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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The authors apparently hit their stride with this third novel in the series. Superb pacing and characterization. It's a top notch thriller.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I thought this was the SECOND Martin Beck book — not the third. My Black Lizard edition says it is the second. It was first published in Swedish in 1967, and it refers to the crime case of the first book, Roseanna (1965), very specifically. This is a very different case for Beck and his Stockholm police colleagues. Someone is killing girls in the age range of 9 to 11 years old, and there are just no clues. Grimly, the detectives do what they can, but as more girls are murdered (all in public parks), the detectives seem to despair. When they finally get a break, it's almost random — a member of the public reports someone else for a different crime altogether. There's also one of those special Martin Beck moments when he puts two seemingly unrelated things together in his mind, and that turns out to be quite important.
This is the quiet, dogged, hardworking version of crime-solving. No glamour. No glory. Determination, lots of overtime, and plain coincidence turn out to be the best tools for catching a brutal predator. Well done.
This is the quiet, dogged, hardworking version of crime-solving. No glamour. No glory. Determination, lots of overtime, and plain coincidence turn out to be the best tools for catching a brutal predator. Well done.
I know Law & Order was a great show that many people loved, but it was never my thing. This book was like reading Law & Order. Dry, straightforward police mystery with very little beyond the actions of the detectives following the clues. I get how influential these books were, and I will leave them for others to enjoy.
Harper Perennial have recently started republishing the Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo - originally written between 1965 and 1975. (The full series as at this book, is outlined below.) These books are often included in lists of the great classics of crime fiction. They integrate a wide range of social and cultural issues alongside their crime fiction base, making some very pointed observations and statements about Swedish society at the time that they were written. Even allowing for the way that they mirror society, as seen through the author's joint eyes at that time, they also stand up incredibly well in current day terms - there is no sense that they have become dated or antiquated in any way and the message is as relevant and pointed today as it was when they were written.
THE MAN ON THE BALCONY is the fourth in the series being released by Harper, and it covers the confrontational subject matter of the violation and murder of a number of very young girls. Their bodies are found in the parks of Stockholm, and Police Superintendent Martin Beck and his team have only two possible witnesses - one is a 3 year old boy and the other is a mugger who has to be identified, and then made to talk. Stockholm society is becoming increasingly tense, the police are increasing unable to identify any possible suspects, and the investigation drags until a lucky coincidence is recognised for what it is.
Alongside some very caustic social observation in THE MAN IN THE BALCONY, is a team of police that grate up against each other when the pressure is on - their own lives exist in and around their jobs. The effect of the murder of young children affects each one of them in a different way depending upon their own life experience. The effect of the murders on the parents, and on the families of their friends is subtly different for each person encountered, but equally raw and illustrative. The great thing about this team is that they are all human - with problems at home, problems in adjusting to changes in their own lives, problems handling the reactions of the people affected by the murders and problems handling their own reactions. They are also able to put all of that aside and pull together when they finally have a direction in the investigation.
THE MAN ON THE BALCONY reminds the reader that it is possible to bring a multi-layered, character driven, soundly plotted book in a short package. There's also a willingness to use a different style of resolution - in THE MAN ON THE BALCONY the police get lucky and a coincidental comment leads them in the right direction.
Each of the Harper Perennial titles incorporates an introduction written by a well known Crime writer of current times - THE MAN ON THE BALCONY is introduced by Andrew Taylor. He discusses the effect that the books of Sjowall and Wahloo had on his own writing career and that adds an extra layer to the book. Combine that with a PS section at the end including further analysis, and interview with Maj Sjowall, a summary of the next titles in the series and a "If You Liked This...." section and this is a wonderful (and greatly overdue) repackaging of one of the all time great Crime Fiction series.
Full list of titles available from Harper Perennial:
Roseanna
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
The Man on the Balcony
The Laughing Policeman
The Fire Engine that Disappeared (June 2007)
Murder at the Savoy (June 2007)
THE MAN ON THE BALCONY is the fourth in the series being released by Harper, and it covers the confrontational subject matter of the violation and murder of a number of very young girls. Their bodies are found in the parks of Stockholm, and Police Superintendent Martin Beck and his team have only two possible witnesses - one is a 3 year old boy and the other is a mugger who has to be identified, and then made to talk. Stockholm society is becoming increasingly tense, the police are increasing unable to identify any possible suspects, and the investigation drags until a lucky coincidence is recognised for what it is.
Alongside some very caustic social observation in THE MAN IN THE BALCONY, is a team of police that grate up against each other when the pressure is on - their own lives exist in and around their jobs. The effect of the murder of young children affects each one of them in a different way depending upon their own life experience. The effect of the murders on the parents, and on the families of their friends is subtly different for each person encountered, but equally raw and illustrative. The great thing about this team is that they are all human - with problems at home, problems in adjusting to changes in their own lives, problems handling the reactions of the people affected by the murders and problems handling their own reactions. They are also able to put all of that aside and pull together when they finally have a direction in the investigation.
