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A review by tfitoby
The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall
3.0
What a fabulous title this one has, conjuring images of a ghostlike fire engine speeding in the dark, its sirens blazing, the blue and red flashing lights reflected off of the wet tarmac suddenly no longer illuminating the night. A huge mystery is on our hands this time Mr Beck.
This is part five of the ten book sequence of The Story of a Crime and it is as fascinating and intriguing as ever. Not so much for the mystery at the heart of this one but the police procedural nature of it all, the growing insight in to the lives of the many protagonists and the statement on Swedish society at the time.
A man kills himself, Martin Beck's name is found written in his apartment, later that same night a house inhabited by a suspect in a car theft ring explodes in a ball of flames. Gunvald Larsson saves many lives and an investigation as labyrinthine as any Sjowall & Wahloo have concocted to date ensues.
This is far from an ideal starting place for this series for those of you considering jumping in, it is a very deliberate exploration of characters and situations already established in which the crime is backgrounded and not even particularly interesting as far as the series has gone to date. I very much doubt whether you would take as much pleasure in this as veterans of the sequence.
The characters are what make this one, Martin Beck may have his name on the series but once more he is a peripheral figure with his own domestic problems keeping him busy. The evolution of this character throughout the series is a major statement on the direction of Swedish society and as such he deserves to be the most famous of the group of individuals investigating murder in Stockholm. Beck aside we are treated to Gunvald Larsson as hero of the press, Kollberg not taking an interest in anything, a new recruit Skacke, a second appearance from Mansson of Malmo, Ronn more interested in spending time with his family than thinking about murder and a chief of department with his eyes firmly on retirement. No wonder this case isn't solved in the space of an episode of CSI.
As enjoyable as these characters are and as fascinating I find their slow and methodical nature of crime solving, this book does seem to suffer from missing that central core of exciting mystery that the other books in the series contain.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
Part 3: The Man On The Balcony
Part 4: The Laughing Policeman
This is part five of the ten book sequence of The Story of a Crime and it is as fascinating and intriguing as ever. Not so much for the mystery at the heart of this one but the police procedural nature of it all, the growing insight in to the lives of the many protagonists and the statement on Swedish society at the time.
A man kills himself, Martin Beck's name is found written in his apartment, later that same night a house inhabited by a suspect in a car theft ring explodes in a ball of flames. Gunvald Larsson saves many lives and an investigation as labyrinthine as any Sjowall & Wahloo have concocted to date ensues.
This is far from an ideal starting place for this series for those of you considering jumping in, it is a very deliberate exploration of characters and situations already established in which the crime is backgrounded and not even particularly interesting as far as the series has gone to date. I very much doubt whether you would take as much pleasure in this as veterans of the sequence.
The characters are what make this one, Martin Beck may have his name on the series but once more he is a peripheral figure with his own domestic problems keeping him busy. The evolution of this character throughout the series is a major statement on the direction of Swedish society and as such he deserves to be the most famous of the group of individuals investigating murder in Stockholm. Beck aside we are treated to Gunvald Larsson as hero of the press, Kollberg not taking an interest in anything, a new recruit Skacke, a second appearance from Mansson of Malmo, Ronn more interested in spending time with his family than thinking about murder and a chief of department with his eyes firmly on retirement. No wonder this case isn't solved in the space of an episode of CSI.
As enjoyable as these characters are and as fascinating I find their slow and methodical nature of crime solving, this book does seem to suffer from missing that central core of exciting mystery that the other books in the series contain.
Part 1: Roseanna
Part 2: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
Part 3: The Man On The Balcony
Part 4: The Laughing Policeman