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Martin Beck #7
Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle
En polis hade blivit brutalt nedhuggen med en bajonett. Martin Beck utgick ganska snart ifrån att det rörde sig om hämnd, begången av en sinnessjuk. Senare tvingades han själv plötsligt ta ställning till frågan om han var beredd att riskera livet för sitt arbete.
***
Roman om ett brott-seriens böcker på svenska:
1. Roseanna (1965)
2. Mannen som gick upp i rök (1966)
3. Mannen på balkongen (1967)
4. Den skrattande polisen (1968)
5. Brandbilen som försvann (1969)
6. Polis, polis, potatismos! (1970)
7. Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle (1971)
8. Det slutna rummet (1972)
9. Polismördaren (1974)
10. Terroristerna (1975)
***
Roman om ett brott-seriens böcker på svenska:
1. Roseanna (1965)
2. Mannen som gick upp i rök (1966)
3. Mannen på balkongen (1967)
4. Den skrattande polisen (1968)
5. Brandbilen som försvann (1969)
6. Polis, polis, potatismos! (1970)
7. Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle (1971)
8. Det slutna rummet (1972)
9. Polismördaren (1974)
10. Terroristerna (1975)
173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
176 people are currently reading
1939 people want to read
About the author
Maj Sjöwall
108 books469 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 354 reviews
August 31, 2025
I exhale my breath in a long deep sigh. I've just finished listening to what is probably the most cinematic of all the Sjowall and Wahloo Beck books (maybe not the best, but certainly the most evocative), and for the first time (despite the excellence of the entire series) I want to drop everything I'm doing and get started on the next book.
I need to know how the serious cliffhanger resolves. I need to see the fallout of everything that's happened, I need to see how these men, some of whom I hate and some of whom I love, handle the carnage they've been part of and have helped to bring about directly or indirectly.
I sit here typing with a slight pain in my back when I should be cleaning or grocery shopping, and I think of writing a book with the qualities of The Abominable Man. Its unique in the Beck series for taking the shortest time from crime to resolution. A day passes. That's all. And that is a huge departure from a series that is all about the banality of police procedure. It is a crime where the criminal might actually want to be caught, but we can't know that for sure. It's a bloody crime that leads to a crime some might call crazed (with a lone gunman on the roof of an apartment block killing police) but I call desperate.
It moves from action to action to action. It throws together two pairings of cops who hate each other, separating them from their usual, comfortable partners. It makes us care about them all. It makes us care about two of the other victims, dumb ass radio cops from earlier books. It makes us care about the murderer, to see where he is coming from. It makes us loathe the murderer's first victim, and love our eponymous hero more than we ever have before. Thus I realize that I couldn't write a book with The Abominable Man's qualities. Not from scratch. The Abominable Man is excellent because it is preceded by six other books, and those books built the milieu through which all of these men heroes, villains, victims, victimizers and buffoons move. It is a book that only patience of purpose and playing the long game could create.
I'll need seven books to get there. Better get writing.
Five Years Later ... This book holds up. Seriously holds up. And anyone paying close attention to policing in our world, right now, today, should read this book, but to do that properly you must read the whole series. This book & series are crucial to understanding our today -- wherever we are in Western Culture.
I need to know how the serious cliffhanger resolves. I need to see the fallout of everything that's happened, I need to see how these men, some of whom I hate and some of whom I love, handle the carnage they've been part of and have helped to bring about directly or indirectly.
I sit here typing with a slight pain in my back when I should be cleaning or grocery shopping, and I think of writing a book with the qualities of The Abominable Man. Its unique in the Beck series for taking the shortest time from crime to resolution. A day passes. That's all. And that is a huge departure from a series that is all about the banality of police procedure. It is a crime where the criminal might actually want to be caught, but we can't know that for sure. It's a bloody crime that leads to a crime some might call crazed (with a lone gunman on the roof of an apartment block killing police) but I call desperate.
It moves from action to action to action. It throws together two pairings of cops who hate each other, separating them from their usual, comfortable partners. It makes us care about them all. It makes us care about two of the other victims, dumb ass radio cops from earlier books. It makes us care about the murderer, to see where he is coming from. It makes us loathe the murderer's first victim, and love our eponymous hero more than we ever have before. Thus I realize that I couldn't write a book with The Abominable Man's qualities. Not from scratch. The Abominable Man is excellent because it is preceded by six other books, and those books built the milieu through which all of these men heroes, villains, victims, victimizers and buffoons move. It is a book that only patience of purpose and playing the long game could create.
I'll need seven books to get there. Better get writing.
Five Years Later ... This book holds up. Seriously holds up. And anyone paying close attention to policing in our world, right now, today, should read this book, but to do that properly you must read the whole series. This book & series are crucial to understanding our today -- wherever we are in Western Culture.
January 21, 2025
The Abominable Man is probably my favorite book in the Martin Beck series so far. To say it is chock full of police corruption, suspense and nonstop twists is putting it mildly. The cliffhanger ending left me in complete shock.
Series narrator Tom Weiner could not be a more perfect choice for brining Sjöwall and Wahlöö's writing to life for listeners.
Up next: The Locked Room (Martin Beck, #8)
Series narrator Tom Weiner could not be a more perfect choice for brining Sjöwall and Wahlöö's writing to life for listeners.
Up next: The Locked Room (Martin Beck, #8)
April 29, 2014
[9/10]
Five decades after initial publication, the Story of Crime sequence by Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is still considered one of the best police procedurals ever written. Each book is introduced by a famous contemporary crime writer, and for this seventh episode it is the turn of local author Jens Lapidus to explain why and how it has marked his career:
It was the feeling that someone had for the first time managed to describe criminality and police work in Stockholm adequately, in a way that was real, as it might actually have happened.
Lapidus is referring also to the movie version of the book, where they used an alternative title : The Man on the Roof . Where he comments that the events might have happened all I could think about was how similar the case placed in the year 1972 by the authors is to an actual manhunt that I can only mention in spoilers:
The present novel has another particularity that sets it apart from its predecessors, as I consider it the closest the authors came to writing a modern, American-style, action thriller, with machine guns, explosions and car crashes building up to an edge of the seat, breath-taking finale. Until now, Martin Beck and his colleagues were spending all of their working hours analyzing evidence, interviewing witnesses, poring over old records. You know, the mostly boring, routine, unglamorous combination of gumshoe and eye-strain. This novel starts in the same vein, but there is a sense of urgency, of impending doom, like a time-bomb counting down the seconds before it blows up in the officer’s faces.
The event that sets the clock ticking is a gruesome murder of an elderly, sick man from an isolated hospital ward in the capital. What puts this murder in the top priority spot for the whole police force is the identity of the victim:
The abominable man from Saffle. That’s what we called Stig Nyman.
Nyman was a former police comissioner, or captain of a precinct in the city. His nickname was earned by his old-school, hard-fisted methods of training new recruits and by his habit of abusing his authority and administering a personal brand of physical punishments. Think of the staff-sergeant from boot camp in Full Metal Jacket and you might get an idea about Nyman’s personality. He was not a well-liked person, especially when you add his habit of lying under oath, counterfeiting evidence and intimidating witnesses. As Martin Beck investigates Nyman’s past, he has no shortage of suspects and plenty of evidence that the police has been covering up his abuses for decades, ignoring the numerous complaints from Nyman’s victims.
This here is a two-pronged attack on the whole system from the militant authors:
- denouncing the old metods and the image of the police officer as morally spotless, honest and realiable.
- breaking the law of silence, the tribal comradeship that keeps the policemen from accusing one of their own brothers, that hides corruption and abuses within the ranks, “l’esprit de corps” that stipulates you must stand by your partner no matter what.
So the main theme of the book boils down to the old adage: “who watches the watchmen?” with Beck exclaiming at one point: The general public has no rights vis-a-vis the police! . The real subject of the debate becomes what makes a good cop or a bad cop? And should the police have a monopoly on violence? Should their statements be automatically considered true and accurate? The next quote from the novel written in 1971 sounds disturbingly familiar in 2014 (see earlier spoiler):
If you really want to be sure of getting caught, the thing to do is to kill a policeman. This truth applies in most places and especially in Sweden. There are plenty of unsolved murders in Swedish criminal history, but not one of them involves the murder of a policeman. When a member of their own troop meets with misfortune, the police seem to acquire many times their usual energy.
What the reader experiences during the lecture is a reversal of roles, as the victim becomes the accused party, and the yet unidentified killer becomes a man pushed beyond the limits of endurance by an unjust system .
Martin Beck had seen his face, at once the face of a child and of an old man. How was that possible? And his eyes – insane with fear or hate or desperation, or maybe just utterly vacant.