THE MAN ON THE BALCONY reminds the reader that it is possible to bring a multi-layered, character driven, soundly plotted book in a short package. There's also a willingness to use a different style of resolution - in THE MAN ON THE BALCONY the police get lucky and a coincidental comment leads them in the right direction.
Each of the Harper Perennial titles incorporates an introduction written by a well known Crime writer of current times - THE MAN ON THE BALCONY is introduced by Andrew Taylor. He discusses the effect that the books of Sjowall and Wahloo had on his own writing career and that adds an extra layer to the book. Combine that with a PS section at the end including further analysis, and interview with Maj Sjowall, a summary of the next titles in the series and a "If You Liked This...." section and this is a wonderful (and greatly overdue) repackaging of one of the all time great Crime Fiction series.
Full list of titles available from Harper Perennial:
Roseanna
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
The Man on the Balcony
The Laughing Policeman
The Fire Engine that Disappeared (June 2007)
Murder at the Savoy (June 2007)
dark
tense
fast-paced
“Martin Beck was only in the room by chance. He had just come in and put down his case inside the door...”
The Man on the Balcony is the third in the absolute classic Scandi Noir Martin Beck series written by the dynamic Swedish duo, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Set in 1967, it epitomises a Swedish society increasingly under the influence of sex, drugs and crime, and an overworked and increasingly disempowered police force. The book is as much a work of fiction as it is a non fiction commentary of Swedish society in rampant decay. Sjöwall and Wahlöö did not shy away from this social commentary, blatantly evident as Beck’s colleague, Kollberg contemplates ...
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty-bound to produce an effective counter-argument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers”.
This is as poignant in 2022 as it was in 1967.
The Man on the Balcony follows the horrific story of a serial child murderer, one who rapes and kills young girls in secluded areas of public parks. The only credible witnesses who can offer any help to a police force grappling with this crime is a ‘mugger’, wanted for a series of bashing and stealing from his victims and a three year old boy. Beck and his colleagues, exhausted and embattled, piece a number of events together, that along with a dose of chance and guesswork ultimately see the crime solved.
Sjöwall and Wahlöö emphasise the humanity of the police force, prone to fatigue and burnout. “Without a word they drove northwards through the city, Aware of their powerlessness and of their ambivalent attitude to the society they were there to protect”. Beck and Kollberg.. human and authentic. Messy. Real.
I love this series so much.. savouring each book to make this last for as long as I can. 5 stars for sure.
The Man on the Balcony is the third in the absolute classic Scandi Noir Martin Beck series written by the dynamic Swedish duo, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Set in 1967, it epitomises a Swedish society increasingly under the influence of sex, drugs and crime, and an overworked and increasingly disempowered police force. The book is as much a work of fiction as it is a non fiction commentary of Swedish society in rampant decay. Sjöwall and Wahlöö did not shy away from this social commentary, blatantly evident as Beck’s colleague, Kollberg contemplates ...
“Drug-taking among young people was caused by a catastrophic philosophy which had been provoked by the prevailing system. Consequently society should be duty-bound to produce an effective counter-argument. One that was not based on smugness and more police officers”.
This is as poignant in 2022 as it was in 1967.
The Man on the Balcony follows the horrific story of a serial child murderer, one who rapes and kills young girls in secluded areas of public parks. The only credible witnesses who can offer any help to a police force grappling with this crime is a ‘mugger’, wanted for a series of bashing and stealing from his victims and a three year old boy. Beck and his colleagues, exhausted and embattled, piece a number of events together, that along with a dose of chance and guesswork ultimately see the crime solved.
Sjöwall and Wahlöö emphasise the humanity of the police force, prone to fatigue and burnout. “Without a word they drove northwards through the city, Aware of their powerlessness and of their ambivalent attitude to the society they were there to protect”. Beck and Kollberg.. human and authentic. Messy. Real.
I love this series so much.. savouring each book to make this last for as long as I can. 5 stars for sure.
Part three of The Story of a Crime sequence sees the series really take off.
Martin Beck is back in Stockholm and has been promoted to Detective Inspector, a year after the events in The Man Who Went Up In Smoke and it is The Summer of Love as seen through the eyes of a tired and stressed Homicide Department.
This time Beck and his colleagues are trying catch two criminals, a mugger and a murderer who preys on very young girls, violating and then killing them. With the summer sun baking the city and causing tempers and passions to flare, the police desperately struggle to track down the killer before another young victim is sacrificed. They have two possible witnesses, but neither is particularly reliable. One is a three year old boy and the other is the mugger.
