, is that the more books that are written about them, the more they come to life.
This is, of course, also true of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's exceptional Martin Beck series -- only more so.
Beck and his colleagues -- Kollberg, Melander, Larrson, Rönn -- exist in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's sixties Sweden with an ease that seems entirely reasonable. The Beck books are short (at least the three I've read so far), yet these characters, in tiny, almost imperceptible ways, achieve depths that other characters can't and don't. They don't seem like characters anymore. They feel real, as though these books are a chronicle of men who once existed.
Perhaps this has most to do with a peculiarity of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's books that popped up in The Man on the Balcony. It struck me that their books are unique in one very important way. Unlike every other multi-part series I've ever read -- and there've been quite a few -- the Martin Beck books are not really multiple parts. Sjöwall and Wahlöö weren't writing ten Martin Beck stories, they were writing ONE Martin Beck story, and each "part" was really just a chapter in the greater whole.
That, more than anything else, allows Sjöwall and Wahlöö to breathe life into their policemen. References in The Man on the Balcony to the first part of their story, Roseanna, aren't simple reminders of some action that happened in the past, they are experiences that shaped their characters' personalities and altered the way the men are now reacting and behaving. Everything about these men is built as if they are real. Not just characters on a page, but men whom Sjöwall and Wahlöö can bring into existence through sheer force of will.
It's no wonder this series is seen as a seminal work of the genre. Its influence should be tremendous for anyone writing about cops. Hell, I don't write about cops, and its already influencing me.
The best, like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin Series, do such a fine job that their characters become members of the family. People you know intimately and love despite all their flaws. The worst, like most of the Fantasy and Sci-Fi series that have multiple authors, remain a fascinating way to examine how different authors present their different takes on the characters they're writing about. They're often worth reading despite the contradictions and lapses in authorial judgement.
The mystery genre is probably the most prolific producer of multi-volume sets -- especially when it comes to the Police Procedural. It makes perfect sense to follow a cop or forensic examiner or whatever else over the length of his/her career, and their stories have the easy crime hooks that land our attention. Fans of crime novels all have a favourite detective -- mine is Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander (I am setting aside Mr. Holmes for this discussion) -- and we all have plenty that do nothing for us. But the one thing that can be said for all the "big" characters of the genre, whatever the skill of their creators, is that the more books that are written about them, the more they come to life.
This is, of course, also true of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's exceptional Martin Beck series -- only more so.
Beck and his colleagues -- Kollberg, Melander, Larrson, Rönn -- exist in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's sixties Sweden with an ease that seems entirely reasonable. The Beck books are short (at least the three I've read so far), yet these characters, in tiny, almost imperceptible ways, achieve depths that other characters can't and don't. They don't seem like characters anymore. They feel real, as though these books are a chronicle of men who once existed.
Perhaps this has most to do with a peculiarity of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's books that popped up in The Man on the Balcony. It struck me that their books are unique in one very important way. Unlike every other multi-part series I've ever read -- and there've been quite a few -- the Martin Beck books are not really multiple parts. Sjöwall and Wahlöö weren't writing ten Martin Beck stories, they were writing ONE Martin Beck story, and each "part" was really just a chapter in the greater whole.
That, more than anything else, allows Sjöwall and Wahlöö to breathe life into their policemen. References in The Man on the Balcony to the first part of their story, Roseanna, aren't simple reminders of some action that happened in the past, they are experiences that shaped their characters' personalities and altered the way the men are now reacting and behaving. Everything about these men is built as if they are real. Not just characters on a page, but men whom Sjöwall and Wahlöö can bring into existence through sheer force of will.
It's no wonder this series is seen as a seminal work of the genre. Its influence should be tremendous for anyone writing about cops. Hell, I don't write about cops, and its already influencing me.
March 12, 2022
The Man on the Balcony is the third novel in the Martin Beck detective series set in Sweden, written by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo. I just finished the fourth in the series by Raymond Chandler and I can only begin to tell you how different they are. The latter has actual crime, but it has lots of laughs, but Beck is all work, the grim and unhappy but driven anti-hero, an ordinary cop solving crime. There's an occasional laugh, but the point of the Beck stories--which I understand were all planned out in advance of the writing?!-- is to critique society through the means of police procedurals. Their lens is Marxist, or anti-capitalist, which is to say we as a society are all part of the social system creating much of the crime we see and experience. It’s not just a case of good people on the one hand and bad guys who are “crazy” or morally deficient on the other. Here’s an excerpt pointing to this:
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty bound to produce an effective counterargument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers.”
Not that they are defund-the-police folks, exactly, but they see that we as a society make criminals. A just society would eliminate a lot of crime, if not all. The cops in the Beck novels seem to have a weary ambivalence toward the criminals they work with, the homeless, the addicts, the prostitutes, the thieves. They don't excuse them of their crimes, of course; a child-killer is the main culprit of this book and we detest him, certainly. But this novel makes it clear the detective team is obsessively driven to solve this crime and exhausted, completely overwhelmed by their duties.
spoilers in here: The story begins with a woman calling the police station to complain about a guy who she thinks is suspiciously watching people from his balcony for hours on end. Right, not a crime, the guy taking the call tells her, but when we find out two girls have been killed in a park, he eventually recalls what he thought was a crank call and it is important to the resolution, no surprise. It’s a flat-out police procedural, not sensational, and a team solution, where Beck is part of the team and not some kind of hero. He’s not happy, but all they can do is find the guy who did this. They don’t sleep well, they don’t eat, they are obsessed, and when it is solved, they wait to face no the next atrocity. Sjowall and Walloo were crime reporters before they wrote the series, and they know the day-to-day workings of a police station and a crime investigation.
This is really good, my favorite of the three so far. They are just getting better as writers.
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty bound to produce an effective counterargument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers.”
Not that they are defund-the-police folks, exactly, but they see that we as a society make criminals. A just society would eliminate a lot of crime, if not all. The cops in the Beck novels seem to have a weary ambivalence toward the criminals they work with, the homeless, the addicts, the prostitutes, the thieves. They don't excuse them of their crimes, of course; a child-killer is the main culprit of this book and we detest him, certainly. But this novel makes it clear the detective team is obsessively driven to solve this crime and exhausted, completely overwhelmed by their duties.
spoilers in here: The story begins with a woman calling the police station to complain about a guy who she thinks is suspiciously watching people from his balcony for hours on end. Right, not a crime, the guy taking the call tells her, but when we find out two girls have been killed in a park, he eventually recalls what he thought was a crank call and it is important to the resolution, no surprise. It’s a flat-out police procedural, not sensational, and a team solution, where Beck is part of the team and not some kind of hero. He’s not happy, but all they can do is find the guy who did this. They don’t sleep well, they don’t eat, they are obsessed, and when it is solved, they wait to face no the next atrocity. Sjowall and Walloo were crime reporters before they wrote the series, and they know the day-to-day workings of a police station and a crime investigation.
This is really good, my favorite of the three so far. They are just getting better as writers.
March 22, 2009
catching up on unreviewed books (from 2011)
According to author Jo Nesbø, who wrote the introduction to this edition of the novel (third in the Martin Beck series), Man on the Balcony found its inspiration in an actual case that occurred in Stockholm in 1963. At that time, two little girls were sexually abused and then murdered by someone who lured them away from the park where they were playing. Man on the Balcony imagines a similar case and its authors deliver it into the hands of Martin Beck and other detectives of the Stockholm police.
As the story opens, a man is sitting on his balcony as the sun comes up one June day. There he smokes cigarettes, drinks coffee, and watches. He looks at the roofs of other buildings and observes the street below him, and as the city begins to awaken, he watches traffic, pedestrians, cyclists, and a man walking his dog -- nothing out of the ordinary really. The action then switches to the police station, where Martin Beck and his colleagues are discussing the latest in a series of serious muggings that have been taking place in the city parks. But the worst is yet to come -- in one of these parks, two "seedy figures" looking for coins in the grass take a break, open a bottle to share, and come upon the body of a young girl hidden beneath a bush. It is only the first of what will become a series of murders, and Beck (who is always referred to as "Martin Beck" throughout the novel) and the other detectives now find themselves in a race against time before the killer strikes again.
The Man on the Balcony is a police procedural, but that particular label isn't the best description for this series. There's much more at work here than the police getting the case, looking for clues and solving it. The policemen, while they do their jobs well, can at times be rather introspective about the state of crime and crime solving.
Sjowall and Wahloo also draw attention to the social climate of the times in Stockholm and Sweden, reflecting not just on what occurs within police precinct walls but throughout the city as well. At the park at Mariatorget, for example, a place where "schoolchildren and other young people met the small-scale dope pushers,"
Every day large quantities of hashish, marijuana, preludin and LSD were passed furtively from seller to buyer. And the buyers were getting younger and younger. Soon they would become addicts... Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty bound to produce an effective counterargument.