In the previous couple of Martin Beck novels I have noticed an exacerbation of criticism of capitalist values and moral corruption from the two socialist- leaning autors. Such rants are present here also, but they do not threaten to overpower the actual story. Actually, for me, the present episode is a return to the focus of the first novels in the series, concentrating more on the human suffering and making Martin Beck personally involved in the case after the detachment and relative passivity he displayed in the last couple of investigations. Beck feels guilty about his own apathy and conformism in ignoring allegations of abuse from his fellow policemen, so he tries to make amends
In the end, the novel remains a police procedural and not a lone-wolf crusade, so Martin Beck has his usual back-up team to assist him. The same level of excellence and authenticity in characterization that I have come to expect from the series is deployed when the narrative is revealed through the eyes of eager but chronically tired Einar Ronn; gruff and aloof Gunvald Larsson; cynical yet shy and sensual Lennart Kollberg; sleazy but brilliant Fredrik Melander – familiar faces to the regular readers of the series. The scene stealers of the book for me were surprisingly the couple of redneck patrolmen from Skane, the incompetent, tall, blond and stupid duo that was usually tasked with the comic relief in the economy of the books.
Neither of them was a particularly zealous policeman. Kvant almost always reported whatever he happened to see and hear, but he managed to hear amazingly little. Kristianson more of an out-and-out slacker who simply ignored everything that might cause complications or unnecessary trouble.
I’ll stop here with the plot details and the character profiles before I run into more spoilers, but be prepared for a spectacular and graphically violent finale. I have a couple more quotes saved though, one as an illustration of the novel’s urban setting that is also social criticism:
Stockholm inhabitants looked on with sorrow and bitterness as serviceable and irreplaceable old apartment houses were razed to make way for sterile office buildings. Powerless, they let themselves be deported to distant suburbs while the pleasant, lively neighborhoods were reduced to rubble. The inner city became a clamorous, all but impassable construction site from which the new city slowly and relentlessly arose with its broad, noisy traffic arteries, its shining facades of glass and light metal, its dead surfaces of flat concrete, its bleakness and its desolation.
... and the other one about Martin Beck’s opinion on police procedures, relevant for the series as a whole:
Police work is built on realism, routine, stubborness and system. It’s true that a lot of difficult cases are cleared up by coincidence, but it’s equally true that coincidence is an elastic concept that mustn’t be confused with luck or accident. In a criminal investigation, it’s a question of weaving the net of coincidence as fine as possible. And expeience and industry play a larger role there than brilliant inspiration. A good memory and ordinary common sense are more valuable qualities than intellectual brilliance.
Intuition has no place in practical police work. Intuition is not even a quality, any more than astrology and phrenology are sciences.
Conclusion: one of the best entries in the Martin Beck series, one that can be read as a stand-alone. I can understand why so many crime authors praise Sjowall and Wahloo effusively.
Five decades after initial publication, the Story of Crime sequence by Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is still considered one of the best police procedurals ever written. Each book is introduced by a famous contemporary crime writer, and for this seventh episode it is the turn of local author Jens Lapidus to explain why and how it has marked his career:
It was the feeling that someone had for the first time managed to describe criminality and police work in Stockholm adequately, in a way that was real, as it might actually have happened.
Lapidus is referring also to the movie version of the book, where they used an alternative title : The Man on the Roof . Where he comments that the events might have happened all I could think about was how similar the case placed in the year 1972 by the authors is to an actual manhunt that I can only mention in spoilers:
The present novel has another particularity that sets it apart from its predecessors, as I consider it the closest the authors came to writing a modern, American-style, action thriller, with machine guns, explosions and car crashes building up to an edge of the seat, breath-taking finale. Until now, Martin Beck and his colleagues were spending all of their working hours analyzing evidence, interviewing witnesses, poring over old records. You know, the mostly boring, routine, unglamorous combination of gumshoe and eye-strain. This novel starts in the same vein, but there is a sense of urgency, of impending doom, like a time-bomb counting down the seconds before it blows up in the officer’s faces.
The event that sets the clock ticking is a gruesome murder of an elderly, sick man from an isolated hospital ward in the capital. What puts this murder in the top priority spot for the whole police force is the identity of the victim:
The abominable man from Saffle. That’s what we called Stig Nyman.
Nyman was a former police comissioner, or captain of a precinct in the city. His nickname was earned by his old-school, hard-fisted methods of training new recruits and by his habit of abusing his authority and administering a personal brand of physical punishments. Think of the staff-sergeant from boot camp in Full Metal Jacket and you might get an idea about Nyman’s personality. He was not a well-liked person, especially when you add his habit of lying under oath, counterfeiting evidence and intimidating witnesses. As Martin Beck investigates Nyman’s past, he has no shortage of suspects and plenty of evidence that the police has been covering up his abuses for decades, ignoring the numerous complaints from Nyman’s victims.
This here is a two-pronged attack on the whole system from the militant authors:
- denouncing the old metods and the image of the police officer as morally spotless, honest and realiable.
- breaking the law of silence, the tribal comradeship that keeps the policemen from accusing one of their own brothers, that hides corruption and abuses within the ranks, “l’esprit de corps” that stipulates you must stand by your partner no matter what.
So the main theme of the book boils down to the old adage: “who watches the watchmen?” with Beck exclaiming at one point: The general public has no rights vis-a-vis the police! . The real subject of the debate becomes what makes a good cop or a bad cop? And should the police have a monopoly on violence? Should their statements be automatically considered true and accurate? The next quote from the novel written in 1971 sounds disturbingly familiar in 2014 (see earlier spoiler):
If you really want to be sure of getting caught, the thing to do is to kill a policeman. This truth applies in most places and especially in Sweden. There are plenty of unsolved murders in Swedish criminal history, but not one of them involves the murder of a policeman. When a member of their own troop meets with misfortune, the police seem to acquire many times their usual energy.
What the reader experiences during the lecture is a reversal of roles, as the victim becomes the accused party, and the yet unidentified killer becomes a man pushed beyond the limits of endurance by an unjust system .
Martin Beck had seen his face, at once the face of a child and of an old man. How was that possible? And his eyes – insane with fear or hate or desperation, or maybe just utterly vacant.
In the previous couple of Martin Beck novels I have noticed an exacerbation of criticism of capitalist values and moral corruption from the two socialist- leaning autors. Such rants are present here also, but they do not threaten to overpower the actual story. Actually, for me, the present episode is a return to the focus of the first novels in the series, concentrating more on the human suffering and making Martin Beck personally involved in the case after the detachment and relative passivity he displayed in the last couple of investigations. Beck feels guilty about his own apathy and conformism in ignoring allegations of abuse from his fellow policemen, so he tries to make amends
In the end, the novel remains a police procedural and not a lone-wolf crusade, so Martin Beck has his usual back-up team to assist him. The same level of excellence and authenticity in characterization that I have come to expect from the series is deployed when the narrative is revealed through the eyes of eager but chronically tired Einar Ronn; gruff and aloof Gunvald Larsson; cynical yet shy and sensual Lennart Kollberg; sleazy but brilliant Fredrik Melander – familiar faces to the regular readers of the series. The scene stealers of the book for me were surprisingly the couple of redneck patrolmen from Skane, the incompetent, tall, blond and stupid duo that was usually tasked with the comic relief in the economy of the books.
Neither of them was a particularly zealous policeman. Kvant almost always reported whatever he happened to see and hear, but he managed to hear amazingly little. Kristianson more of an out-and-out slacker who simply ignored everything that might cause complications or unnecessary trouble.
I’ll stop here with the plot details and the character profiles before I run into more spoilers, but be prepared for a spectacular and graphically violent finale. I have a couple more quotes saved though, one as an illustration of the novel’s urban setting that is also social criticism:
Stockholm inhabitants looked on with sorrow and bitterness as serviceable and irreplaceable old apartment houses were razed to make way for sterile office buildings. Powerless, they let themselves be deported to distant suburbs while the pleasant, lively neighborhoods were reduced to rubble. The inner city became a clamorous, all but impassable construction site from which the new city slowly and relentlessly arose with its broad, noisy traffic arteries, its shining facades of glass and light metal, its dead surfaces of flat concrete, its bleakness and its desolation.
... and the other one about Martin Beck’s opinion on police procedures, relevant for the series as a whole:
Police work is built on realism, routine, stubborness and system. It’s true that a lot of difficult cases are cleared up by coincidence, but it’s equally true that coincidence is an elastic concept that mustn’t be confused with luck or accident. In a criminal investigation, it’s a question of weaving the net of coincidence as fine as possible. And expeience and industry play a larger role there than brilliant inspiration. A good memory and ordinary common sense are more valuable qualities than intellectual brilliance.
Intuition has no place in practical police work. Intuition is not even a quality, any more than astrology and phrenology are sciences.
Conclusion: one of the best entries in the Martin Beck series, one that can be read as a stand-alone. I can understand why so many crime authors praise Sjowall and Wahloo effusively.
April 1, 2022
The Abominable Man (1971) is book #7 in the ten book police procedural series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, (sort of) featuring Martin Beck and set in Sweden in the lat sixties and seventies. When I say they “sort of” feature Martin Beck I mean that the two authors, former crime reporters, attempt to take seriously the actual work of detectives trying to solve a course together, as a team. No superhero detectives. Just hard work.
Martin Beck does play a little more central role in this novel, and it has a somewhat more sensational conclusion than most of the other books. As usual, the backdrop of the crime is a consideration of social conditions--the increase in drugs, crime, increasing economic inequities--in Sweden during this period, when the wider world thought Sweden was a paradise of sun and sex and drugs. It’s largely character-driven, as we get to know the team pretty well over time. And I have begun to get a better feel for the dry sense of humor winding its way through the tales.