That's the plot, they must catch the mugger to catch the child killer but what it doesn't tell you is that Beck's city appears to be collapsing around him in a haze of vice and debauchery. Stockholm, and as an extension Sweden, has taken the hippie ideals of free love et al and boiled them down to sexual encounters without feeling. It is a theme that runs throughout, from a teenage girl selling naked photos of herself at a train station to a peeping tom witnessing a brisk encounter in a park, a woman comfortable with her naked body to the extent that she doesn't even consider putting on clothes whilst being interviewed by the detectives and the disturbing behaviour of the sexual predator they are trying to catch. Then there's the casual mention of recreational drugs, the teeming masses of homeless people apparently let down by the inefficient and bungling welfare state and the overworked and underpaid nature of being a police officer. This is definitely not a warm and fuzzy picture of Sweden that Sjowall & Wahloo are painting.
This is a pretty intense read thanks to some excellent plotting and pacing, the reader is presented with a vital clue right at the beginning which is dismissed by an overworked and rude detective as irrelevant and a waste of police resources and is the dangled in a teasing manner throughout as Beck scratches the itch in his brain to remember "that vital something" he'd witnessed. There is an oppressive atmosphere throughout as every available officer is put on the case with seemingly no time off to sleep and a only cigarettes to smoke for sustenance, washed down by cold coffee. The fear in the minds and on the faces of the detectives adds an edge to every conversation and every wasted minute that they don't catch the killer is another minute in which another innocent girl could have been murdered on their watch.
It has been mentioned that the case is solved thanks to a fair amount of coincidence and there is a certain amount of 'luck' involved in solving the case I admit BUT the husband & wife author team discussed this within the text; the detectives are aware that their efforts will be seen as luck by the media but point out that this is the inevitable outcome of intelligently planned hard work on their part as the net closes on the villain. Journeying alongside the cops as they close that net you appreciate the work involved and as such the coincidence plays less like a miraculous deus ex machina photograph of a murder in progress and more as a well deserved reward.
The Man on the Balcony is very effective as a police procedural first and foremost and, as intended by the authors, from the outset it is a subtle piece of social commentary second. Three books in and I cn see why this series is so highly thought of.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
Martin Beck is back in Stockholm and has been promoted to Detective Inspector, a year after the events in The Man Who Went Up In Smoke and it is The Summer of Love as seen through the eyes of a tired and stressed Homicide Department.
This time Beck and his colleagues are trying catch two criminals, a mugger and a murderer who preys on very young girls, violating and then killing them. With the summer sun baking the city and causing tempers and passions to flare, the police desperately struggle to track down the killer before another young victim is sacrificed. They have two possible witnesses, but neither is particularly reliable. One is a three year old boy and the other is the mugger.
That's the plot, they must catch the mugger to catch the child killer but what it doesn't tell you is that Beck's city appears to be collapsing around him in a haze of vice and debauchery. Stockholm, and as an extension Sweden, has taken the hippie ideals of free love et al and boiled them down to sexual encounters without feeling. It is a theme that runs throughout, from a teenage girl selling naked photos of herself at a train station to a peeping tom witnessing a brisk encounter in a park, a woman comfortable with her naked body to the extent that she doesn't even consider putting on clothes whilst being interviewed by the detectives and the disturbing behaviour of the sexual predator they are trying to catch. Then there's the casual mention of recreational drugs, the teeming masses of homeless people apparently let down by the inefficient and bungling welfare state and the overworked and underpaid nature of being a police officer. This is definitely not a warm and fuzzy picture of Sweden that Sjowall & Wahloo are painting.
This is a pretty intense read thanks to some excellent plotting and pacing, the reader is presented with a vital clue right at the beginning which is dismissed by an overworked and rude detective as irrelevant and a waste of police resources and is the dangled in a teasing manner throughout as Beck scratches the itch in his brain to remember "that vital something" he'd witnessed. There is an oppressive atmosphere throughout as every available officer is put on the case with seemingly no time off to sleep and a only cigarettes to smoke for sustenance, washed down by cold coffee. The fear in the minds and on the faces of the detectives adds an edge to every conversation and every wasted minute that they don't catch the killer is another minute in which another innocent girl could have been murdered on their watch.
It has been mentioned that the case is solved thanks to a fair amount of coincidence and there is a certain amount of 'luck' involved in solving the case I admit BUT the husband & wife author team discussed this within the text; the detectives are aware that their efforts will be seen as luck by the media but point out that this is the inevitable outcome of intelligently planned hard work on their part as the net closes on the villain. Journeying alongside the cops as they close that net you appreciate the work involved and as such the coincidence plays less like a miraculous deus ex machina photograph of a murder in progress and more as a well deserved reward.
The Man on the Balcony is very effective as a police procedural first and foremost and, as intended by the authors, from the outset it is a subtle piece of social commentary second. Three books in and I cn see why this series is so highly thought of.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke