The lightning-paced fifth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, finds Beck investigating one of the strangest, most violent, and unforgettable crimes of his career.The incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the building's eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Beck's colleagues hadn't been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe because somehow a regulation fire-truck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what if, anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a 46-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: "Martin Beck"?
The Fire Engine that Disappeared
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“A police procedural from the top drawer.”—Colin Dexter, from the introduction“Superbly well done. . . . Stunning right up to the last paragraph.”—New York Magazine“The first great series of police thrillers. . . . Truly exciting.”—Michael Ondaatje“Sjöwall and Wahlöö, beside writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Georges Simenon, have shaped the genre and the reader's expectations as to what crime fiction should be.”—Jo Nesbo
About the Author
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, her husband and coauthor, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries. Mr Wahlöö, who died in 1975, was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines and wrote numerous radio and television plays, film scripts, short stories, and novels. Maj Sjöwall is also a poet.
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By Haro Strait
Format:Paperback
This book is a precursor to all the police procedurals we have come to love from Sweden (e.g. Henning Mankell). Written in 1970, it is a quirky - almost bizarre - police investigation into a fire that claims the lives of a couple of people. Like the Mankell books, it also brings into focus the personal lives of some of the officers. It helps to know a little Swedish geography - especially Stockholm - before reading this book. The book's introduction is by Colin Dexter of Inspector Morse fame - it's also a bit odd.
By Dave and Joe
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This is book 5 in a series that needs to be read in order starting with Roseanna, the first. As you get to know the characters through brief glimpses into their private lives, you begin to understand how they work as people and how that influences their methods of investigation. This series has deserved this reprint that gives us an opportunity to discover these books published in Sweden in the 60's. It's amazing to consider only a couple of decades ago that cops worked without computers or fax machines. They had to keep focus over a long period of time in order to solve a crime. This allows for real frustration which manages to build not diminish, suspence.
By jlsoaz
Format:Paperback
set in 70's Sweden, one of the "Martin Beck" Mysteries (there are 10 of them I think). Although they were Swedish, they made it into mainstream American Paperback print. Racy covers with contradictorily reasonably serious themes and decent writing.
"And just why is it not longer in print?" one of the bureaucrats might ask.
"Ridiculous" Beck might think under his breath.
These books give me the feeling that the authors really had a lot of experience in the world of police detective work. I don't know if they did or not. I think perhaps they were journalists who covered some criminal investigations.
There isn't a gunfight on every other page, and they don't get the guy who did it quite as easily as all that.
The work is methodical and frustrating, but in the end things get done and in the end the book is a satisfying read with small insights into both the work and the lives of the men.
This particular one has a good bit of Gunvald Larsson (not exactly Beck's favorite colleague, but definitely my favorite character) and the brick walls he very nearly runs into in trying to solve this case.
The comic relief, like the more serious moments, is reserved but very well done. I've reread some of the Larsson scenes many times.
jl
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