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A review by macloo
The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
3.0
This is notably less interesting than the four preceding books. The worst thing about it is there is a long explanation at the end of all the missing pieces that (up until then) we didn't have, and they are really not worth it. We have a detective from Malmo who comes to Stockholm and contributes most of that, so it wasn't even our usual bunch of detectives who solved it. (That wasn't as bad as the length of the explanation, though.) There's also a creepy bit concerning his interview with a woman who knew one of the victims — it left me with a bad impression of the Malmo cop.
The ending has a sudden bit of action, and the story concludes even more abruptly than a few of the others.
Here we have a dead man, and later, another dead man, and the detectives can't figure out who killed either of them. As usual, they keep working on the case in spite of the lack of leads. I appreciate the intense sifting of every possible piece of evidence, but it simply goes nowhere until the door-to-door knocking and questioning finally yields one tiny clue. It's still not enough to point to the killer. The worst thing is, I wasn't all that invested in the search because the two dead men are petty criminals, lacking any human connections that would make me yearn to see their killer brought to justice.
The only personal-life parts for Martin Beck involved his older-teen daughter, with whom he has a couple of conversations. I liked those. I also like Benny Skacke, a much younger detective whom the others all regard dismissively, but we see him dogging away at the work, devoted, single-minded, while he dreams of one day being chief of police. He's good, but none of the others will acknowledge that.
The ending has a sudden bit of action, and the story concludes even more abruptly than a few of the others.
Here we have a dead man, and later, another dead man, and the detectives can't figure out who killed either of them. As usual, they keep working on the case in spite of the lack of leads. I appreciate the intense sifting of every possible piece of evidence, but it simply goes nowhere until the door-to-door knocking and questioning finally yields one tiny clue. It's still not enough to point to the killer. The worst thing is, I wasn't all that invested in the search because the two dead men are petty criminals, lacking any human connections that would make me yearn to see their killer brought to justice.
The only personal-life parts for Martin Beck involved his older-teen daughter, with whom he has a couple of conversations. I liked those. I also like Benny Skacke, a much younger detective whom the others all regard dismissively, but we see him dogging away at the work, devoted, single-minded, while he dreams of one day being chief of police. He's good, but none of the others will acknowledge that.