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etakloknok's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
tony_t's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was, I believe, the second Martin Beck police mystery that I’ve read and I don’t remember the first one. But i thoroughly enjoyed “The Locked Room” for its cast of characters, its cleverly convoluted but believeable plot, and the humor that is included with delightful regularity. I was expecting something noirish (it is Swedish after all) but found instead a happy and/or deserved resolution for most characters. A big smiley face emoji for this novel.
prcizmadia's review against another edition
3.0
Next time I pick up a mystery novel, I'm going to make sure it's not NUMBER EIGHT in a series. I found it hard to get into this one and the characters felt kind of inscrutable, but I guess that will happen if there's seven books in front of this one. That said, I still get into it pretty hard in the middle, and it's interesting to hear a perspective of 1970s Swedish society. Doesn't sound like a place I want to be.
patambro's review against another edition
3.0
La novela tiene sus altos y bajos. No es uniforme. Por momentos entretiene, por momentos aburre. Me quedo con una parte, la del policía Martín Beck. El resto es meter otra historia dentro de la original que lleva al título. Tenía otra expectativa.
The novel has its ups and downs. It is not uniform. At times it entertains, at times it bores. I'll take a part, that of the policeman Martín Beck. The rest is to put another story inside the original that leads to the title. I had another expectation.
The novel has its ups and downs. It is not uniform. At times it entertains, at times it bores. I'll take a part, that of the policeman Martín Beck. The rest is to put another story inside the original that leads to the title. I had another expectation.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
3.0
The eighth installment of this series finds Martin Beck just returning to work after a life-threatening encounter with a bullet. His colleagues are trying to put a stop to an outbreak of robberies--primarily bank robberies, but robberies of all sorts have taken over Stockholm. Most recently, a young woman walked into a bank, wound up with 87 thousand kroner, and shot a man who tried to stop her. Witnesses' accounts conflict (don't they always?)--she had several different outfits; she got into a blue car or a beige one--no, wait she didn't get in a car at all; she had accomplices waiting for her or maybe she just drove off/walked away alone. Who knows? The head of the bank robbery investigations--District Attorney "Bulldozer" Olsson soon decides it's one of a string of robberies planned by criminal mastermind Werner Roos. According to Bulldozer, Roos is planning a BIG robbery--his biggest yet--and the DA is adamant that they're going to get him this time.
A hot lead to Roos's plans practically falls into Bulldozer's lap, but will he and his team be able to use it to their advantage (Spoiler Alert---that's a big no). Meanwhile, Beck is handed an impossible crime to solve. The body of Karl Edvin Svard was found shot to death (after several weeks) behind the quadruple-locked door of his apartment. All the windows were shaded, unbroken, and locked as well. The local officers quickly filed it under suicide--but the case is handed over to Beck because things don't quite add up. For one thing, if the man shot himself, where is the gun? In an odd little twist, it's found in the most interesting place...Beck will, of course, figure it all out. But will he be able to prove it? And what about those bank robberies?
I'm having a difficult time deciding what I think of this one. It is both entertaining (in a Keystone Cops kind of way) to read about the absolutely inept handling of the bank robbery investigations by Bulldozer and his special team and depressing to see how little justice and correct police procedure ultimately figure in this story.
Seriously, if you can read the scene where Larsson and Kollberg and company bust into the room where they believe two of the bank robbers are holed up and Larsson winds up hanging out the window, one of the nervous uniformed officers shoots the lights out (literally) as well as hitting a hot water pipe (insert image of spraying hot water pipe), the police attack dog bites one of the officers and refuses to let go, and--as a grand finale--one of them tosses in some tear gas...and you don't laugh, then I guess you just don't like physical humor. It's slapstick straight from the era of silent film. And, of course, the bad guys aren't even there anymore. And the crackerjack band hot on the trail of the bank robbers don't get any better. Just wait till they screw up the intelligence they receive on the upcoming BIG bank job.
So, entertaining? Yes, indeed. And the locked room mystery is pretty good as well. Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö use an old trick to good effect and there's enough going on to distract most readers from seeing it until Beck finds the answer.
But...then there's the actual police investigations--breaking and entering for evidence; the whole Bulldozer fiasco; Beck not being sure his taping equipment is working properly (though--Beck comes through the best in this book). And there's all sorts of shady goings-on among the police. Not to mention that at the end of the book, Beck's superiors decide not to promote him (there had been rumors) and why? Because they think he's unbalanced. Now--just to be clear, Beck doesn't want to be promoted. He wants to keep on investigating crimes and not be kicked up to a desk job. [And he's definitely not unbalanced--he's probably the best detective they've got.] But, let's just suppose that Beck really is unbalanced. His superiors think it's better to keep an unbalanced Beck where he is--investigating crimes and dealing with the public?! There's some fine bureaucratic thinking for you... I know that this sort of thing happens in real life--but I'm not all that keen on my fiction being so realistic. I like the wheels of justice to run smooth in my detective stories.
On balance, this is a solid story. I enjoyed the mystery and I especially enjoyed the slapstick antics and Martin Beck's portion of the plot. If it hadn't been for the (to me) depressing realism of how justice (and the police) really works, I would probably rate it higher.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
A hot lead to Roos's plans practically falls into Bulldozer's lap, but will he and his team be able to use it to their advantage (Spoiler Alert---that's a big no). Meanwhile, Beck is handed an impossible crime to solve. The body of Karl Edvin Svard was found shot to death (after several weeks) behind the quadruple-locked door of his apartment. All the windows were shaded, unbroken, and locked as well. The local officers quickly filed it under suicide--but the case is handed over to Beck because things don't quite add up. For one thing, if the man shot himself, where is the gun? In an odd little twist, it's found in the most interesting place...Beck will, of course, figure it all out. But will he be able to prove it? And what about those bank robberies?
I'm having a difficult time deciding what I think of this one. It is both entertaining (in a Keystone Cops kind of way) to read about the absolutely inept handling of the bank robbery investigations by Bulldozer and his special team and depressing to see how little justice and correct police procedure ultimately figure in this story.
Seriously, if you can read the scene where Larsson and Kollberg and company bust into the room where they believe two of the bank robbers are holed up and Larsson winds up hanging out the window, one of the nervous uniformed officers shoots the lights out (literally) as well as hitting a hot water pipe (insert image of spraying hot water pipe), the police attack dog bites one of the officers and refuses to let go, and--as a grand finale--one of them tosses in some tear gas...and you don't laugh, then I guess you just don't like physical humor. It's slapstick straight from the era of silent film. And, of course, the bad guys aren't even there anymore. And the crackerjack band hot on the trail of the bank robbers don't get any better. Just wait till they screw up the intelligence they receive on the upcoming BIG bank job.
So, entertaining? Yes, indeed. And the locked room mystery is pretty good as well. Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö use an old trick to good effect and there's enough going on to distract most readers from seeing it until Beck finds the answer.
But...then there's the actual police investigations--breaking and entering for evidence; the whole Bulldozer fiasco; Beck not being sure his taping equipment is working properly (though--Beck comes through the best in this book). And there's all sorts of shady goings-on among the police. Not to mention that at the end of the book, Beck's superiors decide not to promote him (there had been rumors) and why? Because they think he's unbalanced. Now--just to be clear, Beck doesn't want to be promoted. He wants to keep on investigating crimes and not be kicked up to a desk job. [And he's definitely not unbalanced--he's probably the best detective they've got.] But, let's just suppose that Beck really is unbalanced. His superiors think it's better to keep an unbalanced Beck where he is--investigating crimes and dealing with the public?! There's some fine bureaucratic thinking for you... I know that this sort of thing happens in real life--but I'm not all that keen on my fiction being so realistic. I like the wheels of justice to run smooth in my detective stories.
On balance, this is a solid story. I enjoyed the mystery and I especially enjoyed the slapstick antics and Martin Beck's portion of the plot. If it hadn't been for the (to me) depressing realism of how justice (and the police) really works, I would probably rate it higher.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
kanefriedenhagen's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bucherca49's review against another edition
3.0
An intriguing puzzle. Very focused on the police procedures. Social commentary on Swedish society of the 1970s.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t know that the Martin Beck series can possibly be better than The Locked Room. It hits every critical talking point the writing staff have tried to address in previous tales and it becomes something else entirely. It’s almost as if this book is writing through the reader rather than to them.
