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sarahsadiesmith's review against another edition
5.0
And now we are at the end. Sjöwall and Wahlöö don’t stumble over the finish line, The Terrorists is instead a high point in a series of high points. This novel keeps us occupied with no less than three crimes. As you may have surmised there is a terrorist attack, but also an apparent robbery and a murder for good measure. And they are only fodder (excellent 5 star fodder mind) to the final exploration into social injustice, and the crescendo of acerbity on the social polemic very much reaches it peak here. You will feel much empathy for one of the criminals in this novel, it’s a tiny bit heartbreaking. And that’s just how Sjöwall and Wahlöö roll, they cover these massive topics in a far reaching way and then at the individual with no discrepancy in effectiveness, it’s really quite remarkable.
Hovering in these books, more so in the later part of the series is an omniscient third person narrator used by the authors to convey their message. Our authors aren’t so keen on how Sweden was ran in the 1960s and 70s, there was this welfare experiment which fell somewhere between communism and capitalism and although it seemed to be a success in actual effect an awful lot of the population suffered great poverty, unemployment and where divested of their autonomy, Sweden had a significantly higher suicide rate than other countries and in these novels Sjöwall and Wahlöö where trying to show this preconceived notion that Sweden was some kind of paradise was nothing but a myth. They definitely manage to get their point across but it doesn’t come at the detriment of the stories nor to the characters who for the most part aren’t at all politicised it’s handled much more carefully than that. Rather than being some sort of ‘here we are going to just hop on our little soap box and rant for a minute’ they instead manage to perform some form of casual osmosis on the reader. If politics are vegetables I’m the kid that needs tricked into eating them, that I didn’t spit these back out speaks volumes.
I could use endless positive adjectives with respect to this book and, all the ones that came before, and I probably will before we are through but for the time being I’m going to talk about one of the characters I haven’t really mentioned in the prior reviews. Gunvald Larsson is a character that appears in all the novels (I think he might not be in the first one, but that is neither here nor there). Initially I didn’t like him so much, he is portrayed as a bit of a brute, this big lumbering policeman who charges down doors and has a bit of a temper on him. As the series progresses I found my opinion gradually changed, and now he’s one of my favourite characters in all books not just these ones. I always find it very impressive when authors manage to do this, create someone you shouldn’t like and then via some sort of sorcery turn them into a hero of sorts. He’s still a brute but he brings a lot of humour, sense and also says what he thinks regardless of it being unpopular. Traditionally I am never fond of people who put on airs and graces, nor am do I care for those that say one thing to your face and another behind your back, and as I get older I have less and less patience for it (by less I mean I have none, I am an exposed wire when it comes to this sort of thing) Larsson is the exact opposite of that kind of person. When reading books I often find its as though the characters are keeping you company, I’ve very much appreciated the company offered in these books the past couple of weeks. It’s been second to none.
And now this is where I compare this series to Harry Potter, but that would be wrong for apples and oranges BUT if you pick the best orange and the best apple the Swedish variety wins hands down. For it turns out lingonberry jam beats twinnings English tea and I LOVE tea. If you like books, and you like reading then you dont need any other prerequisite to enjoy these, the genre they fall under doesn’t so much matter, for they transcend their subject matter and that doesn’t happen all that often. Plus you get to hang out with Beck, Kollberg, Larsson, Rhea, Melander and Gunn for a fair trek of time and that isn’t exactly a hardship either.
Hovering in these books, more so in the later part of the series is an omniscient third person narrator used by the authors to convey their message. Our authors aren’t so keen on how Sweden was ran in the 1960s and 70s, there was this welfare experiment which fell somewhere between communism and capitalism and although it seemed to be a success in actual effect an awful lot of the population suffered great poverty, unemployment and where divested of their autonomy, Sweden had a significantly higher suicide rate than other countries and in these novels Sjöwall and Wahlöö where trying to show this preconceived notion that Sweden was some kind of paradise was nothing but a myth. They definitely manage to get their point across but it doesn’t come at the detriment of the stories nor to the characters who for the most part aren’t at all politicised it’s handled much more carefully than that. Rather than being some sort of ‘here we are going to just hop on our little soap box and rant for a minute’ they instead manage to perform some form of casual osmosis on the reader. If politics are vegetables I’m the kid that needs tricked into eating them, that I didn’t spit these back out speaks volumes.
I could use endless positive adjectives with respect to this book and, all the ones that came before, and I probably will before we are through but for the time being I’m going to talk about one of the characters I haven’t really mentioned in the prior reviews. Gunvald Larsson is a character that appears in all the novels (I think he might not be in the first one, but that is neither here nor there). Initially I didn’t like him so much, he is portrayed as a bit of a brute, this big lumbering policeman who charges down doors and has a bit of a temper on him. As the series progresses I found my opinion gradually changed, and now he’s one of my favourite characters in all books not just these ones. I always find it very impressive when authors manage to do this, create someone you shouldn’t like and then via some sort of sorcery turn them into a hero of sorts. He’s still a brute but he brings a lot of humour, sense and also says what he thinks regardless of it being unpopular. Traditionally I am never fond of people who put on airs and graces, nor am do I care for those that say one thing to your face and another behind your back, and as I get older I have less and less patience for it (by less I mean I have none, I am an exposed wire when it comes to this sort of thing) Larsson is the exact opposite of that kind of person. When reading books I often find its as though the characters are keeping you company, I’ve very much appreciated the company offered in these books the past couple of weeks. It’s been second to none.
And now this is where I compare this series to Harry Potter, but that would be wrong for apples and oranges BUT if you pick the best orange and the best apple the Swedish variety wins hands down. For it turns out lingonberry jam beats twinnings English tea and I LOVE tea. If you like books, and you like reading then you dont need any other prerequisite to enjoy these, the genre they fall under doesn’t so much matter, for they transcend their subject matter and that doesn’t happen all that often. Plus you get to hang out with Beck, Kollberg, Larsson, Rhea, Melander and Gunn for a fair trek of time and that isn’t exactly a hardship either.
michaelnlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Probably the tenth time I have read this.
A comfort read during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the planned last part of the ten-novel Martin Beck series written by husband and wife Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. However before it was complete Per Wahloo died, and (I have read) it not easy to bring it to the conclusion wanted. It is longer than any of the previous novels as well as organized differently. I suppose one could read it without having read some of the earlier books in the series but it would be hard to appreciate it as much as having some familiarity with the series (if not all nine preceding titles).
A comfort read during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the planned last part of the ten-novel Martin Beck series written by husband and wife Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. However before it was complete Per Wahloo died, and (I have read) it not easy to bring it to the conclusion wanted. It is longer than any of the previous novels as well as organized differently. I suppose one could read it without having read some of the earlier books in the series but it would be hard to appreciate it as much as having some familiarity with the series (if not all nine preceding titles).