In general the series seems to be sympathetic to the underpaid, overworked, under-appreciated (or even vilified) role of the police in society, the “abominable man” of the title is a bad cop, sadistic, doing anything he can to stop what he sees as the erosion of morality in his country. He and his brutal sidekick have their say in raging against the decline, but they are also abominable in how they respond to criminal behavior. The man is himself brutally murdered in his hospital bed.
As they narrow in on a suspect, we find out a possible motive in revenge, and later, we find he occupies a tower as a sniper--recalling the (1966) Texas sniper Charles Whitman--particularly focused on killing cops. One of Beck’s team is killed in the process, as Beck decides to be the guy to stop him, and the book turns thriller for several pages as it approaches a conclusion, but something surprising happens that disrupts our expectation for the superior mind and body of a featured detective series: Beck is seriously injured in the process.
Besides being a commentary generally on the increase of crime and gun violence (this is 1971, fifty years ago), this volume is a meditation too on the increasing tension between police and the public they were hired to protect. Feels a little like a warning, or a prophecy.
Martin Beck does play a little more central role in this novel, and it has a somewhat more sensational conclusion than most of the other books. As usual, the backdrop of the crime is a consideration of social conditions--the increase in drugs, crime, increasing economic inequities--in Sweden during this period, when the wider world thought Sweden was a paradise of sun and sex and drugs. It’s largely character-driven, as we get to know the team pretty well over time. And I have begun to get a better feel for the dry sense of humor winding its way through the tales.
In general the series seems to be sympathetic to the underpaid, overworked, under-appreciated (or even vilified) role of the police in society, the “abominable man” of the title is a bad cop, sadistic, doing anything he can to stop what he sees as the erosion of morality in his country. He and his brutal sidekick have their say in raging against the decline, but they are also abominable in how they respond to criminal behavior. The man is himself brutally murdered in his hospital bed.
As they narrow in on a suspect, we find out a possible motive in revenge, and later, we find he occupies a tower as a sniper--recalling the (1966) Texas sniper Charles Whitman--particularly focused on killing cops. One of Beck’s team is killed in the process, as Beck decides to be the guy to stop him, and the book turns thriller for several pages as it approaches a conclusion, but something surprising happens that disrupts our expectation for the superior mind and body of a featured detective series: Beck is seriously injured in the process.
Besides being a commentary generally on the increase of crime and gun violence (this is 1971, fifty years ago), this volume is a meditation too on the increasing tension between police and the public they were hired to protect. Feels a little like a warning, or a prophecy.
June 11, 2020
This is the seventh book in the 1970s best selling Swedish detective series that some say started the 'Scandinavian Noir' genre of mixing crime stories and social issues. 7 out of 12.
December 8, 2018
Σήμα κατατεθέν των συγγραφέων, η απέριττη, σχεδόν ωμή λεκτική αναπαράσταση των εγκλημάτων, που κάνει πολύ έντονη την αντίθεση στην ήπια, ομοιόμορφη κι ελαφρά παραιτημένη έκφραση των πραγμάτων, στο συρτάρι του νεκρού, όλα εκείνα τα καθημερινά που δεν ήξερε ότι θα συμβόλιζαν τα τελευταία του υπάρχοντα επί γης, αφημένα για λίγο στο δωμάτιο ενός νοσοκομείου. Η αντίθεση μπορεί και να σοκάρει. Και εδώ επίσης, αν δε γνωρίζεις πότε γράφτηκε το βιβλίο, δύσκολα εντοπίζεις την ηλικία του. Όλες εκείνες οι καταγγελίες, τα παράδοξα κοινωνικά σχόλια, ο σαρκασμός για την αντίληψη των ανθρώπων και τις στάσεις του παρόντος συνθέτουν ένα άχρονο χρονολόγημα, που κινείται παράλληλα με το μυθιστόρημα, με την έντονα εγκεφαλική στάση και τα κρυφά συναισθήματα που δηλώνουν τη δύναμη τους, σε ένα καλά δοσμένο ρεπορτάζ. Και ευτυχώς απ’ τα λίγα σουηδικά, που απουσιάζει αυτή η αίσθηση πως μαζί με το μυθιστόρημα σου πούλησαν και τουριστικό οδηγό της πόλης, χωρίς αυτό όμως να εξαιρεί και τη σκιαγράφηση ενός τόπου που έχει αρχίσει να αλλάζει, να εκμοντερνίζεται ακόμα και με τρόπους που δε χρειάζεται. Να γίνεται από η ‘’πόλη μας’’, η πόλη που ζούμε, συμπαρασύροντας στην απρόσωπη ζωή σε αυτή την πόλη τη βία και την εξαλλοσύνη, χωρίς κανένα ορατό τρόπο χαρτογράφησης των αδύνατων σημείων της.
Οι συγγραφείς έχουν μια σπάνια καθαρότητα, αφαιρούν τα καλλωπιστικά και ωραιολογικά γραφικά στοιχεία της αστυνομίας και την παρουσιάζουν ως μια επιχείρηση ενός μεγάλου συνόλου ανθρώπων, οι οποίοι έχουν ένα δύσκολο επάγγελμα, μια αναγκαστική αλληλουχία μεταξύ τους – καθένας με τα υπέρ, τα κατά και άγνωστα στον ίδιο σημεία του εαυτού του και που λίγο ως πολύ χρωματίζουν και δίνουν τόνο στη δουλειά του, ειδικά όταν με την τριβή, η απόσταση απ’ το αντικείμενο της εργασίας αυτής καταργείται, αυξάνοντας τη βιαιότητα που είναι ανάλογη με το αντικείμενο, αλλά και το χαρακτήρα του πομπού – αστυνομικού. Ειδικά όμως στο συγκεκριμένο χώρο, αφού και η αστυνομία προσδιορίζεται ως χώρος, εκτός από αναπνέων οργανισμός, οι επιπτώσεις σε συνδυασμό με την εξουσία που αντλείται από μια πόλη, που δεν είναι πια η πόλη μας, είναι βαρύτατες. Και όμως, ο αναγνώστης δεν αισθάνεται μίσος, ούτε συμπάθεια. Νιώθει άνθρωπος. Θυμώνεις, δυσανασχετείς, αλλά μέσα σου έχεις ήδη αρχίσει να κατανοείς. Κατανοείς γιατί σε κάθε χώρο το καθήκον ( δείτε τη δική σας δουλειά ) μπλέκεται με τα προσωπικά μας πάθη και με το ίδιο το Πάθος, αλλά και την εξωγενή αδικία, τις από μας, μέσω ημών και προς εμάς. Αυτή είναι η δυναμική που μετατρέπει το φιλόδοξο, σε μωροφιλόδοξο, τον εργατικό σε σχολαστικό κ.ο.κ. Πόσο δύσκολο να μην αλλοιωθείς, ή έστω να αρχίσεις να αλλάζεις ένα χαρακτήρα που νόμιζες πλέον σταθερό και να ανακαλύπτεις ότι το κρεμμύδι αργεί πολύ να πετάξει όλα του τα ρούχα.
Και εδώ η ομάδα συστήνεται απ’ την αρχή, με τις αρετές και τα μειονεκτήματα της. Ξανά, ο τρόπος που δένεται η πλοκή με την ομάδα, δίνει την εντύπωση ότι οι συγγραφείς είναι ικανότατοι να τους χειρίζονται όλους μαζί επί σκηνής, να δρουν, να στέκονται, να βρίσκονται. Όπως θα συνέβαινε αν τους βλέπαμε σε μια εικόνα στον κινηματογράφο. Αντιλαμβανόμαστε καθέναν ξεχωριστά και όλους μαζί να δρουν και να συν-δρούν. Και ένα δεύτερο είναι η επισφράγιση της εκμηδενισμένης ταυτότητας του χρόνου, που άλλοτε στον ίδιο χρόνο το λίγο είναι πολύ και το πολύ σημαίνει λίγο. Μια επίπτωση που ακολούθησε τις γενιές που συμπαρασύρθηκαν απ’ τις συνέπειες των λαών όπου ο καθένας με το δικό του τρόπο έγινε μέρος μια αμοράλ σάγκας.
Στα μεγάλα συν του βιβλίου πως καταφέρνει να περιγράψει μια φωνή, με τεράστια οικονομία λέξεων, κάνοντας τον αναγνώστη να την αντιληφθεί ακριβώς. Δείχνει μεγάλη δεξιοτεχνία. Είναι ένα ακόμα απ’ τα στοιχεία που κάνουν το βιβλίο, ανεξαρτήτως κατηγορίας, πειστικό. Όπως θα περιμέναμε από δυο συγγραφείς εκ των οποίων ο ένας αντιλαμβάνεται ως δημοσιογράφος και ο άλλος ως ποιητής, υπάρχει απ’ τη μια μελωδικότητα και απ’ την άλλη μια ασαφής τάση εκλογικευμένης γενίκευσης της κοινωνιολογίας. Υπάρχουν πολλά επαγγέλματα πολύ πιο επικίνδυνα, απ’ αυτό του αστυνομικού. Ναι σαφώς. Είναι ίσως όμως το μοναδικό που ο κίνδυνος είναι άμεσα συνδεδεμένος με τον ανθρώπινο παράγοντα που προκαλεί πολλά βάρη, αλλάζει τον τρόπο που εισπράττεις την πρώτη εντύπωση των άλλων, τον τρόπο που αντιλαμβάνεσαι τους κώδικες της ανθρώπινης φύσης.
Μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ κι ας είναι περισσότερο εγκεφαλικό και λιγότερο ιντριγκάρει τα συναισθήματα ( τουλάχιστον σε πρώτη φάση ). Χωρίς να φιλοδοξεί, γεννάει προβληματισμό αβίαστα, με καμιά τάση να τον επιβάλλει. Και το τέλος είναι όσο πρέπει. Και αυτό το βιβλίο δεν είναι show ενός ανθρώπου, που επίσης είναι ένα μεγάλο συν ( όσο ήταν και στη Ροζάννα ), οι χαρακτήρες αληθοφανείς κι οι διάλογοι φυσικοί.
Οι συγγραφείς έχουν μια σπάνια καθαρότητα, αφαιρούν τα καλλωπιστικά και ωραιολογικά γραφικά στοιχεία της αστυνομίας και την παρουσιάζουν ως μια επιχείρηση ενός μεγάλου συνόλου ανθρώπων, οι οποίοι έχουν ένα δύσκολο επάγγελμα, μια αναγκαστική αλληλουχία μεταξύ τους – καθένας με τα υπέρ, τα κατά και άγνωστα στον ίδιο σημεία του εαυτού του και που λίγο ως πολύ χρωματίζουν και δίνουν τόνο στη δουλειά του, ειδικά όταν με την τριβή, η απόσταση απ’ το αντικείμενο της εργασίας αυτής καταργείται, αυξάνοντας τη βιαιότητα που είναι ανάλογη με το αντικείμενο, αλλά και το χαρακτήρα του πομπού – αστυνομικού. Ειδικά όμως στο συγκεκριμένο χώρο, αφού και η αστυνομία προσδιορίζεται ως χώρος, εκτός από αναπνέων οργανισμός, οι επιπτώσεις σε συνδυασμό με την εξουσία που αντλείται από μια πόλη, που δεν είναι πια η πόλη μας, είναι βαρύτατες. Και όμως, ο αναγνώστης δεν αισθάνεται μίσος, ούτε συμπάθεια. Νιώθει άνθρωπος. Θυμώνεις, δυσανασχετείς, αλλά μέσα σου έχεις ήδη αρχίσει να κατανοείς. Κατανοείς γιατί σε κάθε χώρο το καθήκον ( δείτε τη δική σας δουλειά ) μπλέκεται με τα προσωπικά μας πάθη και με το ίδιο το Πάθος, αλλά και την εξωγενή αδικία, τις από μας, μέσω ημών και προς εμάς. Αυτή είναι η δυναμική που μετατρέπει το φιλόδοξο, σε μωροφιλόδοξο, τον εργατικό σε σχολαστικό κ.ο.κ. Πόσο δύσκολο να μην αλλοιωθείς, ή έστω να αρχίσεις να αλλάζεις ένα χαρακτήρα που νόμιζες πλέον σταθερό και να ανακαλύπτεις ότι το κρεμμύδι αργεί πολύ να πετάξει όλα του τα ρούχα.
Και εδώ η ομάδα συστήνεται απ’ την αρχή, με τις αρετές και τα μειονεκτήματα της. Ξανά, ο τρόπος που δένεται η πλοκή με την ομάδα, δίνει την εντύπωση ότι οι συγγραφείς είναι ικανότατοι να τους χειρίζονται όλους μαζί επί σκηνής, να δρουν, να στέκονται, να βρίσκονται. Όπως θα συνέβαινε αν τους βλέπαμε σε μια εικόνα στον κινηματογράφο. Αντιλαμβανόμαστε καθέναν ξεχωριστά και όλους μαζί να δρουν και να συν-δρούν. Και ένα δεύτερο είναι η επισφράγιση της εκμηδενισμένης ταυτότητας του χρόνου, που άλλοτε στον ίδιο χρόνο το λίγο είναι πολύ και το πολύ σημαίνει λίγο. Μια επίπτωση που ακολούθησε τις γενιές που συμπαρασύρθηκαν απ’ τις συνέπειες των λαών όπου ο καθένας με το δικό του τρόπο έγινε μέρος μια αμοράλ σάγκας.
Στα μεγάλα συν του βιβλίου πως καταφέρνει να περιγράψει μια φωνή, με τεράστια οικονομία λέξεων, κάνοντας τον αναγνώστη να την αντιληφθεί ακριβώς. Δείχνει μεγάλη δεξιοτεχνία. Είναι ένα ακόμα απ’ τα στοιχεία που κάνουν το βιβλίο, ανεξαρτήτως κατηγορίας, πειστικό. Όπως θα περιμέναμε από δυο συγγραφείς εκ των οποίων ο ένας αντιλαμβάνεται ως δημοσιογράφος και ο άλλος ως ποιητής, υπάρχει απ’ τη μια μελωδικότητα και απ’ την άλλη μια ασαφής τάση εκλογικευμένης γενίκευσης της κοινωνιολογίας. Υπάρχουν πολλά επαγγέλματα πολύ πιο επικίνδυνα, απ’ αυτό του αστυνομικού. Ναι σαφώς. Είναι ίσως όμως το μοναδικό που ο κίνδυνος είναι άμεσα συνδεδεμένος με τον ανθρώπινο παράγοντα που προκαλεί πολλά βάρη, αλλάζει τον τρόπο που εισπράττεις την πρώτη εντύπωση των άλλων, τον τρόπο που αντιλαμβάνεσαι τους κώδικες της ανθρώπινης φύσης.
Μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ κι ας είναι περισσότερο εγκεφαλικό και λιγότερο ιντριγκάρει τα συναισθήματα ( τουλάχιστον σε πρώτη φάση ). Χωρίς να φιλοδοξεί, γεννάει προβληματισμό αβίαστα, με καμιά τάση να τον επιβάλλει. Και το τέλος είναι όσο πρέπει. Και αυτό το βιβλίο δεν είναι show ενός ανθρώπου, που επίσης είναι ένα μεγάλο συν ( όσο ήταν και στη Ροζάννα ), οι χαρακτήρες αληθοφανείς κι οι διάλογοι φυσικοί.
March 3, 2018
A policeman is butchered in his hospital bed. The policeman has a past, and many enemies. He had brutalized and bullied his way through a forty year career in the police and army. One of his many victims has exacted revenge, but which one?
Enter Martin Beck and his supporting cast. Somehow they will find the killer. They find a list with Martin's name on it, as well as many other policemen. It seems that the killer has declared war on the police.
A superb thriller of a book, well paced, laconic and a joy to read. The only downside is that I now have only three more Martin Beck books to look forward to.
Enter Martin Beck and his supporting cast. Somehow they will find the killer. They find a list with Martin's name on it, as well as many other policemen. It seems that the killer has declared war on the police.
A superb thriller of a book, well paced, laconic and a joy to read. The only downside is that I now have only three more Martin Beck books to look forward to.
August 2, 2020
Ha conseguido que quiera leer más libros de los autores, lo cuál no está nada mal. Una prosa sencilla y llena de significados sin pretensiones ni moralinas baratas. Correcto en su género.
Un final interesante
Un final interesante
February 10, 2017
"Maybe is the word."
"The Abominable Man" é o sétimo livro da série do Inspector Martin Beck e mantém o tom sombrio tão característico destes policiais soberbos.
É com a visão do assassino que somos introduzidos no enredo. Este, armado com uma baioneta, sai de casa em direcção Hospital Mount Sabbath, que numa questão de minutos se tornará no local do crime. O seu alvo é um homem gravemente doente, que por acaso é policia. Incompetente e detestado pelos colegas de profissão é assassinado a sangue frio durante a noite. O seu nome é Stig Nyman e é por todos conhecido como "O Homem Abominável".
Martin Beck, o chefe da Esquadra Nacional de Homicídios, prepara-se para dormir às 02:35 da madrugada de Sábado do dia 3 de Abril, quando o telefone toca. O interlocutor é Einar Rönn, um colega que Martin Beck considera muito estranho e que o faz sentir frustrado por ter quase de pedir por favor para partilhar as suas observações e opiniões pessoais. Rönn foi o primeiro inspector dos homicídios a chegar ao local do crime e a sua primeira acção foi acordar o chefe. Apesar da relutância em trabalhar com este subordinado, em vez do melhor amigo Kollberg, Martin Beck começa mais uma investigação.
Ao contrário das investigações anteriores, esta revela-se de resolução simples e rápida. Em menos de 24 horas, Kollberg, Larsson e Rönn, liderados por Martin Beck, vêem-se envolvidos num caso inédito, em que as suas vidas são ameaçadas. O ténue tom de optimismo presente nos livros anteriores é aqui inexistente e a vida destes quatro homens do esquadrão de homicídios de Estocolmo resume-me quase exclusivamente ao seu trabalho. E esta sua infelicidade e descontentamento condiz com a atmosfera terrivelemente miserável que inunda a sociedade sueca.