For many readers, the commentary on Sweden of the late 60s might not be a drawing point, but it adds a sense of the realism regarding the society in which these fictional crimes occur. This is a hallmark of the other books in the series as well, in which the authors "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideological pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type." But going beyond the social criticism, Man On the Balcony is a realistic novel where the characters behave in a realistic fashion. Take the main character, Martin Beck, for example. Now a superintendent, he still suffers from insomnia, still has problems with his wife and still has trouble making sense of society, but is not nearly as angst ridden as some of the more modern Scandinavian detectives. He doesn't always agree with his colleagues about the way they're handling either of the cases, but he cares about them and he loves his work. He also knows how to work the system when he needs to. There is a wonderful section in this novel where Beck interviews a three year-old witness that actually made me laugh, but it could only have been Beck that pulled it off.
Man on the Balcony is such a good novel that the time spent reading it just flies by. There's an incredible sense of sophistication in the writing, the sense of place and time is very well established, and it's an intelligent read. The length of the book might be short, but it doesn't need to be any longer -- everything that's needed to make this novel work is already there, especially in the characterizations. I can definitely recommend it to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction, to readers who may have read one or two other books in the Martin Beck series and aren't sure about the rest, and to readers of crime fiction in general.
According to author Jo Nesbø, who wrote the introduction to this edition of the novel (third in the Martin Beck series), Man on the Balcony found its inspiration in an actual case that occurred in Stockholm in 1963. At that time, two little girls were sexually abused and then murdered by someone who lured them away from the park where they were playing. Man on the Balcony imagines a similar case and its authors deliver it into the hands of Martin Beck and other detectives of the Stockholm police.
As the story opens, a man is sitting on his balcony as the sun comes up one June day. There he smokes cigarettes, drinks coffee, and watches. He looks at the roofs of other buildings and observes the street below him, and as the city begins to awaken, he watches traffic, pedestrians, cyclists, and a man walking his dog -- nothing out of the ordinary really. The action then switches to the police station, where Martin Beck and his colleagues are discussing the latest in a series of serious muggings that have been taking place in the city parks. But the worst is yet to come -- in one of these parks, two "seedy figures" looking for coins in the grass take a break, open a bottle to share, and come upon the body of a young girl hidden beneath a bush. It is only the first of what will become a series of murders, and Beck (who is always referred to as "Martin Beck" throughout the novel) and the other detectives now find themselves in a race against time before the killer strikes again.
The Man on the Balcony is a police procedural, but that particular label isn't the best description for this series. There's much more at work here than the police getting the case, looking for clues and solving it. The policemen, while they do their jobs well, can at times be rather introspective about the state of crime and crime solving.
Sjowall and Wahloo also draw attention to the social climate of the times in Stockholm and Sweden, reflecting not just on what occurs within police precinct walls but throughout the city as well. At the park at Mariatorget, for example, a place where "schoolchildren and other young people met the small-scale dope pushers,"
Every day large quantities of hashish, marijuana, preludin and LSD were passed furtively from seller to buyer. And the buyers were getting younger and younger. Soon they would become addicts... Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty bound to produce an effective counterargument.
For many readers, the commentary on Sweden of the late 60s might not be a drawing point, but it adds a sense of the realism regarding the society in which these fictional crimes occur. This is a hallmark of the other books in the series as well, in which the authors "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideological pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type." But going beyond the social criticism, Man On the Balcony is a realistic novel where the characters behave in a realistic fashion. Take the main character, Martin Beck, for example. Now a superintendent, he still suffers from insomnia, still has problems with his wife and still has trouble making sense of society, but is not nearly as angst ridden as some of the more modern Scandinavian detectives. He doesn't always agree with his colleagues about the way they're handling either of the cases, but he cares about them and he loves his work. He also knows how to work the system when he needs to. There is a wonderful section in this novel where Beck interviews a three year-old witness that actually made me laugh, but it could only have been Beck that pulled it off.
Man on the Balcony is such a good novel that the time spent reading it just flies by. There's an incredible sense of sophistication in the writing, the sense of place and time is very well established, and it's an intelligent read. The length of the book might be short, but it doesn't need to be any longer -- everything that's needed to make this novel work is already there, especially in the characterizations. I can definitely recommend it to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction, to readers who may have read one or two other books in the Martin Beck series and aren't sure about the rest, and to readers of crime fiction in general.
February 16, 2015
The third book in the 10-book series has Beck and his colleagues chasing a horrible sexual predator. The characters, which were fully formed to begin with, undergo further development in each book and that's just one on the things that makes this series such good reading. I would not put this in the absolute top and I did give it 4 stars, but it should be noted that, fair or not, this is compared to the other books in the series and that sets a very high standard.
July 17, 2025
Toplumsal yaşamda bir kişinin dikkatinin nerelerde neyi sonlandırabileceğinin mükemmel bir anlatısı. 🌟
January 22, 2021
¿Porqué nos atraen las novelas policiales? Si hemos leído una centena de ellas, parece que siempre es lo mismo. ¿ O no? ¿Será sólo porque nos entretiene? ¿Tenemos alma de detective y queremos desentrañar la trama?
Bueno, esta tercera entrega de Martin Beck creado por este dúo de suecos con apellidos impronunciables en español, tiene las dos cosas.
La historia es muy llevadera, pese a su árido tema. Es ágil, con mucho diálogo, acción. Te atrapa y estamos en busca de las pistas que lleven a dar con el asesino.
Y para colmo tiene un par de escenas muy cómicas que te sacan una sonrisa, casi una carcajada. ¿Qué más pedirle a un libro de 3 estrellas?
Bueno, esta tercera entrega de Martin Beck creado por este dúo de suecos con apellidos impronunciables en español, tiene las dos cosas.
La historia es muy llevadera, pese a su árido tema. Es ágil, con mucho diálogo, acción. Te atrapa y estamos en busca de las pistas que lleven a dar con el asesino.
Y para colmo tiene un par de escenas muy cómicas que te sacan una sonrisa, casi una carcajada. ¿Qué más pedirle a un libro de 3 estrellas?
January 23, 2017
Two young girls are brutally raped and murdered. The only witness is a three year old boy. How will the police catch the killer before he kills again?
This is a standard crime novel. What sets it apart is the attention to detail and the immediacy of the action, and this in a mere 200 pages. We get to see the slog as hundreds of leads come in - most being blind alleyways of course. We see the toll the case takes on the policemen and their families. We see the hunches and moments of intuition that assist in identifying the perpetrator.
A good book - 4/5
This is a standard crime novel. What sets it apart is the attention to detail and the immediacy of the action, and this in a mere 200 pages. We get to see the slog as hundreds of leads come in - most being blind alleyways of course. We see the toll the case takes on the policemen and their families. We see the hunches and moments of intuition that assist in identifying the perpetrator.
A good book - 4/5
September 10, 2012
Part three of The Story of a Crime sequence sees the series really take off.
Martin Beck is back in Stockholm and has been promoted to Detective Inspector, a year after the events in The Man Who Went Up In Smoke and it is The Summer of Love as seen through the eyes of a tired and stressed Homicide Department.
This time Beck and his colleagues are trying catch two criminals, a mugger and a murderer who preys on very young girls, violating and then killing them. With the summer sun baking the city and causing tempers and passions to flare, the police desperately struggle to track down the killer before another young victim is sacrificed. They have two possible witnesses, but neither is particularly reliable. One is a three year old boy and the other is the mugger.
That's the plot, they must catch the mugger to catch the child killer but what it doesn't tell you is that Beck's city appears to be collapsing around him in a haze of vice and debauchery. Stockholm, and as an extension Sweden, has taken the hippie ideals of free love et al and boiled them down to sexual encounters without feeling. It is a theme that runs throughout, from a teenage girl selling naked photos of herself at a train station to a peeping tom witnessing a brisk encounter in a park, a woman comfortable with her naked body to the extent that she doesn't even consider putting on clothes whilst being interviewed by the detectives and the disturbing behaviour of the sexual predator they are trying to catch. Then there's the casual mention of recreational drugs, the teeming masses of homeless people apparently let down by the inefficient and bungling welfare state and the overworked and underpaid nature of being a police officer. This is definitely not a warm and fuzzy picture of Sweden that Sjowall & Wahloo are painting.
This is a pretty intense read thanks to some excellent plotting and pacing, the reader is presented with a vital clue right at the beginning which is dismissed by an overworked and rude detective as irrelevant and a waste of police resources and is the dangled in a teasing manner throughout as Beck scratches the itch in his brain to remember "that vital something" he'd witnessed. There is an oppressive atmosphere throughout as every available officer is put on the case with seemingly no time off to sleep and a only cigarettes to smoke for sustenance, washed down by cold coffee. The fear in the minds and on the faces of the detectives adds an edge to every conversation and every wasted minute that they don't catch the killer is another minute in which another innocent girl could have been murdered on their watch.
It has been mentioned that the case is solved thanks to a fair amount of coincidence and there is a certain amount of 'luck' involved in solving the case I admit BUT the husband & wife author team discussed this within the text; the detectives are aware that their efforts will be seen as luck by the media but point out that this is the inevitable outcome of intelligently planned hard work on their part as the net closes on the villain. Journeying alongside the cops as they close that net you appreciate the work involved and as such the coincidence plays less like a miraculous deus ex machina photograph of a murder in progress and more as a well deserved reward.
The Man on the Balcony is very effective as a police procedural first and foremost and, as intended by the authors, from the outset it is a subtle piece of social commentary second. Three books in and I cn see why this series is so highly thought of.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
Martin Beck is back in Stockholm and has been promoted to Detective Inspector, a year after the events in The Man Who Went Up In Smoke and it is The Summer of Love as seen through the eyes of a tired and stressed Homicide Department.
This time Beck and his colleagues are trying catch two criminals, a mugger and a murderer who preys on very young girls, violating and then killing them. With the summer sun baking the city and causing tempers and passions to flare, the police desperately struggle to track down the killer before another young victim is sacrificed. They have two possible witnesses, but neither is particularly reliable. One is a three year old boy and the other is the mugger.
That's the plot, they must catch the mugger to catch the child killer but what it doesn't tell you is that Beck's city appears to be collapsing around him in a haze of vice and debauchery. Stockholm, and as an extension Sweden, has taken the hippie ideals of free love et al and boiled them down to sexual encounters without feeling. It is a theme that runs throughout, from a teenage girl selling naked photos of herself at a train station to a peeping tom witnessing a brisk encounter in a park, a woman comfortable with her naked body to the extent that she doesn't even consider putting on clothes whilst being interviewed by the detectives and the disturbing behaviour of the sexual predator they are trying to catch. Then there's the casual mention of recreational drugs, the teeming masses of homeless people apparently let down by the inefficient and bungling welfare state and the overworked and underpaid nature of being a police officer. This is definitely not a warm and fuzzy picture of Sweden that Sjowall & Wahloo are painting.
This is a pretty intense read thanks to some excellent plotting and pacing, the reader is presented with a vital clue right at the beginning which is dismissed by an overworked and rude detective as irrelevant and a waste of police resources and is the dangled in a teasing manner throughout as Beck scratches the itch in his brain to remember "that vital something" he'd witnessed. There is an oppressive atmosphere throughout as every available officer is put on the case with seemingly no time off to sleep and a only cigarettes to smoke for sustenance, washed down by cold coffee. The fear in the minds and on the faces of the detectives adds an edge to every conversation and every wasted minute that they don't catch the killer is another minute in which another innocent girl could have been murdered on their watch.
It has been mentioned that the case is solved thanks to a fair amount of coincidence and there is a certain amount of 'luck' involved in solving the case I admit BUT the husband & wife author team discussed this within the text; the detectives are aware that their efforts will be seen as luck by the media but point out that this is the inevitable outcome of intelligently planned hard work on their part as the net closes on the villain. Journeying alongside the cops as they close that net you appreciate the work involved and as such the coincidence plays less like a miraculous deus ex machina photograph of a murder in progress and more as a well deserved reward.
The Man on the Balcony is very effective as a police procedural first and foremost and, as intended by the authors, from the outset it is a subtle piece of social commentary second. Three books in and I cn see why this series is so highly thought of.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
August 28, 2026
Üçüncü Martin Beck kitabı şimdilik favorim oldu. Hikayenin yanı sıra ekibin vicdani tarafını, olaya yaklaşımlarındaki derinliği ve insancıllığı sevdim. Suçluyu bile sadece kötü adam olarak ele almıyorlar; tanıklara ve mağdurlara yaklaşım mekanik değil. Polisiye çözülürken insan da kaybolmuyor.
Teknoloji yok, CSI laboratuvarı yok, suçlunun telefon sinyali yok. İnsanlar, oturuyor, bekliyor, hata yapıyor, düşünüyor… Yani soruşturma insan ölçeğinde ilerliyor.
Teknoloji yok, CSI laboratuvarı yok, suçlunun telefon sinyali yok. İnsanlar, oturuyor, bekliyor, hata yapıyor, düşünüyor… Yani soruşturma insan ölçeğinde ilerliyor.
January 5, 2014
Inspector Martin Beck story, set in Stockholm. Good composition with clinical descriptions and remarkably lack of suspense. The emphasis is on police methods. There's some social criticism in it: Sjöwall describes the life of marginal people. Inspector Beck is the typical anti-hero, grumpy, but intelligent. Nice read, nothing more, but then … detectives really aren't my thing.
October 1, 2018
May be three and half stars.
The other day I had to undertake a three hour train journey and after a day I had to return back taking the same train. So I had six hours of train journey. To accompany me in my train journey, and as I did not want to exert much concentration, I chose a crime fiction. Moreover it had been many days that I had read a crime thriller.
I saw the book with one of friends. I picked it up. I did not know then that it was part of a series. But it did not make much difference. It could stand all alone by its own.
The novel accomplished the purpose. It kept me engaged. The plot was proceeding in an interesting and suspenseful manner. I had completed almost the entire book on my journey. Only the ending was not that great. It was not to my liking. It ended with a dull thud. This is what I felt. Otherwise, it was a great entertainer.
The other day I had to undertake a three hour train journey and after a day I had to return back taking the same train. So I had six hours of train journey. To accompany me in my train journey, and as I did not want to exert much concentration, I chose a crime fiction. Moreover it had been many days that I had read a crime thriller.
I saw the book with one of friends. I picked it up. I did not know then that it was part of a series. But it did not make much difference. It could stand all alone by its own.
The novel accomplished the purpose. It kept me engaged. The plot was proceeding in an interesting and suspenseful manner. I had completed almost the entire book on my journey. Only the ending was not that great. It was not to my liking. It ended with a dull thud. This is what I felt. Otherwise, it was a great entertainer.
August 3, 2011
Every bit as powerful and disturbing as the first Martin Beck criminal investigation. "Good" is not an adjective to be used when describing a novel about a psychopat molesting and killing children. Grief, anger, despair and exhaustion are on the daily menu for the police force. Long hours of combing through irrelevant information, following misleading tips, waiting almost helpless for the killer to strike again and maybe make a mistake. But never giving up.
This series should be a model to follow for crime writers. None of the glamour, the witty banter or the high speed chases through the streets of big cities. Just human beings trying to fight the monsters amongst us.
This series should be a model to follow for crime writers. None of the glamour, the witty banter or the high speed chases through the streets of big cities. Just human beings trying to fight the monsters amongst us.
August 17, 2016
Published in 1967 this third instalment sees a newly promoted Detective Superintendent Martin Beck setting a much darker tone than precious books. The opening description of a nondescript, forty-year old man sitting on his apartment balcony and watching Stockholm waking up brings shivers to the spine as the traffic builds and children make their way to school feeling fairly ambivalent about the whole scene playing out under his watchful eye.
Tempers amongst the police force are frayed as a serious of vicious mugging on pensioners at the city parks is running riot, with the eighth occurrence in the last two weeks and no closer to finding the perpetrator. This man who is charged with tackling this one man crime wave is Detective Inspector Gunvald Larsson who comments that "if someone doesn't grab him soon" the perpetrator could end up taking a life. That "someone" being either the police or a civil patrol, and Larsson seems largely indifferent to just whom it is, one of many times that society seems to sympathise with vigilante action in this novel. On the night of the eighth mugging an altogether more sinister horror awaits, as the body of a young girl who has been the victim of sexual interference and assault is found dead. Jaded before even beginning the investigation, Kollberg is faced with breaking the news to the mother of the child, just as his own wife is due to give birth. When a second girl is discovered under similar circumstances it takes a tip off to bring the mugger into the police fold and establish that he has seen the murderer. Along with a three-year-old boy who is also believed to have witnessed the murderer, the details they provide bring a flash of inspiration from Martin Beck.
Despite the money that has been poured into funding and expanding the police force in the preceding years, it is a despondent Martin Beck who muses that the criminals always seem one to remain one step ahead. Likewise the tentative implementation of new technology and databases is cynically besmirched as meaning little if an individual's details aren't on the register and the officers regard the advances as only being able to achieve so much. One of the aspects that I noted was how much more the general public felt able to hold the police to account in this novel along with a more permissive culture and sexual freedom not bringing positives for all sectors of society, most notably when Martin Beck is approached by a young girl offering to sell naked photographs of herself and he is only too well aware that someone will quite willingly take them off her hands.
Tempers amongst the police force are frayed as a serious of vicious mugging on pensioners at the city parks is running riot, with the eighth occurrence in the last two weeks and no closer to finding the perpetrator. This man who is charged with tackling this one man crime wave is Detective Inspector Gunvald Larsson who comments that "if someone doesn't grab him soon" the perpetrator could end up taking a life. That "someone" being either the police or a civil patrol, and Larsson seems largely indifferent to just whom it is, one of many times that society seems to sympathise with vigilante action in this novel. On the night of the eighth mugging an altogether more sinister horror awaits, as the body of a young girl who has been the victim of sexual interference and assault is found dead. Jaded before even beginning the investigation, Kollberg is faced with breaking the news to the mother of the child, just as his own wife is due to give birth. When a second girl is discovered under similar circumstances it takes a tip off to bring the mugger into the police fold and establish that he has seen the murderer. Along with a three-year-old boy who is also believed to have witnessed the murderer, the details they provide bring a flash of inspiration from Martin Beck.
