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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Books | Home » » The Laughing Policeman | | | | | | | Description: | | Swedish Detective Martin Beck stars in this internationally acclaimed novel that epitomes the perfectly crafted police procedural. On a rainy Stockholm night, nine bus riders are gunned down by an unknown assassin. When detective Martin Beck learns a cop friend was on the bus, he realizes this was no random crime. But what was his friend up to? And why was he on that bus? The Saturday Review called The Laughing Policeman "must reading for anyone who claims to be an admirer of the best in detective fiction." | | | Features: | |
• Swedish Detective Martin Beck stars in this internationally acclaimed novel that epitomes the perfectly crafted police procedural.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Maj Sjöwall | | Hardcover:
| 277 pages | | Publisher:
| ImPress Mystery | | Publication Date:
| 2007 | | Package Length:
| 8.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 2 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Fascinating police procedural with an interesting glance into Swedish life in the 1960s.Mar 31, 2008
The story begins with the unexplained mass murder, apparently by machine gun, of eight people on one of Stockholm's double-decker buses. The dead include the bus driver, an off-duty policeman, a nurse, a foreman, an import-export businessman, a restaurant worker, a widow, and one body with no identification. A ninth victim, a 43-year old highway department worker, is unconscious with life-threatening wounds, but may regain consciousness. When the more experienced detectives arrive, the scene has already been disturbed, there is no clear motive for the killings, no witnesses, and no obvious clues. To add to the pathos, the lead detective Martin Beck knew the young policeman who was killed.
This police procedural traces the painstaking follow-through, organization, and detailed attention required to solve this mass murder. Along-the-way it provides cameos of married life and insights into Swedish society in the decade of the 1960s. The characters are part of a series of books by the authors, and for those who have read other titles in the series they may be old friends, although to new readers this cast may appear a bit large. The book's title has only a minimal connection to the mystery.
More than half the book is devoted to laying out the story and key characters, with the latter part devoted to the solution. As befits a police procedural, the solution is due more to steady investigation than to an "aha" moment. The story is well-written and interesting, I found myself reading at least two or three more chapters than planned at each sitting. However, due to the relatively large cast of characters and locations it takes a bit more concentration than the usual mystery.
This Swedish novel is quite reflective of its authors' time and location. There are allusions to now historical events such the Vietnam war, past American mass murders, and references to Scandinavian products such as Rya rugs and Akvavit (Aquavit). The translation is generally quite good, with only an occasional sentence fragment in place of a sentence. Swedish street names remain untranslated or simplified, e.g., Norrbackagatan, Karlbergsvägen, and Norra Stationgatan (rather than e.g., Northback Street, Carl Mountain Road, North Station Street). These names make it a bit more difficult for the non-Scandinavian reader to keep location references easily in mind.
In summary: The story is entertaining, the progress to solution interesting, and the solution satisfactory. The journalist authors appear to capture, through their characters, the attitudes current in Sweden during the decade of the 1960s when the novel was written. Despite some minor cavils, this is a novel I would not hesitate to recommend.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 As good as it getsOct 28, 2007
No point in giving a lengthy review. Let's just say that police procedurals do not get any better than this one. It's a first-rate classic in story, puzzle and characters. Simply enjoy -- it's a work of art!
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