Maj Söjwall e Per Wahlöö focam, mais uma vez, as revelações sobre a sociedade inerentes ao crime em questão. "Quem?" não é a pergunta principal, longe disso. "Como?" e "Porquê?" são as questões que nos levam a compreender como um homem, perfeitamente normal, é levado à loucura pelas injustiças e brutalidade da sociedade em que está inserido.
O tema principal é, sem dúvida alguma, a brutalidade e abuso de poder por parte da policia, que se revela corrupta e criminosa. Estará este assassino de policias errado ou serão as suas acções justificadas?
À medida que a série avança, os livros vão-se tornando cada vez mais claustrofóbicos, não só no que diz respeito às personagens, como à sociedade em si. Perante uma sociedade cada vez mais violenta, os policias da velha guarda, como Beck e Kollberg, sentem-se impotentes e desesperados. Dedicando-se totalmente ao seu trabalho e colocando as suas famílias de parte, ainda que contra as suas vontades, vêem os seus esforços de fazer prevalecer a justiça irem por água abaixo.
Mesmo Karl Kristiansson e Kurt Kvant, que até ao momento sempre proporcionaram momentos de descontracção no contexto sério das investigações, seguem um caminho obscuro em direcção à tragédia. Os dois gigantes loiros com quase doze anos de experiência a trabalhar juntos como agentes de patrulha, têm no seu histórico profissional alguns sucessos e vários insucessos. Mas desta vez, são os problemas que vão de encontro à dupla outrora divertida. O que começa como uma situação de humor, com a entrada voluntária no seu carro por um muito conhecido vagabundo pedinte que os provocou, para sua humilhação, na via pública, acaba com um tiro baixo do joelho de um dos policias.
Seguem-se 2 minutos e 27 segundos de puro terror que envolvem os agentes Larsson e Kollberg. A quem acabam por se juntar Beck e Rönn.
Pela primeira vez desde o inicio da série do Inspector Martin Beck senti medo pela vida dele. Sojwäll e Wahlöö descrevem de uma forma vivida e palpável o horror e o pânico inerentes a um ataque profissionalmente concebido com o objectivo de matar. Tudo se desenrola demasiado rápido e ao mesmo tempo extremamente devagar, como se para cada segundo pudesse ser interiorizado e absorvido pelo leitor. Mais do que uma simples expectadora vi-me no centro da acção, rodeada pelos outros cidadãos de Estocolmo, que não fazem a menor ideia do que está acontecer. Mas eu sim, sei e nada posso fazer senão assistir impotente e desejar que o desfecho não seja trágico.
Para mim a experiência da leitura atinge o auge quando o mundo da ficção e o mundo real se juntam e se tornam num só. Maj Söjwall, Per Wahlöö, Henning Mankell e Håkan Nesser dominam esta arte e cada vez que os leio sinto-me privilegiada por ter tido a oportunidade.
"All very worthy, all very noble and interesting, and like most things worthy and noble and interesting probably destined for the footnotes of history." Lee Child
"The Abominable Man" é o sétimo livro da série do Inspector Martin Beck e mantém o tom sombrio tão característico destes policiais soberbos.
É com a visão do assassino que somos introduzidos no enredo. Este, armado com uma baioneta, sai de casa em direcção Hospital Mount Sabbath, que numa questão de minutos se tornará no local do crime. O seu alvo é um homem gravemente doente, que por acaso é policia. Incompetente e detestado pelos colegas de profissão é assassinado a sangue frio durante a noite. O seu nome é Stig Nyman e é por todos conhecido como "O Homem Abominável".
Martin Beck, o chefe da Esquadra Nacional de Homicídios, prepara-se para dormir às 02:35 da madrugada de Sábado do dia 3 de Abril, quando o telefone toca. O interlocutor é Einar Rönn, um colega que Martin Beck considera muito estranho e que o faz sentir frustrado por ter quase de pedir por favor para partilhar as suas observações e opiniões pessoais. Rönn foi o primeiro inspector dos homicídios a chegar ao local do crime e a sua primeira acção foi acordar o chefe. Apesar da relutância em trabalhar com este subordinado, em vez do melhor amigo Kollberg, Martin Beck começa mais uma investigação.
Ao contrário das investigações anteriores, esta revela-se de resolução simples e rápida. Em menos de 24 horas, Kollberg, Larsson e Rönn, liderados por Martin Beck, vêem-se envolvidos num caso inédito, em que as suas vidas são ameaçadas. O ténue tom de optimismo presente nos livros anteriores é aqui inexistente e a vida destes quatro homens do esquadrão de homicídios de Estocolmo resume-me quase exclusivamente ao seu trabalho. E esta sua infelicidade e descontentamento condiz com a atmosfera terrivelemente miserável que inunda a sociedade sueca.
Maj Söjwall e Per Wahlöö focam, mais uma vez, as revelações sobre a sociedade inerentes ao crime em questão. "Quem?" não é a pergunta principal, longe disso. "Como?" e "Porquê?" são as questões que nos levam a compreender como um homem, perfeitamente normal, é levado à loucura pelas injustiças e brutalidade da sociedade em que está inserido.
O tema principal é, sem dúvida alguma, a brutalidade e abuso de poder por parte da policia, que se revela corrupta e criminosa. Estará este assassino de policias errado ou serão as suas acções justificadas?
À medida que a série avança, os livros vão-se tornando cada vez mais claustrofóbicos, não só no que diz respeito às personagens, como à sociedade em si. Perante uma sociedade cada vez mais violenta, os policias da velha guarda, como Beck e Kollberg, sentem-se impotentes e desesperados. Dedicando-se totalmente ao seu trabalho e colocando as suas famílias de parte, ainda que contra as suas vontades, vêem os seus esforços de fazer prevalecer a justiça irem por água abaixo.
Mesmo Karl Kristiansson e Kurt Kvant, que até ao momento sempre proporcionaram momentos de descontracção no contexto sério das investigações, seguem um caminho obscuro em direcção à tragédia. Os dois gigantes loiros com quase doze anos de experiência a trabalhar juntos como agentes de patrulha, têm no seu histórico profissional alguns sucessos e vários insucessos. Mas desta vez, são os problemas que vão de encontro à dupla outrora divertida. O que começa como uma situação de humor, com a entrada voluntária no seu carro por um muito conhecido vagabundo pedinte que os provocou, para sua humilhação, na via pública, acaba com um tiro baixo do joelho de um dos policias.
Seguem-se 2 minutos e 27 segundos de puro terror que envolvem os agentes Larsson e Kollberg. A quem acabam por se juntar Beck e Rönn.
Pela primeira vez desde o inicio da série do Inspector Martin Beck senti medo pela vida dele. Sojwäll e Wahlöö descrevem de uma forma vivida e palpável o horror e o pânico inerentes a um ataque profissionalmente concebido com o objectivo de matar. Tudo se desenrola demasiado rápido e ao mesmo tempo extremamente devagar, como se para cada segundo pudesse ser interiorizado e absorvido pelo leitor. Mais do que uma simples expectadora vi-me no centro da acção, rodeada pelos outros cidadãos de Estocolmo, que não fazem a menor ideia do que está acontecer. Mas eu sim, sei e nada posso fazer senão assistir impotente e desejar que o desfecho não seja trágico.
Para mim a experiência da leitura atinge o auge quando o mundo da ficção e o mundo real se juntam e se tornam num só. Maj Söjwall, Per Wahlöö, Henning Mankell e Håkan Nesser dominam esta arte e cada vez que os leio sinto-me privilegiada por ter tido a oportunidade.
"All very worthy, all very noble and interesting, and like most things worthy and noble and interesting probably destined for the footnotes of history." Lee Child
March 8, 2011
Part the seventh of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's excellent 10-part series, The Abominable Man starts off in a hospital room where a man lays in a great deal of pain and anxiety due to his fear of death. To get his mind off his problems for a moment, he makes his way to the nurses' station and back, and is savagely attacked when he returns to his room. Martin Beck, who had just spent the evening with his daughter, has just gotten into bed at 2:30 a.m. when the phone rings. The caller is Einar Rönn, also on the murder squad, who calls Beck because of the identity of the dead man: it is Chief Inspector Stig Nyman. Digging into his past, the investigators discover numerous complaints of mistreatment and brutality against Nyman, which doesn't make their job any easier. In the meantime, Martin Beck is seized with a feeling of dread -- intuiting danger ahead.
The Abominable Man is another excellent novel from Sjowall and Wahloo, and it is darker in tone than any of its predecessors, one of the most intense books of the series so far. There are the typical moments of humor, but much less so than in prior novels. The authors' focus in this installment ranges from the effects of the 1965 nationalization of the police force to the altering of Stockholm's city center over the previous decade in a "frenzy of modernization." But these sort of comments are the meat of these books, considering the entire 10-book is subtitled "The Story of a Crime." As Maj Sjowall notes in an
article in the Guardian a couple of years back,
"We realised that people read crime and through the stories we could show the reader that under the official image of welfare-state Sweden there was another layer of poverty, criminality and brutality. We wanted to show where Sweden was heading: towards a capitalistic, cold and inhuman society, where the rich got richer, the poor got poorer."