Despite the money that has been poured into funding and expanding the police force in the preceding years, it is a despondent Martin Beck who muses that the criminals always seem one to remain one step ahead. Likewise the tentative implementation of new technology and databases is cynically besmirched as meaning little if an individual's details aren't on the register and the officers regard the advances as only being able to achieve so much. One of the aspects that I noted was how much more the general public felt able to hold the police to account in this novel along with a more permissive culture and sexual freedom not bringing positives for all sectors of society, most notably when Martin Beck is approached by a young girl offering to sell naked photographs of herself and he is only too well aware that someone will quite willingly take them off her hands.
October 25, 2026
De las tres novelas de la saga que llevo leídas esta quizá es la que menos me ha gustado de las tres, si bien nuevamente la construcción del caso, con un avance policial puro y duro de recorrer las calles, de ir avanzando entre errores y callejones sin salida es lo mejor de la novela, pero esta vez , tal vez ante la aparición de mas policias en la investigación se me ha diluido un poco el nivel de las conversaciones, que en entregas anteriores siempre fue algo a destacar.
De todas maneras, sigue siendo una solvente novela policial, con un final también un tanto insatisfactorio, pero que no logra empañar lo bueno que en ella hay.
Nota:6/10
De todas maneras, sigue siendo una solvente novela policial, con un final también un tanto insatisfactorio, pero que no logra empañar lo bueno que en ella hay.
Nota:6/10
May 24, 2014
I'm enjoying Sjöwall and Wahlöö's series of police procedurals more and more – they're consistently good, but each book seems better than the last.
The Man on the Balcony opens with a snapshot of a fervid Stockholm, sweltering on the brink of a hot summer. The disquieting tone is intensified as the narrative focuses on a man standing on his balcony, observing the goings-on in the street below as the summer sun rises in the early hours of the morning. His obsessive voyeurism is signalled starkly in careful detail.
The conventions of the police procedural, which Sjöwall and Wahlöö were defining, are married easily to detective and thriller conventions, but with no loss of any sense of realism or immediacy. The investigation itself – or "hunt" as Martin Beck himself calls it, acknowledging the very real lack of any purchase or leads – finds itself at the intersection of two sets of crimes – the abductions and murders of children and the case of an uncannily elusive mugger, who is able to avoid police and choose the most vulnerable marks with ease. It hinges, it seems, on fragments of clues – misunderstood or missed at the time – and coincidences that lie just beyond reach.
Without giving anything away, the hunt for the killer is closed in a realistically downbeat way – both the logical conclusion of an increasingly focused police investigation, and a culmination of coincidence and happenstance. Maybe if you wanted more theatrics this would be unsatisfying, but I couldn't help delighting in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's willingness to construct a messy narrative reality that eludes the control of their protagonists the way victories in real life elude the most skilled and dedicated actors on occasion.
Beyond the plot, the authors develop more of the characters of the Stockholm murder squad in more detail, particularly the brutally effective, yet unpleasant and widely-disliked, Gunvald Larsson. It also features the first appearance of Patrolmen Kristansson and Kvant, an comic duo of almost Shakespearean hue.
There are trademark touches of mordant humour throughout, as when the sniffling and contagious Detective Rönn confronts a suspect:
I think the Martin Beck novels are gems.
The Man on the Balcony opens with a snapshot of a fervid Stockholm, sweltering on the brink of a hot summer. The disquieting tone is intensified as the narrative focuses on a man standing on his balcony, observing the goings-on in the street below as the summer sun rises in the early hours of the morning. His obsessive voyeurism is signalled starkly in careful detail.
The man on the balcony had observed all this. The balcony was the ordinary kind with tubular iron rail and sides of corrugated metal. He had stood leaning on the rail, and the glow of this cigarette had been a tiny dark-red spot in the dark. At regular intervals he had stubbed out a cigarette, carefully picked the butt – barely a third of an inch long — out of the wooden holder and placed it beside the others. Ten of these butts were already neatly lined up along the edge of the saucer on the little garden table.Unease, though, turns to horror as the man’s gaze fixates on a small girl who steps into the street from her apartment building and the scene is set for an unsettling and gripping thriller as the Stockholm police search for a killer who stalks and kills small children in the city's parks.
The conventions of the police procedural, which Sjöwall and Wahlöö were defining, are married easily to detective and thriller conventions, but with no loss of any sense of realism or immediacy. The investigation itself – or "hunt" as Martin Beck himself calls it, acknowledging the very real lack of any purchase or leads – finds itself at the intersection of two sets of crimes – the abductions and murders of children and the case of an uncannily elusive mugger, who is able to avoid police and choose the most vulnerable marks with ease. It hinges, it seems, on fragments of clues – misunderstood or missed at the time – and coincidences that lie just beyond reach.
Without giving anything away, the hunt for the killer is closed in a realistically downbeat way – both the logical conclusion of an increasingly focused police investigation, and a culmination of coincidence and happenstance. Maybe if you wanted more theatrics this would be unsatisfying, but I couldn't help delighting in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's willingness to construct a messy narrative reality that eludes the control of their protagonists the way victories in real life elude the most skilled and dedicated actors on occasion.
Beyond the plot, the authors develop more of the characters of the Stockholm murder squad in more detail, particularly the brutally effective, yet unpleasant and widely-disliked, Gunvald Larsson. It also features the first appearance of Patrolmen Kristansson and Kvant, an comic duo of almost Shakespearean hue.
There are trademark touches of mordant humour throughout, as when the sniffling and contagious Detective Rönn confronts a suspect:
"Put that filthy handkerchief away. I don't want your germs."Or Beck's bleak assessment of the police's ability to provide reassurance and security to a troubled city:
Rönn, who was a mediocre policeman with mediocre imagination and a mediocre sense of humor, considered for a moment the possibility of being the first interrogator in the history of crime to extract a confession by sneezing, but refrained.
And in Stockholm and its suburbs by this time there were over a million frightened people.
The hunt was entering its seventh abortive day.
And they were the bulwarks of society.
Some bulwarks.
I think the Martin Beck novels are gems.
May 22, 2013
Sjowall & Wahloo come of age with this clever police procedural. I really liked the sense of action but frustration of the police as they fail to find their man or build a picture of the assailant. There is tension among the officers, they are exhausted and have little time for their own lives; this is done in a fresh way and despite the novel being over 45 old it strikes you as being a clear and unique voice in terms of personal relationships; contrast to Maigret's faithful spouse.
The plot is horrific in terms of subject matter; the brutal murder and rape of young girls but it doesn't sensationalize and presents the less pleasant task of police officers in breaking the news to parents and dealing with their grief.
With so much TV drama to recall it is good to read this original work reflecting a trouble society in Sweden.
This isn't a complex story compared to modern crime thrillers but it is still a compelling read and brilliantly demonstrates why so many people go on about this crime writing duo.
The plot is horrific in terms of subject matter; the brutal murder and rape of young girls but it doesn't sensationalize and presents the less pleasant task of police officers in breaking the news to parents and dealing with their grief.
With so much TV drama to recall it is good to read this original work reflecting a trouble society in Sweden.
This isn't a complex story compared to modern crime thrillers but it is still a compelling read and brilliantly demonstrates why so many people go on about this crime writing duo.
December 21, 2017
Love at first sight with the first chapter. So in love on how Beck always has this sort of an instinct that even the description given by the mugger making him curious cause it sounds freaking so familiar to him.
I love Melander for his memory and Kollberg for being Kollberg. This crime was more to a guessing game rather than an investigation-- I totally forgot about that balcony dude until Beck realised how it was related. The nervousness so intriguing. Loving the author couple simple yet prose-gripping writing.
This is very pleasing, loving this more that the first book from Martin Beck's series although the journey of the crime making me totally sad and angry but it was presented well, very humankind and satisfactorily good and informative. Quite disturbing at a point, but the tense of them to solve the case was totally remarkable. Worth a read!
I love Melander for his memory and Kollberg for being Kollberg. This crime was more to a guessing game rather than an investigation-- I totally forgot about that balcony dude until Beck realised how it was related. The nervousness so intriguing. Loving the author couple simple yet prose-gripping writing.
This is very pleasing, loving this more that the first book from Martin Beck's series although the journey of the crime making me totally sad and angry but it was presented well, very humankind and satisfactorily good and informative. Quite disturbing at a point, but the tense of them to solve the case was totally remarkable. Worth a read!
July 14, 2021
Robusto giallo di impostazione classica (ha piu' di cinquant'anni), senza particolari scatti di originalita' ma ben scritto e orchestrato. Nota di merito per i dialoghi sempre verosimili e azzeccati. Il contesto sociale e' sempre messo in rilievo senza essere troppo invadente. Il finale e' un po' troppo precipitoso ma accettabile.
December 24, 2011
Start reading Man on the Balcony and then just try to put down this breakthrough murder-mystery by the author couple Maj Sjövall and Per Wahlöö. With masterful pacing, noir atmosphere, and a minimalist writing style, they relate the story of how detective Martin Beck and his colleagues confront an excruciatingly difficult investigative challenge. As the stakes grow, so does the tension not only for the police but also for the reader. Social cohesion itself is in jeopardy as the number of victims increases.
Computers are just now being introduced to police work in the 1960s. Fredrik Melander, a colleague with a photographic memory, is described as a “living punch card machine.” However, computers can’t help here in any case because the murderer lacks a criminal record. So it comes down to old-fashioned door-to-door gumshoe work, Beck’s intuition, Melander’s memory, and ultimately serendipity to identify and arrest the criminal.
The authors venture a bit into politics with subtle references to the impact of the American involvement in the war in Vietnam on political discord in Sweden and the role of the economic system in promoting social decay, as evidenced by increasing levels of alcoholism, drug addiction, and homelessness. In addition, they vigorously reject the public’s resort to vigilantism when it becomes frustrated with the police’s inability to solve the crimes and protect the community. In this third work in a ten-part Martin Beck series, the authors are beginning to use the police procedural genre as a vehicle for social commentary and criticism.
Computers are just now being introduced to police work in the 1960s. Fredrik Melander, a colleague with a photographic memory, is described as a “living punch card machine.” However, computers can’t help here in any case because the murderer lacks a criminal record. So it comes down to old-fashioned door-to-door gumshoe work, Beck’s intuition, Melander’s memory, and ultimately serendipity to identify and arrest the criminal.
The authors venture a bit into politics with subtle references to the impact of the American involvement in the war in Vietnam on political discord in Sweden and the role of the economic system in promoting social decay, as evidenced by increasing levels of alcoholism, drug addiction, and homelessness. In addition, they vigorously reject the public’s resort to vigilantism when it becomes frustrated with the police’s inability to solve the crimes and protect the community. In this third work in a ten-part Martin Beck series, the authors are beginning to use the police procedural genre as a vehicle for social commentary and criticism.
March 16, 2021
Ευχάριστο αλλά ημιαδιάφορο ανάγνωσμα, άλλης εποχής. Η πλοκή δεν είναι άσχημη αλλά τελειώνει λίγο απότομα, χωρίς κλιμάκωση, με τον παράγοντα "τύχη" να παίζει μεγάλο ρόλο. Οι χαρακτήρες επίσης αδιάφοροι, παρόλα αυτά το ρετρό - λιτό ύφος του κερδίζει τις εντυπώσεις. Αν μη τι άλλο θα μπορούσε να γίνει ωραίο giallo εργάκι. BTW ένα άλλο βιβλίο του ίδιου το είχα διαβάσει στο στρατό πριν 14 χρόνια!!! Νιώθω γέροοοος.....
September 6, 2013
Book Review
As each Martin Beck novel in this series is presented with a foreword by a Scandinavian writer, and to have this novel's first gasp of breath written by none other than Jo Nesbo...well, it had to happen sooner orlater. It is fascinating to unravel the threads that tie authors to each other; tethered by influential strands like sticky spider webs authors learn from other authors. Through reading they learn to stand on their own; through writing they gain strength and conviction and as they take from what has been written they in turn become the source of what will be written. In this sense: originality is the art of hiding your source.
Jo Nesbo
Artists stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. That is how it is whether they like it or not and whether they are aware of it or not." - Jo Nesbo
I've recently been having some interesting conversations about a comparison between Henning Mankell's books featuring Kurt Wallander and this series. Some readers see Beck as the source behind Wallander and I'm sure that to an extent that is true: Henning Mankell freely admits that Maj and Per have had a remarkable influence on his own writing. Surprise often accompanies this discovery. Perhaps Kurt's character isn't as original as I'd thought, you might say. But then again, isn't that true of any source of inspiration? Jo Nesbo addresses this very question in his foreword:
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, beside writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Georges Simenon, have shaped the genre and the readers' expectations as to what crime fiction should be, the very starting point, ground zero, where all writers with the genre-defining label "crime novel" on the sleeve of their book begin communicating with the reader. Where they go from there is, of course, up to the individual. And, naturally, they can create something quite new. As Sjöwall and Wahlöö did.
And so I asked myself: why does Wallander on the surface appear to be so similar to Beck? The first thing I observed when I started concentrating on Nordic and/or Scandinavian novels is the tone and style of the novels as can be attributed to Scandinavian writers in general. I was a bit puzzled by the seeming lack of Romanticism in the style of prose. The tone is matter-of-fact, slightly borish, almost written in a deterministic fashion, free of sensationalized emotional responses, and very straightforward (Ok, Peter Hoeg is an exception). It took a while for me to discover that the term that is applied to this style of writing, although somewhat dated,is called Literary Realism (and I had to get used to it!). Simply put, realist authors opt for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, depictions of contemporary life and society as it is, without embellishment. Per and Maj wrote their novels in this style, and it works beautifully for the genre that was their focus: police procedurals. Again, Jo Nesbo acknowledges this realism as well:
The story is real. Through objective eyes, the opening scene is a sober account, there is no drama, the atmosphere is not charged in any way.
Within this context Martin Beck is characterized without much embellishment. Beck's life is carefully constructed around the work place: his personal life is dismissed (at least in so far that I've read this series). There is no deep introspection, no emotional outbursts, no passion per se and overall Beck isn't one to enjoy company and dislikes most people. There is the case and there is the resolution to the case and it all happens in strictly chronological fashion, much as in real life.
But, it is easy to mistake the realism utilized by Per and Maj (in a sense this pair are purist in this sense), with the similar realism employed to a slightly lesser extent by most of today's Scandinavian writers and this similarity can carry over into the characters, causing them to appear similar...even when they are not. It took a reading of Frozen Moment (my review)to get that point across to me. Laying aside the stylistic similarities and some physical similarities (both can't sleep and suffer from bad health), Kurt Wallander often reflects on his personal life, is quite passionate about opera, falls in love easily, worries about his daughter, has ambivelence towards his ex-wife,
struggles with his ailing father, possesses a mercurial attitude towards nature (as many Scandinavians do), he sometimes likes his colleagues and fosters a deep fondness for dogs. This is quite a contrast to what we see portrayed in Beck.
It is rather confounding, if truth be told: this oscillation between these writers (Per and Maj vs. Henning). Some Per and Maj novels are just plain better than Henning's, and some Henning novels just outdo his mentors' output.
So why did I give this novel 3 stars? And why go through the above explanation on Literary Realism? Because in the case of The Man on the Balcony, a novel based on a real 1963 event that happened in Stockholm, a novel that has as its focus the murder of children, I find the authors' realism employed to be distracting to the novel itself. The subject matter is emotionally charged to begin with and the matter-of-fact style serves to minimize the nature of these disturbing crimes. To a certain extent that's probably true in real police work, but this is fiction and it is rare to find an author that will take the risk of simply depicting events in such banal terms. The risk is that it won't work for the reader. At least not in this case.
As to plot. Normally, Per and Maj hold a pedigree in plot: they are masters of it. But in this case there were no surprises and for me there is nothing more disturbing than for a reader to have the answer while Beck does not. "Idiot!" I exlaimed every other page or so. "It's right there before your eyes." Even for a police procedural where we do expect it to involve primarily police work, often mundane, as fiction it should hold a certain tension that carries the reader along. I found this notably absent in this particular novel. I know many Martin Beck afficianados will probably disagree, but...there you have it.
-------------------------------------------------
Series Review
Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall
Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious."
Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen.
Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately.
Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing.
Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude.
Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case).
For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own novels.
As each Martin Beck novel in this series is presented with a foreword by a Scandinavian writer, and to have this novel's first gasp of breath written by none other than Jo Nesbo...well, it had to happen sooner orlater. It is fascinating to unravel the threads that tie authors to each other; tethered by influential strands like sticky spider webs authors learn from other authors. Through reading they learn to stand on their own; through writing they gain strength and conviction and as they take from what has been written they in turn become the source of what will be written. In this sense: originality is the art of hiding your source.
Jo Nesbo
Artists stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. That is how it is whether they like it or not and whether they are aware of it or not." - Jo Nesbo
I've recently been having some interesting conversations about a comparison between Henning Mankell's books featuring Kurt Wallander and this series. Some readers see Beck as the source behind Wallander and I'm sure that to an extent that is true: Henning Mankell freely admits that Maj and Per have had a remarkable influence on his own writing. Surprise often accompanies this discovery. Perhaps Kurt's character isn't as original as I'd thought, you might say. But then again, isn't that true of any source of inspiration? Jo Nesbo addresses this very question in his foreword:
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, beside writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Georges Simenon, have shaped the genre and the readers' expectations as to what crime fiction should be, the very starting point, ground zero, where all writers with the genre-defining label "crime novel" on the sleeve of their book begin communicating with the reader. Where they go from there is, of course, up to the individual. And, naturally, they can create something quite new. As Sjöwall and Wahlöö did.
And so I asked myself: why does Wallander on the surface appear to be so similar to Beck? The first thing I observed when I started concentrating on Nordic and/or Scandinavian novels is the tone and style of the novels as can be attributed to Scandinavian writers in general. I was a bit puzzled by the seeming lack of Romanticism in the style of prose. The tone is matter-of-fact, slightly borish, almost written in a deterministic fashion, free of sensationalized emotional responses, and very straightforward (Ok, Peter Hoeg is an exception). It took a while for me to discover that the term that is applied to this style of writing, although somewhat dated,is called Literary Realism (and I had to get used to it!). Simply put, realist authors opt for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, depictions of contemporary life and society as it is, without embellishment. Per and Maj wrote their novels in this style, and it works beautifully for the genre that was their focus: police procedurals. Again, Jo Nesbo acknowledges this realism as well:
The story is real. Through objective eyes, the opening scene is a sober account, there is no drama, the atmosphere is not charged in any way.
Within this context Martin Beck is characterized without much embellishment. Beck's life is carefully constructed around the work place: his personal life is dismissed (at least in so far that I've read this series). There is no deep introspection, no emotional outbursts, no passion per se and overall Beck isn't one to enjoy company and dislikes most people. There is the case and there is the resolution to the case and it all happens in strictly chronological fashion, much as in real life.
But, it is easy to mistake the realism utilized by Per and Maj (in a sense this pair are purist in this sense), with the similar realism employed to a slightly lesser extent by most of today's Scandinavian writers and this similarity can carry over into the characters, causing them to appear similar...even when they are not. It took a reading of Frozen Moment (my review)to get that point across to me. Laying aside the stylistic similarities and some physical similarities (both can't sleep and suffer from bad health), Kurt Wallander often reflects on his personal life, is quite passionate about opera, falls in love easily, worries about his daughter, has ambivelence towards his ex-wife,
struggles with his ailing father, possesses a mercurial attitude towards nature (as many Scandinavians do), he sometimes likes his colleagues and fosters a deep fondness for dogs. This is quite a contrast to what we see portrayed in Beck.
It is rather confounding, if truth be told: this oscillation between these writers (Per and Maj vs. Henning). Some Per and Maj novels are just plain better than Henning's, and some Henning novels just outdo his mentors' output.
So why did I give this novel 3 stars? And why go through the above explanation on Literary Realism? Because in the case of The Man on the Balcony, a novel based on a real 1963 event that happened in Stockholm, a novel that has as its focus the murder of children, I find the authors' realism employed to be distracting to the novel itself. The subject matter is emotionally charged to begin with and the matter-of-fact style serves to minimize the nature of these disturbing crimes. To a certain extent that's probably true in real police work, but this is fiction and it is rare to find an author that will take the risk of simply depicting events in such banal terms. The risk is that it won't work for the reader. At least not in this case.
As to plot. Normally, Per and Maj hold a pedigree in plot: they are masters of it. But in this case there were no surprises and for me there is nothing more disturbing than for a reader to have the answer while Beck does not. "Idiot!" I exlaimed every other page or so. "It's right there before your eyes." Even for a police procedural where we do expect it to involve primarily police work, often mundane, as fiction it should hold a certain tension that carries the reader along. I found this notably absent in this particular novel. I know many Martin Beck afficianados will probably disagree, but...there you have it.
-------------------------------------------------
Series Review
Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall
Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious."
Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen.
Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately.
Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing.
Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude.
Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case).
For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own novels.
February 15, 2019
2.5/5 This one reminded me of the highly acclaimed author from the neighboring Norway - Karin Fossum. Like her books, this one too had horrible set of crimes, which turned out to be a non-mystery because of the thoughtless writing.
I understand that luck will play some role but to base a solution so heavily on luck and trivialities ?
BTW, I can say now for sure that Mankell was inspired by these books. Now and then, Wallander seems to have a thought in the back of his mind that he cant recall. Well Martin Beck has too !
I understand that luck will play some role but to base a solution so heavily on luck and trivialities ?
BTW, I can say now for sure that Mankell was inspired by these books. Now and then, Wallander seems to have a thought in the back of his mind that he cant recall. Well Martin Beck has too !
July 26, 2016
We’re back in late sixties Sweden and, as always in Beck novels, there’s a culture clash going on. Hippie-dom is on the rise and the police just haven’t got their heads around the drugs and the sex and the values they don’t recognise and cannot fathom. What makes this particularly interesting though, is that often when crime fiction finds itself unable to grasp the modern world, it becomes quite reactionary (I’m looking at you, Mike Hammer). The killer will come from this new hated group. Indeed, the killer will be the epitome of this new hated group. Not so here. The tone is rueful, it’s a little sad. Yes, the way the world is going is alarming, but it’s just another thing added to a long list for the cops to deal with as they try to get on with the gruesome tasks that make up their jobs.
A serial killer is murdering little girls in Stockholm, and Martin Beck and co are in a frantic race to catch him.
I’m not sure that this vintage Swedish police procedural will be for everyone. The way that this type of novel has evolved over the near fifty years since ‘The Man on the Balcony’ was written, has been for the bad guy to get bigger and more powerful. The killers in these books aren’t just killers, they’re geniuses, they’re renaissance men. However, the killer here is just some bloke. And the way he survives is through a certain level of luck and a bit of specialist knowledge; while the police spend their time going up blind alleys and missing tips, until the deliberately anti-climactic ending.
This isn’t some great cat and mouse game, and whereas that will deeply irritate some people, I greatly enjoyed it for its quietness and avoidance of melodrama. This is a downbeat book, one whose adjectives contain a lot of variants of ‘old’, ‘past it’, ‘worn out’. But I loved the way it captured its world, how it made its characters’ frustrations palpable, and – even as it stayed a muted volume - gave us an understanding of daily Stockholm life and how the panic induced by these killings reverberates through it. As because it has that realism, because it has a sense of a genuine world and actual people, these killings aren’t just plot devices in a game, they really seem to mean something.
A serial killer is murdering little girls in Stockholm, and Martin Beck and co are in a frantic race to catch him.
I’m not sure that this vintage Swedish police procedural will be for everyone. The way that this type of novel has evolved over the near fifty years since ‘The Man on the Balcony’ was written, has been for the bad guy to get bigger and more powerful. The killers in these books aren’t just killers, they’re geniuses, they’re renaissance men. However, the killer here is just some bloke. And the way he survives is through a certain level of luck and a bit of specialist knowledge; while the police spend their time going up blind alleys and missing tips, until the deliberately anti-climactic ending.
This isn’t some great cat and mouse game, and whereas that will deeply irritate some people, I greatly enjoyed it for its quietness and avoidance of melodrama. This is a downbeat book, one whose adjectives contain a lot of variants of ‘old’, ‘past it’, ‘worn out’. But I loved the way it captured its world, how it made its characters’ frustrations palpable, and – even as it stayed a muted volume - gave us an understanding of daily Stockholm life and how the panic induced by these killings reverberates through it. As because it has that realism, because it has a sense of a genuine world and actual people, these killings aren’t just plot devices in a game, they really seem to mean something.
June 21, 2016
Τρίτο βιβλίο των Σγιεβάλ και Βαλέε που διαβάζω, μου φάνηκε το ίδιο ψυχαγωγικό, καλογραμμένο και ενδιαφέρον με τα προηγούμενα δυο. Ιούνιος του 1967 στην Στοκχόλμη, θα περίμενε κανείς ότι τόσο οι αστυνομικοί όσο και οι κάτοικοι θα πέρναγαν ένα ήσυχο καλοκαίρι στην πόλη. Όμως όχι, ένας ληστής που σπέρνει τον τρόμο στα πάρκα, παραμένει ασύλληπτος. Χώρια όμως τον ληστή, υπάρχει και ένας μανιακός που σκοτώνει μικρά κοριτσάκια -επίσης στα πάρκα-, αφού έχει ασελγήσει πάνω τους. Ο Μάρτιν Μπεκ και οι συνάδελφοί του έχουν χάσει τον ύπνο τους. Οι κάτοικοι φοβούνται να βγάλουν έξω τα παιδιά τους...
Η αλήθεια είναι ότι δεν υπάρχουν και πολλές εκπλήξεις ή ανατροπές στην πλοκή, όπως στα δυο προηγούμενα βιβλία. Δεν έμεινα κάγκελο με την ανακάλυψη του δολοφόνου, που ήρθε κάπως βιαστικά στο τέλος. Δεν έχει καμία σημασία όμως. Το βιβλίο είναι πολύ καλό, γιατί σκιαγραφείται στην εντέλεια η όλη αστυνομική διαδικασία για την σύλληψη ενός εγκληματία, βλέπουμε τις κινήσεις των αστυνομικών, τις σκέψεις τους, καθώς και πως επηρεάζονται από τα άγρια εγκλήματα. Επίσης παίρνουμε μάτι την Στοκχόλμη της δεκαετίας του '60, βλέπουμε τις κοινωνικές συνθήκες, τις συνήθειες, όλα αυτά.
Η γραφή είναι πολύ καλή, ευκολοδιάβαστη και ξεκούραστη, με ωραίες περιγραφές και εξαιρετικά φυσικούς διαλόγους. Οι χαρακτήρες είναι ανθρώπινοι, μαθαίνουμε πολλά πράγματα γι'αυτούς, όχι από ένα κάρο λεπτομερείς περιγραφές της ζωής τους, αλλά μέσω κάποιων σκέψεων τους και αυτών που λένε και κάνουν. Προσωπικά τα βιβλία των Σγιεβάλ/Βαλέε τα διαβάζω όχι τόσο για την αστυνομική πλοκή τους (που εγγυημένα θα είναι τουλάχιστον ικανοποιητική), όσο γιατί μου δίνουν την ευκαιρία να "ταξιδέψω" στην Σουηδία πολλά χρόνια πίσω και να δω τις κοινωνικές συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν, αλλά και τον κόσμο του εγκλήματος. Κρίμα που στα ελληνικά υπάρχουν συνολικά μόνο πέντε μεταφρασμένα βιβλία τους και που γενικά δεν τους έχει δοθεί η πρέπουσα σημασία.
Η αλήθεια είναι ότι δεν υπάρχουν και πολλές εκπλήξεις ή ανατροπές στην πλοκή, όπως στα δυο προηγούμενα βιβλία. Δεν έμεινα κάγκελο με την ανακάλυψη του δολοφόνου, που ήρθε κάπως βιαστικά στο τέλος. Δεν έχει καμία σημασία όμως. Το βιβλίο είναι πολύ καλό, γιατί σκιαγραφείται στην εντέλεια η όλη αστυνομική διαδικασία για την σύλληψη ενός εγκληματία, βλέπουμε τις κινήσεις των αστυνομικών, τις σκέψεις τους, καθώς και πως επηρεάζονται από τα άγρια εγκλήματα. Επίσης παίρνουμε μάτι την Στοκχόλμη της δεκαετίας του '60, βλέπουμε τις κοινωνικές συνθήκες, τις συνήθειες, όλα αυτά.
Η γραφή είναι πολύ καλή, ευκολοδιάβαστη και ξεκούραστη, με ωραίες περιγραφές και εξαιρετικά φυσικούς διαλόγους. Οι χαρακτήρες είναι ανθρώπινοι, μαθαίνουμε πολλά πράγματα γι'αυτούς, όχι από ένα κάρο λεπτομερείς περιγραφές της ζωής τους, αλλά μέσω κάποιων σκέψεων τους και αυτών που λένε και κάνουν. Προσωπικά τα βιβλία των Σγιεβάλ/Βαλέε τα διαβάζω όχι τόσο για την αστυνομική πλοκή τους (που εγγυημένα θα είναι τουλάχιστον ικανοποιητική), όσο γιατί μου δίνουν την ευκαιρία να "ταξιδέψω" στην Σουηδία πολλά χρόνια πίσω και να δω τις κοινωνικές συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν, αλλά και τον κόσμο του εγκλήματος. Κρίμα που στα ελληνικά υπάρχουν συνολικά μόνο πέντε μεταφρασμένα βιβλία τους και που γενικά δεν τους έχει δοθεί η πρέπουσα σημασία.
June 10, 2022
“Martin Beck was only in the room by chance. He had just come in and put down his case inside the door...”
The Man on the Balcony is the third in the absolute classic Scandi Noir Martin Beck series written by the dynamic Swedish duo, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Set in 1967, it epitomises a Swedish society increasingly under the influence of sex, drugs and crime, and an overworked and increasingly disempowered police force. The book is as much a work of fiction as it is a non fiction commentary of Swedish society in rampant decay. Sjöwall and Wahlöö did not shy away from this social commentary, blatantly evident as Beck’s colleague, Kollberg contemplates ...
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty-bound to produce an effective counter-argument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers”.
This is as poignant in 2022 as it was in 1967.
The Man on the Balcony follows the horrific story of a serial child murderer, one who rapes and kills young girls in secluded areas of public parks. The only credible witnesses who can offer any help to a police force grappling with this crime is a ‘mugger’, wanted for a series of bashing and stealing from his victims and a three year old boy. Beck and his colleagues, exhausted and embattled, piece a number of events together, that along with a dose of chance and guesswork ultimately see the crime solved.
Sjöwall and Wahlöö emphasise the humanity of the police force, prone to fatigue and burnout. “Without a word they drove northwards through the city, Aware of their powerlessness and of their ambivalent attitude to the society they were there to protect”. Beck and Kollberg.. human and authentic. Messy. Real.
I love this series so much.. savouring each book to make this last for as long as I can. 5 stars for sure.
The Man on the Balcony is the third in the absolute classic Scandi Noir Martin Beck series written by the dynamic Swedish duo, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Set in 1967, it epitomises a Swedish society increasingly under the influence of sex, drugs and crime, and an overworked and increasingly disempowered police force. The book is as much a work of fiction as it is a non fiction commentary of Swedish society in rampant decay. Sjöwall and Wahlöö did not shy away from this social commentary, blatantly evident as Beck’s colleague, Kollberg contemplates ...
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty-bound to produce an effective counter-argument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers”.
This is as poignant in 2022 as it was in 1967.
The Man on the Balcony follows the horrific story of a serial child murderer, one who rapes and kills young girls in secluded areas of public parks. The only credible witnesses who can offer any help to a police force grappling with this crime is a ‘mugger’, wanted for a series of bashing and stealing from his victims and a three year old boy. Beck and his colleagues, exhausted and embattled, piece a number of events together, that along with a dose of chance and guesswork ultimately see the crime solved.
Sjöwall and Wahlöö emphasise the humanity of the police force, prone to fatigue and burnout. “Without a word they drove northwards through the city, Aware of their powerlessness and of their ambivalent attitude to the society they were there to protect”. Beck and Kollberg.. human and authentic. Messy. Real.
I love this series so much.. savouring each book to make this last for as long as I can. 5 stars for sure.
June 13, 2011
Stieg Larsson (The Girl With Dragon Tattoo trilogy) was inspired by Henning Mankell, who is nearly as famous as Larsson. And Mankell was inspired by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, or rather, Martin Beck, the detective they created. And Sjöwall and Wahlöö were inspired by Simenon's Maigret...
The books in this series were published in the 1960s-1970s, and now one would have to define these stories as vintage police procedurals. Martin Beck was apparently Maigret for the Scandinavian crime. The Man on the Balcony was originally published in Swedish in 1968, in English by Vintage in 1993.
Sweden, June 1967. Someone is killing young girls in Stockholm. The police are afraid they are looking for a maniac, but turns out they may have two witnesses who have seen the murderer. But one of these witnesses is a non-reliable and vicious mugger, and the other is a three years old boy. Each day passing, the likelihood of a new attack grows, and the police officers are getting more and more frustrated. But then Beck remembers something that he has overheard that may help resolve these murders...
I did enjoy the book, and I'm pretty sure I've read it earlier too (probably when I was around 12 and ran out of Agatha Christies in my local library). But I so far prefer Mankell and Larsson. If I run to any other Martin Beck mystery, I will read them too. The writing just seems so much colder than on the newer procedurals. Maybe that's just something that has changed in the past decades. After reading a Wallander or Bosch mystery, I feel like I know the detectives. Beck just leaves me cold. Is it just the times that have changed?
The books in this series were published in the 1960s-1970s, and now one would have to define these stories as vintage police procedurals. Martin Beck was apparently Maigret for the Scandinavian crime. The Man on the Balcony was originally published in Swedish in 1968, in English by Vintage in 1993.
Sweden, June 1967. Someone is killing young girls in Stockholm. The police are afraid they are looking for a maniac, but turns out they may have two witnesses who have seen the murderer. But one of these witnesses is a non-reliable and vicious mugger, and the other is a three years old boy. Each day passing, the likelihood of a new attack grows, and the police officers are getting more and more frustrated. But then Beck remembers something that he has overheard that may help resolve these murders...
I did enjoy the book, and I'm pretty sure I've read it earlier too (probably when I was around 12 and ran out of Agatha Christies in my local library). But I so far prefer Mankell and Larsson. If I run to any other Martin Beck mystery, I will read them too. The writing just seems so much colder than on the newer procedurals. Maybe that's just something that has changed in the past decades. After reading a Wallander or Bosch mystery, I feel like I know the detectives. Beck just leaves me cold. Is it just the times that have changed?