Some series don’t need to be read in sequential order. They may be even better if you don’t do that. I started the Lew Archer series out of order by accident and it’s my favorite detective series of all time. But this absolutely has to be read from Roseanna on because the payoffs are enormous the further you get into the series.
In The Locked Room, Sjöwall and Wahlöö try something I haven’t seen them do yet: write extensively from the perspective of the criminals. You don’t know if these particular criminals did the dirty deed or not but they’re tied into that world somehow and you get a peak at it. And what you find on both sides of the law is that these are not superheroes or masterminds but fatally flawed individuals who do things for their own motives in a country that the writers see as unjust (though I had to cry when the detectives talked about how awful it is to throw someone in jail for life because yes it is). The two mysteries develop over time (this is the longest book in the series so far) and you continue to follow the thread until they reach their rather entertaining and satisfying conclusion.
I cannot give this series enough Hosannas. I read the first book four years ago and was so unimpressed, I knew I would never go back to the series. Someone persuaded me to try book two and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m always grateful to that person for doing so because I can’t imagine missing out on the excellence of these stories.
Some series don’t need to be read in sequential order. They may be even better if you don’t do that. I started the Lew Archer series out of order by accident and it’s my favorite detective series of all time. But this absolutely has to be read from Roseanna on because the payoffs are enormous the further you get into the series.
In The Locked Room, Sjöwall and Wahlöö try something I haven’t seen them do yet: write extensively from the perspective of the criminals. You don’t know if these particular criminals did the dirty deed or not but they’re tied into that world somehow and you get a peak at it. And what you find on both sides of the law is that these are not superheroes or masterminds but fatally flawed individuals who do things for their own motives in a country that the writers see as unjust (though I had to cry when the detectives talked about how awful it is to throw someone in jail for life because yes it is). The two mysteries develop over time (this is the longest book in the series so far) and you continue to follow the thread until they reach their rather entertaining and satisfying conclusion.
I cannot give this series enough Hosannas. I read the first book four years ago and was so unimpressed, I knew I would never go back to the series. Someone persuaded me to try book two and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m always grateful to that person for doing so because I can’t imagine missing out on the excellence of these stories.
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
4.0
Each of these reissues of the 1960s-70s Swedish crimes series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo has an introduction by a current-day crime fiction writer. This eighth in the ten-part series is introduced by Michael Connelly. In his opening paragraph, he assures readers that, if they are about to "hop aboard" and read this book, they are in for a great ride. He did not lie. This is my favorite Martin Beck book so far.
It has all the elements that I find so interesting about the series. Sjowall and Wahloo use the vehicle of the detective novel to examine Swedish society, and, in a larger context, Western society, of the late twentieth century. They do it with the clear-eyed irony that such an endeavor demands and they achieve their goal with a wry humor. These mysteries are always meticulously plotted and, while they examine how crime happens, they also manage to explore how a city, a country, or a society can be complicit in those crimes.
The writers show the police at their incompetent worst and yet they manage to also convey the doggedness with which these ordinary men - and they are almost all men - pursue the solving of crimes. Even when they quite literally don't have a clue, they keep pushing, probing, poking through the detritus left by criminals until they come up with some sort of a solution. Even if, as in this case, it may not be the correct solution.
The start of this tale is all about a bank robbery. Stockholm is experiencing a rash of bank robberies in 1972, and so, in late June, when this one takes place, it seems a part of this epidemic, possibly planned and committed by the same "gang." One thing is different. In this case, one of the bank's customers tried to be a hero and accosted the robber - who promptly shot and killed him.
Meanwhile, we learn that Martin Beck, who was shot and seriously wounded at the end of the last book, is just about to return to work after many months of recovery. When he gets back on the job, he is assigned a locked room mystery.