As in most of these novels, there's a sense of overwhelming frustration that lasts throughout the story, first on the part of the police, who find their jobs more difficult and as Martin Beck feels, often "pointless." Matters are only made worse when during a crisis Beck's "politically reliable" superintendent gets involved, but whose "qualifications as a policeman were more open to question." But it's not just the police -- the frustration of many ordinary citizens who turn to the authorities for help here is so well portrayed that while reading the story one can almost feel it.
The Abominable Man is one of the most atmospheric novels in the series, and in my humble opinion as a reader, one of the best. While Sjöwall and Wahlöö manage to get their sociopolitical points across, they're also damn good crime fiction writers and their plotting is superb. You can't really ask for much better than that.
The Abominable Man is another excellent novel from Sjowall and Wahloo, and it is darker in tone than any of its predecessors, one of the most intense books of the series so far. There are the typical moments of humor, but much less so than in prior novels. The authors' focus in this installment ranges from the effects of the 1965 nationalization of the police force to the altering of Stockholm's city center over the previous decade in a "frenzy of modernization." But these sort of comments are the meat of these books, considering the entire 10-book is subtitled "The Story of a Crime." As Maj Sjowall notes in an
article in the Guardian a couple of years back,
"We realised that people read crime and through the stories we could show the reader that under the official image of welfare-state Sweden there was another layer of poverty, criminality and brutality. We wanted to show where Sweden was heading: towards a capitalistic, cold and inhuman society, where the rich got richer, the poor got poorer."
As in most of these novels, there's a sense of overwhelming frustration that lasts throughout the story, first on the part of the police, who find their jobs more difficult and as Martin Beck feels, often "pointless." Matters are only made worse when during a crisis Beck's "politically reliable" superintendent gets involved, but whose "qualifications as a policeman were more open to question." But it's not just the police -- the frustration of many ordinary citizens who turn to the authorities for help here is so well portrayed that while reading the story one can almost feel it.
The Abominable Man is one of the most atmospheric novels in the series, and in my humble opinion as a reader, one of the best. While Sjöwall and Wahlöö manage to get their sociopolitical points across, they're also damn good crime fiction writers and their plotting is superb. You can't really ask for much better than that.
February 14, 2018
Quite a thrilling narrative. I seriously can't put this down. The nervousness and all the murder mess-- so intriguing. Dark and disturbing.
Plot, structure and flows done perfectly. I like that authors giving different perspectives and views on certain scenes accordingly to each characters. Understandable, great story-telling, not bland and quite exciting.
It was getting unsure in the middle, giving me so much assumptions and guessing game but for what the suspect had to suffer and encounter in his life was totally unbearable. I kind of understand on the revenge part but the stuff he did was still beyond reasonable-- Nyman part especially. But knowing what had Nyman did, the blatantly part of the organization, all the mess-- I was in anger at a point while reading the complainant's reports. So unfair and cruel. The insight of Swedish police procedural, cronies and abusive of power.
Love the heroic scenes nearly the end-- Beck, Rönn, Gunvald Larsson and Kollberg. I am so a fan to this team!
Plot, structure and flows done perfectly. I like that authors giving different perspectives and views on certain scenes accordingly to each characters. Understandable, great story-telling, not bland and quite exciting.
It was getting unsure in the middle, giving me so much assumptions and guessing game but for what the suspect had to suffer and encounter in his life was totally unbearable. I kind of understand on the revenge part but the stuff he did was still beyond reasonable-- Nyman part especially. But knowing what had Nyman did, the blatantly part of the organization, all the mess-- I was in anger at a point while reading the complainant's reports. So unfair and cruel. The insight of Swedish police procedural, cronies and abusive of power.
Love the heroic scenes nearly the end-- Beck, Rönn, Gunvald Larsson and Kollberg. I am so a fan to this team!
October 24, 2015
By the time of book 7 of the final 10 of the "Novels about a crime", the writing couple of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö had about nothing left to prove. This book, however, is one of the strongest of the series. Hard to compare to anything else, this is about crime in Stockholm in the 60's, but I think you won't need any prior knowledge to appreciate the mellow-paced and melancholic, only to be disrupted by brutality and violence, story.
November 15, 2021
Ancora una volta Martin Beck alle prese con un'indagine strana. Un omicidio efferato, un contesto sociale che riveste un'importanza rilevante (come quasi sempre nei gialli di Sjowall e Wahloo), un'inchiesta che procede senza salti logici. In apparenza c'e' tutto insomma. Anche la qualita' della scrittura che e' come sempre davvero notevole, cosi' come quella dei dialoghi, sempre credibili e le dinamiche dei personaggi sorprendentemente plausibili. Eppure si ha la sensazione di un lavoro scritto con scarsa convinzione. Gradevole ma non del tutto appagante.
August 17, 2023
Another fast and fun Martin Beck case. Subtle as a sledgehammer, the social criticism, but who cares when our hero and his team of grumblers are after a cop killer whose weapon of choice is a.. Bayonet! Such a bloody mess. And not the only weapon he's handy with. The why and the who make it compelling, the action makes it spectacular and tense. Yes, shots will be fired. And lots of 'em. Best Beck I have read. Best Beck I have seen as well. With that I mean Bo Widerberg's (little known?) film adaptation The Man on the Roof (1976). Worth the watch for the helicopter scene alone.
August 9, 2025
Serinin 7. kitabı ve açık ara bence en iyisi.
Polisin teşkilat içi yüzleşme, özeleştiri ve hesaplaşması. Ölen kalan kimler olacak meraktayım.
Elime aldım ve kitabı bırakamadım. 👌
Polisin teşkilat içi yüzleşme, özeleştiri ve hesaplaşması. Ölen kalan kimler olacak meraktayım.
Elime aldım ve kitabı bırakamadım. 👌
July 11, 2022
El mejor de la saga hasta ahora. Sorpresón. Un final tremendo (y abrupto, claro. Como les gusta a los autores).
Subidón.
Subidón.
May 26, 2014
I've come to the conclusion that this series should not be read so much as police procedural mysteries as social studies of Sweden at a particular point in time - the 1960s. So much of the narrative is taken up with the authors' observations about and critiques of the social welfare society that was that country at that time.
The central point and organizational theory of this particular entry in the series is the consequence of police excesses. It presents a police department that has lost the respect of the populace because of the rampant corruption and brutality that has become so much a part of that essential organization.
We are introduced briefly to a police inspector who is known to be exceptionally cruel in his treatment of the policemen under his command and particularly the prisoners who are unfortunate enough to find themselves under his control. Beatings are routine. Ignoring medical needs is a common occurrence.
The result of this indifference to the condition of those locked in cells has its entirely predictable end. People suffer and die. Needlessly.
The brutal police inspector is in the hospital when we meet him. He is seriously ill, but would have recovered his doctor says. He doesn't get the chance. Someone breaks into his room and dispatches him with a bayonet, essentially disemboweling him in the process.
There is no lack of potential suspects, people who would have wished this man dead with good cause. There are citizens who were beaten by the man and his minions. There are those who were merely ill but were arrested because they were suspected of being drunk - epileptics and diabetics, for example, some of whom died in custody. Was it one of their survivors who decided to even the score?
But the dead man was hardly the only one responsible for such brutality. Are other policemen on the kill list of the murderer? Does that list include policemen who knew that the brutality was taking place but did nothing to stop it? Is Martin Beck's name on the list?
Martin Beck and his colleagues comb police records looking for potential suspects. They are overwhelmed by the volume and exhausted by the search. It is true that when a policeman is killed - even a bad policeman like this one - his colleagues spare no effort in finding the perpetrator. The authors note that there are many murders that go unsolved but none of them are murders of policemen. All such crimes end in the perpetrator being brought to justice. Or killed.
Martin Beck's famous instinct tells him that he and other policemen are in danger and, as usual, his instinct is correct. The murderer holes up on the roof of a building from which he can pick off his targets - all of them policemen - one by one, which is just what he proceeds to do. And so we have what has become an iconic event of the 21st century in America - except this is the decade after the middle of the 20th century in Sweden: A mass murderer wielding a rifle.
In the end, it didn't take any great amount of police work to unmask the killer this time. More important in this case was the explanation of the killer's motive and what sent him over the edge and into insanity. One feels nothing but sympathy for the man.
Shocking as the ending is, it is utterly predictable and the authors lead us to that conclusion step-by-step. I find their method of telling these stories fascinating, particularly the great care they take in describing and setting the scene. One is always able to "see" just what is happening and the environment in which it is happening. Nothing is really left to the imagination. Some readers might find the copious detail somewhat annoying but, to me, it just seems a very clean and clear way of telling a story.
The central point and organizational theory of this particular entry in the series is the consequence of police excesses. It presents a police department that has lost the respect of the populace because of the rampant corruption and brutality that has become so much a part of that essential organization.
We are introduced briefly to a police inspector who is known to be exceptionally cruel in his treatment of the policemen under his command and particularly the prisoners who are unfortunate enough to find themselves under his control. Beatings are routine. Ignoring medical needs is a common occurrence.
The result of this indifference to the condition of those locked in cells has its entirely predictable end. People suffer and die. Needlessly.
The brutal police inspector is in the hospital when we meet him. He is seriously ill, but would have recovered his doctor says. He doesn't get the chance. Someone breaks into his room and dispatches him with a bayonet, essentially disemboweling him in the process.
