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Liked It “This is one of my favorite books in the Martin Beck series.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “1 1/2 stars. |
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“1 1/2 stars.
Timothy C wrote this review Tuesday, July 5, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Personally, I'm scratching my head over all of the great reviews for this book. I admit that it starts off fairly well with the murder of a divorced woman who's body is hidden in the woods and the subsequent search for her killer. Unfortunately, about half way through the book the authors suddenly start up an, apparently, completely different story about two youths involved in a shoot-out with police and the search for one of the survivors of that incident.
It is at this point that they take the long way around, by way of Coincidenceville, to tie the two threads together and solve the mystery of who committed the murder at the beginning of the book. Add to this the schizophrenic feel of the final few chapters - it's a murder mystery, no it's a police procedural, no it's a man-hunt, no it's a slapstick farce, no it's a diatribe against the Swedish police who are nothing more than a bunch of lazy bastards/thugs/incompetents - and what started out being a well-written, engaging mystery turns into a forced, unbelievable, disappointing mess.”
“Sjowall and Wahloo were the husband and wife team who together conceived and wrote a series of 10 police novels about the exploits of detectives from the the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the main protagonist and backing him up was his assitant Kollberg.
fourcats wrote this review Saturday, February 12, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This novel is the 9th in the series and deals with a murder of a woman in Southern Sweden however there is a secondary story which deals with a teenage killer of a policeman.
What you see in these novels is the beginnings of modern Swedish crime fiction, with the writers being concerned with swedish society and the changes which were occurring in the 60'/70's. What is remarkable is that this is still being reinforced by modern Swedish and Nordic writers, especially Mankell, Larsson and the icelandic writer Indridason. ”“This is one of my favorite books in the Martin Beck series.”
Cindy from Indy wrote this review Sunday, November 28, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I enjoyed reading this crime story, but it was certainly not on a par with Stieg Larsson's Tattoo trilogy. DI Martin Beck is like so many jaded police inspectors who seem to be tired of their job and not a little bored with their colleagues.”
Heather B wrote this review Thursday, March 11, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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