July 30, 2017
So finely controlled and plotted, and moves with such meticulous restraint that when the writers knowingly let loose a playful sentence, they get one of the biggest laughs in the history of crime fiction.
I like it even more than "The man who went up in smoke" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
But comparing one Martin Beck book to another is really, hard to avoid the cliche here, like comparing apples and oranges.
I like it even more than "The man who went up in smoke" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
But comparing one Martin Beck book to another is really, hard to avoid the cliche here, like comparing apples and oranges.
August 31, 2020
Summer in Stockholm finds that someone is murdering children in the parks.
Mystery Review: The Man on the Balcony, the third Martin Beck outing, is very much a police procedural, calmly and carefully documenting steps the Stockholm police take as they search for the perpetrator of a series of child murders. The result is plain, gray, and mostly unemotional. The story doesn't go deep into personalities. There are few moments of excitement. Rarely do we see passion except that stemming from exhaustion. Some of the Stockholm officers we know from previous books, some are new. They don't always work well together, don't seem to like each other much, and are all too clearly human. They work slowly: quiet, methodical, deliberate. There are dead ends, wrong turns, chance plays a big part. As Beck notes: "He also knew that when the murderer was caught ... it would look like luck ... but it was a case of giving luck a helping hand, of making the net of circumstance ... as fine-meshed as possible." Some clues fall into their lap from unlikely sources, which they don't always recognize or connect at the time. There is nothing super human about these detectives. There's no Holmes, Poirot, or even a Veronica Mars in their ranks. I'm unsure how much of this reflects a Swedish personality and how much is simply steady police work. The Man on the Balcony is more than just a story, as Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö also make it a vehicle for social commentary: "Stockholm is a city in which many thousands of people sleep out of doors in the summer. Not only tramps, junkies and alcoholics but also a large number of visitors who who cannot get hotel rooms and just as many homeless people who, though fit for work ... cannot find anywhere to live, since bungled community planning has has resulted in an acute housing shortage." I don't know what their political viewpoint was, but they definitely had one. The Man on the Balcony, despite the lack of lightning bolts and fireworks, is a solid page-turner. [3★]
Mystery Review: The Man on the Balcony, the third Martin Beck outing, is very much a police procedural, calmly and carefully documenting steps the Stockholm police take as they search for the perpetrator of a series of child murders. The result is plain, gray, and mostly unemotional. The story doesn't go deep into personalities. There are few moments of excitement. Rarely do we see passion except that stemming from exhaustion. Some of the Stockholm officers we know from previous books, some are new. They don't always work well together, don't seem to like each other much, and are all too clearly human. They work slowly: quiet, methodical, deliberate. There are dead ends, wrong turns, chance plays a big part. As Beck notes: "He also knew that when the murderer was caught ... it would look like luck ... but it was a case of giving luck a helping hand, of making the net of circumstance ... as fine-meshed as possible." Some clues fall into their lap from unlikely sources, which they don't always recognize or connect at the time. There is nothing super human about these detectives. There's no Holmes, Poirot, or even a Veronica Mars in their ranks. I'm unsure how much of this reflects a Swedish personality and how much is simply steady police work. The Man on the Balcony is more than just a story, as Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö also make it a vehicle for social commentary: "Stockholm is a city in which many thousands of people sleep out of doors in the summer. Not only tramps, junkies and alcoholics but also a large number of visitors who who cannot get hotel rooms and just as many homeless people who, though fit for work ... cannot find anywhere to live, since bungled community planning has has resulted in an acute housing shortage." I don't know what their political viewpoint was, but they definitely had one. The Man on the Balcony, despite the lack of lightning bolts and fireworks, is a solid page-turner. [3★]
April 8, 2026
Setting: Stockholm, Sweden; June, 1967.
This is the third book in the Scandi-crime series featuring Detective Inspector Martin Beck.
Against a background of a hot summer, Beck's team are in the middle of an apparently futile search for a violent mugger who attacks and robs his usually elderly victims in one of the city's parks and then disappears without a trace.
But then it is discovered that, in the same park where the most recent mugging occurred, the body of an eight-year-old girl is found who has been sexually assaulted and murdered. Shortly after the girl's body is discovered, another girl of a similar age is found murdered - and so the hunt is on for a serial killer, but with very few clues for the police to follow Beck and his team really struggle to make any progress, despite all the new technology they now have. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Beck is faced with an increasing degree of hostility from his wife whilst other members of his team battle to maintain a work-life balance in an era where that term was not at the forefront of either employers or employees!....
This was another great crime read, with pared back language that really has an impact on the reader as the characters expose all their uncertainties and flaws. Little brilliant detective work in this one, indeed the eventual clarity is achieved more by luck than judgement almost. Yet the characters are life-like and gripping for all their flaws and rivalries, which is probably a large part of what makes this series such a gripping read - 9/10.
This is the third book in the Scandi-crime series featuring Detective Inspector Martin Beck.
Against a background of a hot summer, Beck's team are in the middle of an apparently futile search for a violent mugger who attacks and robs his usually elderly victims in one of the city's parks and then disappears without a trace.
But then it is discovered that, in the same park where the most recent mugging occurred, the body of an eight-year-old girl is found who has been sexually assaulted and murdered. Shortly after the girl's body is discovered, another girl of a similar age is found murdered - and so the hunt is on for a serial killer, but with very few clues for the police to follow Beck and his team really struggle to make any progress, despite all the new technology they now have. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Beck is faced with an increasing degree of hostility from his wife whilst other members of his team battle to maintain a work-life balance in an era where that term was not at the forefront of either employers or employees!....
This was another great crime read, with pared back language that really has an impact on the reader as the characters expose all their uncertainties and flaws. Little brilliant detective work in this one, indeed the eventual clarity is achieved more by luck than judgement almost. Yet the characters are life-like and gripping for all their flaws and rivalries, which is probably a large part of what makes this series such a gripping read - 9/10.
November 23, 2018
Il terzo capitolo della saga di martin Beck e della sua squadra ci riporta a Stoccolma. Di nuovo in quella fumosa e plasticosa Svezia degli anni 60 che sfata in modo clamoroso il luogo comune della scandinavia come terra dallo stato sociale perfetto, come terra dell' inclusione sociale.
Forse questo "L'uomo al balcone" ci riesce più e meglio di altri romanzi della stessa serie. Perchè martin Beck ed i suoi pards stavolta, nella Svezia socialissima e nei politicizzatissimi anni '60 hanno a che fare con qualcosa che meno sociale e meno politico non potrebbe essere: il killer psicopatico, il maniaco dell'alienazione mentale.
L' obbligatorio cenno al fastidio che sempre e ovunque dà la figura del criminale alienato a chi porta avanti rivendicazioni sociali (come se il riferimento alla follia fosse sempre e comunque un tentativo di decolpevolizzare, soprattutto quando si parla di femminicidio) rende ancor più clamoroso il rovesciamento di punto di vista che Per Wahloo e Maj Sjowall fanno del comune punto di vista. la loro Svezia ha ben poco di idealizzato, anzi è un paese in cui il male si annida come e più che altrove, andando anche contro la più comune sensibilità sociale: qui come altrove è presente il killer psicopatico, il femminicida.
Questo il significato profondo di queste storie, al di là dell'intrecico e degli espedienti narrativi, che a volte portano in fondo la storia in modo abbastanza banale.
Vista la dimensione sempre crescente della pila, oramai ho poche speranze di prendere in mano un poliziesco di wahloo e Sjowall più spesso di una volta all'anno. Ed onestamente è un gran peccato, perchè è sempre un gran bel leggere.
Forse questo "L'uomo al balcone" ci riesce più e meglio di altri romanzi della stessa serie. Perchè martin Beck ed i suoi pards stavolta, nella Svezia socialissima e nei politicizzatissimi anni '60 hanno a che fare con qualcosa che meno sociale e meno politico non potrebbe essere: il killer psicopatico, il maniaco dell'alienazione mentale.
L' obbligatorio cenno al fastidio che sempre e ovunque dà la figura del criminale alienato a chi porta avanti rivendicazioni sociali (come se il riferimento alla follia fosse sempre e comunque un tentativo di decolpevolizzare, soprattutto quando si parla di femminicidio) rende ancor più clamoroso il rovesciamento di punto di vista che Per Wahloo e Maj Sjowall fanno del comune punto di vista. la loro Svezia ha ben poco di idealizzato, anzi è un paese in cui il male si annida come e più che altrove, andando anche contro la più comune sensibilità sociale: qui come altrove è presente il killer psicopatico, il femminicida.
Questo il significato profondo di queste storie, al di là dell'intrecico e degli espedienti narrativi, che a volte portano in fondo la storia in modo abbastanza banale.
Vista la dimensione sempre crescente della pila, oramai ho poche speranze di prendere in mano un poliziesco di wahloo e Sjowall più spesso di una volta all'anno. Ed onestamente è un gran peccato, perchè è sempre un gran bel leggere.
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