A corpse was found in an apartment in a room that had all windows and doors locked from the inside. The corpse had lain there for a couple of months before being discovered. When it finally was examined, it was discovered that it had been shot, but there was no weapon in the room. It is a mystery that will require all of Martin Beck's famous intuition, as well as his dogged persistence, to solve.
The main priority of the Stockholm police, however, is solving the rash of bank robberies. In pursuit of that goal, the special team assigned mounts an operation which turns into a scene straight out of one of Peter Sellers' old Inspector Clouseau movies. It is laugh-out-loud, rolling-on-the-floor funny and still gives me chuckles every time I think of it.
In the beginning, it seems that the "locked room" corpse and the bank robberies have no links, but, as Martin Beck, in his solo investigation, runs down every lead, it finally becomes apparent that there is a point where the two cases overlap. Finding the evidence to prove it may be a different matter.
This story has great momentum. There is never a dull moment or a false step by the writers. The action never lags, and it makes the reader look forward with keen anticipation to the next entry in the series, while at the same time regretting that there are only two left. It really is that good.
Yes, definitely my favorite so far.
It has all the elements that I find so interesting about the series. Sjowall and Wahloo use the vehicle of the detective novel to examine Swedish society, and, in a larger context, Western society, of the late twentieth century. They do it with the clear-eyed irony that such an endeavor demands and they achieve their goal with a wry humor. These mysteries are always meticulously plotted and, while they examine how crime happens, they also manage to explore how a city, a country, or a society can be complicit in those crimes.
The writers show the police at their incompetent worst and yet they manage to also convey the doggedness with which these ordinary men - and they are almost all men - pursue the solving of crimes. Even when they quite literally don't have a clue, they keep pushing, probing, poking through the detritus left by criminals until they come up with some sort of a solution. Even if, as in this case, it may not be the correct solution.
The start of this tale is all about a bank robbery. Stockholm is experiencing a rash of bank robberies in 1972, and so, in late June, when this one takes place, it seems a part of this epidemic, possibly planned and committed by the same "gang." One thing is different. In this case, one of the bank's customers tried to be a hero and accosted the robber - who promptly shot and killed him.
Meanwhile, we learn that Martin Beck, who was shot and seriously wounded at the end of the last book, is just about to return to work after many months of recovery. When he gets back on the job, he is assigned a locked room mystery.
A corpse was found in an apartment in a room that had all windows and doors locked from the inside. The corpse had lain there for a couple of months before being discovered. When it finally was examined, it was discovered that it had been shot, but there was no weapon in the room. It is a mystery that will require all of Martin Beck's famous intuition, as well as his dogged persistence, to solve.
The main priority of the Stockholm police, however, is solving the rash of bank robberies. In pursuit of that goal, the special team assigned mounts an operation which turns into a scene straight out of one of Peter Sellers' old Inspector Clouseau movies. It is laugh-out-loud, rolling-on-the-floor funny and still gives me chuckles every time I think of it.
In the beginning, it seems that the "locked room" corpse and the bank robberies have no links, but, as Martin Beck, in his solo investigation, runs down every lead, it finally becomes apparent that there is a point where the two cases overlap. Finding the evidence to prove it may be a different matter.
This story has great momentum. There is never a dull moment or a false step by the writers. The action never lags, and it makes the reader look forward with keen anticipation to the next entry in the series, while at the same time regretting that there are only two left. It really is that good.
Yes, definitely my favorite so far.
brontebucket's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Good but not my favourite one in the series. Two threads to the book with the mystery of the dead man in the Locked Room and a sprightly if armed robberies in the City. Beck is back from time-out rehabilitation having been shot in previous book. Hw is cutting his teeth on the Locked Room investigation which his boss Malm thinks is pointless. Kollberg and others are in the bank robberies. We are introduced to henchmen from Germany and also the mastermind of the robberies. The book got better as it moved on. It had a good twist at the end and was all brought together very well. There had been talk of Beck being promoted to Commissioner which he didn’t want as a desk job but it was felt he was not ‘back to normal’ after his obsession with the Locked Room. He was happy not to be promoted. Not all detectives want to be managers!