There is no lack of potential suspects, people who would have wished this man dead with good cause. There are citizens who were beaten by the man and his minions. There are those who were merely ill but were arrested because they were suspected of being drunk - epileptics and diabetics, for example, some of whom died in custody. Was it one of their survivors who decided to even the score?
But the dead man was hardly the only one responsible for such brutality. Are other policemen on the kill list of the murderer? Does that list include policemen who knew that the brutality was taking place but did nothing to stop it? Is Martin Beck's name on the list?
Martin Beck and his colleagues comb police records looking for potential suspects. They are overwhelmed by the volume and exhausted by the search. It is true that when a policeman is killed - even a bad policeman like this one - his colleagues spare no effort in finding the perpetrator. The authors note that there are many murders that go unsolved but none of them are murders of policemen. All such crimes end in the perpetrator being brought to justice. Or killed.
Martin Beck's famous instinct tells him that he and other policemen are in danger and, as usual, his instinct is correct. The murderer holes up on the roof of a building from which he can pick off his targets - all of them policemen - one by one, which is just what he proceeds to do. And so we have what has become an iconic event of the 21st century in America - except this is the decade after the middle of the 20th century in Sweden: A mass murderer wielding a rifle.
In the end, it didn't take any great amount of police work to unmask the killer this time. More important in this case was the explanation of the killer's motive and what sent him over the edge and into insanity. One feels nothing but sympathy for the man.
Shocking as the ending is, it is utterly predictable and the authors lead us to that conclusion step-by-step. I find their method of telling these stories fascinating, particularly the great care they take in describing and setting the scene. One is always able to "see" just what is happening and the environment in which it is happening. Nothing is really left to the imagination. Some readers might find the copious detail somewhat annoying but, to me, it just seems a very clean and clear way of telling a story.
January 4, 2011
It is positively reassuring to have the authors create a group of police detectives so distinct that we pale at the thought that they may be injured, or worse, cut from the next volume in the series. The language is so fresh and without accent, the only thing preventing us from imagining it happening today is that there are no cell phones to clutter the action. It is painful to see something happening in slow motion in these pages, all the while knowing this could never happen anywhere in the world today. The authors are so dry in their humor and restrained in their expression, that I have definitely developed a warm spot for criminal investigator Martin Beck. This gives us a hint at the authors' characterization:
Martin Beck said nothing. He'd never been awfully impressed with Rönn, but it had never occurred to him that the feeling might be mutual.The ending of this book is perfect understatement in every way.
April 19, 2019
Το Τέρας αποδείχθηκε πολυπρόσωπο και πολυδιάστατο! "Γεμάτο" και "πλούσιο" σε πληροφορίες και εικόνες,από μια κοινωνία που προσπαθεί να βρει τα πατήματά της,κάνοντας τα πρώτα της βήματα προς την επόμενη φάση της-λουστραρισμένη μεν,εξοστρακίζοντας το ενοχλητικό φτωχό κομμάτι της,δε.
Ένα εξαιρετικό αστυνομικό,με δυνατή και σφιχτή πλοκή,απολαυστικό μέχρι την τελευταία πρόταση.(Εποχής βέβαια,μην περιμένετε να δικαιολογούνται και να αναλύονται τα πάντα με το νι και με το σίγμα όπως στα σύγχρονα 700σέλιδα😉)Περιεκτικό και μεστό,εμφανώς ο θεμέλιος λίθος των μισών τουλάχιστον αστυνομικών που έχω διαβάσει,5⭐.
Ένα εξαιρετικό αστυνομικό,με δυνατή και σφιχτή πλοκή,απολαυστικό μέχρι την τελευταία πρόταση.(Εποχής βέβαια,μην περιμένετε να δικαιολογούνται και να αναλύονται τα πάντα με το νι και με το σίγμα όπως στα σύγχρονα 700σέλιδα😉)Περιεκτικό και μεστό,εμφανώς ο θεμέλιος λίθος των μισών τουλάχιστον αστυνομικών που έχω διαβάσει,5⭐.
November 27, 2020
Minden tiszteletem a szerzőpárosé, akik „köpönyegéből bújt ki” lényegében a skandináv krimi, de legalábbis nagy hatással voltak a műfajra. Ötöst azért nem tudok adni, amiért a többi értékelő: kissé vontatott, sok a baloldaliság, kevés az eksön. Vége meg nincs is. Az elveszett tűzoltóautó sokkal jobban tetszett. Azért szeretem a humorát, meg a 70-es évek Stockholmját. Sajnálom, hogy csak néhány Martin Beck kötet jelent meg magyarul.
April 15, 2021
El título es bastante llamativo, eso fue lo que me llevó a leerlo. Los personajes son planos y no te llegas a encariñar con ninguno. Otra cosa que no me gustó: sobre explica mucho las cosas.
Algunas acciones que hacen los personajes secundarios al final, no tienen mucho sentido.
El libro es interesante, no aburre y lleva bien la atmósfera del misterio, algo que me gustó es que le dieran una razón potente al asesino.
Algunas acciones que hacen los personajes secundarios al final, no tienen mucho sentido.
El libro es interesante, no aburre y lleva bien la atmósfera del misterio, algo que me gustó es que le dieran una razón potente al asesino.
April 7, 2025
It's 1971, and this one is unusually quick. We are used to Martin Beck and his colleagues busy for weeks and months when solving a crime. This time it's just 2 days, I think - at least two of them never even get to sleep. And there is quite a bit of action, a gruesome murder at first and a show-down on a roof in the centre of Stockholm.
I liked the unusual pairings of Martin Beck-Einar Rönn and Lennart Kollberg-Gunvald Larsson. Thrown together not by choice but coincidence, they work so well together. I admit it pains me whenever pieces of Gunvald's classy clothing are destroyed ...
And again the dilemma: a victim who "deserved" to be killed and a killer who was driven to desperate measures, for whom one can't help feeling sorry.
7 down, 3 to go.
2025 reread: Still great, so what else is new ... I believe neither Martin Beck nor Einar Rönn get any sleep at all during this case, or do they?? Oh sorry, repeating myself. ;)
I liked the unusual pairings of Martin Beck-Einar Rönn and Lennart Kollberg-Gunvald Larsson. Thrown together not by choice but coincidence, they work so well together. I admit it pains me whenever pieces of Gunvald's classy clothing are destroyed ...
And again the dilemma: a victim who "deserved" to be killed and a killer who was driven to desperate measures, for whom one can't help feeling sorry.
7 down, 3 to go.
2025 reread: Still great, so what else is new ... I believe neither Martin Beck nor Einar Rönn get any sleep at all during this case, or do they?? Oh sorry, repeating myself. ;)
June 4, 2014
Book 7 looks critically at the problem of police brutality and how it is covered up within the infamous code of blue, even in Sweden. A senior policeman is murdered in the hospital, and as Beck investigates, he learns that the policeman often took the law into his own hands, dispensing justice. Apparently the book was published in 1971, the same year that "Dirty Harry" was released in the U.S. The final 25% was action-packed, putting the reader in the middle of a terrifying inner-city Stockholm scene: gunman-on-the-roof, lone-madman vs. the entire police force, with many innocents in between.
July 9, 2015
Otra magnífica novela policíaca del personaje Martín Beck, en este caso ante un episodio de brutalidad policial. Sjowall no deja pasar un estamento sin crítica feroz, resignadamente admite que las sociedades burocratizadas no tienen remedio.
March 15, 2020
The Martin Beck series isn’t really about Martin, it’s about his entire squad of detectives, each with their quirks and skills. One of the pleasures of this series is watching these cantankerous characters interact.
Another pleasure is the whole grim Scandinavian setting. It’s nice to take a break from all my Southern California mysteries to see a very different time and place.
The weakness of this particular novel is the story itself. The authors appear to be mostly interested in attacking police brutality. This is a worthy target to throw rocks at, but they forget to build a satisfying plot. As a mystery, The Abominable Man is a failure. It’s obvious who the killer is from the moment he is introduced, but the cops only figure it out after the he publicly and violently reveals himself. The end is action-packed, but unsatisfying in a number of ways that I won’t mention because I don’t want to spill any spoilers.
I love this series, but this one of the weaker volumes.
Another pleasure is the whole grim Scandinavian setting. It’s nice to take a break from all my Southern California mysteries to see a very different time and place.
The weakness of this particular novel is the story itself. The authors appear to be mostly interested in attacking police brutality. This is a worthy target to throw rocks at, but they forget to build a satisfying plot. As a mystery, The Abominable Man is a failure. It’s obvious who the killer is from the moment he is introduced, but the cops only figure it out after the he publicly and violently reveals himself. The end is action-packed, but unsatisfying in a number of ways that I won’t mention because I don’t want to spill any spoilers.
I love this series, but this one of the weaker volumes.
January 30, 2020
Seventh novel in the Martin Beck mystery series," together known as "The story of crime." "The gruesome murder of a police captain in his hospital room reveals the unsavory history of a man who spent forty years practicing a horrible blend of strong arm police work and sheer brutality. Martin Beck and his colleagues feverishly comb Stockholm for the murderer, a demented and deadly rifleman, who has plans for even more chaos. As the tension builds and a feeling of imminent danger grips Bec, his investigation unearths evidence of police corruption."
January 26, 2021
The Abominable Man may be the best of the ten Martin Beck novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. It’s certainly the best of the six I’ve read to date. In this, the first Nordic noir series, the left-wing couple routinely explores the disruptive changes overcoming Swedish society in the 1960s and 70s. The police themselves come in for a close look from time to time. But only in this gripping thriller do Sjöwall and Wahlöö dig deeply into the violent history of Swedish law enforcement. If anything, the sad consequences of that history represent the novel’s theme—and it’s no surprise the police do not come off well.
A senior policeman is murdered
A man of sixty, confined to a Stockholm hospital after heart surgery, is savagely murdered and mutilated in the middle of the night. An intruder with a bayonet has crawled through an open window in his ground-floor room. The patient is Chief Inspector Stig Nyman. A police officer who arrives at the scene immediately calls the Homicide Squad, and Martin Beck is awakened.
Martin Beck is the long-suffering chief of the National Homicide Squad in Stockholm. Not long ago, he and his wife Inga separated, and their nineteen-year-old daughter, Ingrid, moved away from home. Beck has few friends on the force and none outside it. Most of his colleagues just tolerate him, and he them. He devotes himself to his work for the police and to building tiny, intricate models of clipper ships at home.
The man’s murder suggests a link to his violent past
In many of the investigations carried out by Beck and his team, days, weeks, even months go by before connections to the victim begin falling into place. Not so here. Because Stig Nyman is the eponymous “abominable man.” He’s an old-school policeman, a relic of the days when the Swedish police commonly beat confessions out of suspects, extorted bribes from businessmen, and often subjected the victims themselves to the harshest treatment. For Martin Beck, then, Nyman’s murder seems obviously linked in some way to the man’s brutal history on the force. And the investigation he undertakes quickly reopens old wounds as the Chief Inspector’s record enters the harsh light of day.
The first Nordic noir series: classic police procedurals
As in other novels in this series of police procedurals, the other members of Beck’s squad play major roles. Beck himself is often in the background. But in The Abominable Man he holds center stage for much of the action. His “right-hand man,” the very able Lennart Kollberg, plays a prominent role, too. As do Fredrik Melander, “the man with the legendary memory,” and Einar Rönn, who is reluctant to admit the truth of the many reports about Nyman’s illegal behavior. Sjöwall and Wahlöö give every character his due. The Homicide Squad operates as a team.
Problems with the Swedish police
Beck is interviewing Stig Nyman’s protegè, Captain Harald Hult. Hult laments when he learns of his mentor’s death, “He taught me a lot.” And Beck responds, “How to commit perjury, for example? How to copy each other’s reports so everything’ll jibe, even if every word’s a lie? How to rough people up in their cells? Where the best places are to park in peace and quiet if you want to give some poor bastard a little extra going over on the way from the precinct to Criminal?”
Yes, Martin Beck knows that such practices were common in the bad old days. But Chief Inspector Nyman’s sadism had continued to play itself out unchallenged until illness recently forced him to retire. And Hult himself is known to be violent.
How smart is the average policeman?
So, how could problems like this persist? “Sociologists got all kinds of ideas,” Beck muses. “For example, they came up with the fact that you no longer needed better than a D average to get into the Police Academy, and that the average IQ of patrolmen in Stockholm had dropped to 93.” And a colleague, a police superintendent who “had picked up his knowledge of police work at the movies,” complains: “It’s a lie! . . . And what’s more it isn’t true! And on top of that it isn’t any lower than in New York!” The exchange seems to suggest that the sociologists got it right. And, elsewhere, the authors’ portrayal of patrolmen at work reinforce the sociologists’ findings.
Today’s Swedish Police Authority has long been reformed since the time Sjöwall and Wahlöö wrote five decades ago. It’s no longer the exclusive preserve of men, and qualifications for entry have been stiffened. Women hold 34 percent of the top positions in the force today. And, in a 2014 report, Sweden (along with Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg) was shown to have the lowest levels of police bribery in the European Union, with less than one percent of those surveyed expecting to be able to pay off law enforcement officers.
About the authors
Maj Sjöwall’s death in April 2020 at the age of eighty-four marked the closure of a major chapter in the saga of Scandinavian noir. Her husband and collaborator, Per Wahlöö, had died at forty-nine in 1975, the year the last of the ten novels in this, the original Nordic noir series, was published. The two are justifiably regarded both within Scandinavia and internationally as pioneers in the evolution of Nordic detective fiction. Authors of crime novels throughout the region cite them as sources of inspiration.
A senior policeman is murdered
A man of sixty, confined to a Stockholm hospital after heart surgery, is savagely murdered and mutilated in the middle of the night. An intruder with a bayonet has crawled through an open window in his ground-floor room. The patient is Chief Inspector Stig Nyman. A police officer who arrives at the scene immediately calls the Homicide Squad, and Martin Beck is awakened.
Martin Beck is the long-suffering chief of the National Homicide Squad in Stockholm. Not long ago, he and his wife Inga separated, and their nineteen-year-old daughter, Ingrid, moved away from home. Beck has few friends on the force and none outside it. Most of his colleagues just tolerate him, and he them. He devotes himself to his work for the police and to building tiny, intricate models of clipper ships at home.
The man’s murder suggests a link to his violent past
In many of the investigations carried out by Beck and his team, days, weeks, even months go by before connections to the victim begin falling into place. Not so here. Because Stig Nyman is the eponymous “abominable man.” He’s an old-school policeman, a relic of the days when the Swedish police commonly beat confessions out of suspects, extorted bribes from businessmen, and often subjected the victims themselves to the harshest treatment. For Martin Beck, then, Nyman’s murder seems obviously linked in some way to the man’s brutal history on the force. And the investigation he undertakes quickly reopens old wounds as the Chief Inspector’s record enters the harsh light of day.
The first Nordic noir series: classic police procedurals
As in other novels in this series of police procedurals, the other members of Beck’s squad play major roles. Beck himself is often in the background. But in The Abominable Man he holds center stage for much of the action. His “right-hand man,” the very able Lennart Kollberg, plays a prominent role, too. As do Fredrik Melander, “the man with the legendary memory,” and Einar Rönn, who is reluctant to admit the truth of the many reports about Nyman’s illegal behavior. Sjöwall and Wahlöö give every character his due. The Homicide Squad operates as a team.
Problems with the Swedish police
Beck is interviewing Stig Nyman’s protegè, Captain Harald Hult. Hult laments when he learns of his mentor’s death, “He taught me a lot.” And Beck responds, “How to commit perjury, for example? How to copy each other’s reports so everything’ll jibe, even if every word’s a lie? How to rough people up in their cells? Where the best places are to park in peace and quiet if you want to give some poor bastard a little extra going over on the way from the precinct to Criminal?”
Yes, Martin Beck knows that such practices were common in the bad old days. But Chief Inspector Nyman’s sadism had continued to play itself out unchallenged until illness recently forced him to retire. And Hult himself is known to be violent.
How smart is the average policeman?
So, how could problems like this persist? “Sociologists got all kinds of ideas,” Beck muses. “For example, they came up with the fact that you no longer needed better than a D average to get into the Police Academy, and that the average IQ of patrolmen in Stockholm had dropped to 93.” And a colleague, a police superintendent who “had picked up his knowledge of police work at the movies,” complains: “It’s a lie! . . . And what’s more it isn’t true! And on top of that it isn’t any lower than in New York!” The exchange seems to suggest that the sociologists got it right. And, elsewhere, the authors’ portrayal of patrolmen at work reinforce the sociologists’ findings.
Today’s Swedish Police Authority has long been reformed since the time Sjöwall and Wahlöö wrote five decades ago. It’s no longer the exclusive preserve of men, and qualifications for entry have been stiffened. Women hold 34 percent of the top positions in the force today. And, in a 2014 report, Sweden (along with Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg) was shown to have the lowest levels of police bribery in the European Union, with less than one percent of those surveyed expecting to be able to pay off law enforcement officers.
About the authors
Maj Sjöwall’s death in April 2020 at the age of eighty-four marked the closure of a major chapter in the saga of Scandinavian noir. Her husband and collaborator, Per Wahlöö, had died at forty-nine in 1975, the year the last of the ten novels in this, the original Nordic noir series, was published. The two are justifiably regarded both within Scandinavia and internationally as pioneers in the evolution of Nordic detective fiction. Authors of crime novels throughout the region cite them as sources of inspiration.
February 13, 2025
In the seventh entry in the Martin Beck series, a police officer on sick leave is murdered. As Beck and his colleagues begin to investigate, they discover many examples of abhorrent behaviour in this man's past. Lots of people had reason to fear and dislike the victim, who hated him the most?
This fantastic series never lets me down with its intricate investigations that slowly reveal the truth. I think The Abominable Man may be my favourite so far. 4.5 stars as I'm still absorbing the ending.
This fantastic series never lets me down with its intricate investigations that slowly reveal the truth. I think The Abominable Man may be my favourite so far. 4.5 stars as I'm still absorbing the ending.
September 5, 2018
Social critique of Sweden’s police power at the time, about 1970, and some heroic police work coupled with some administrative police boneheadedness - after this many in the series, you know the guys like characters in an ensemble police tv show.
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