Status
Available
Call number
Library's review
Sverige, 1964 sommer
Martin Beck bliver sat på en sag om et kvindelig, der bliver trukket op af vandet i slusebassinet i Borenshult, tæt ved Motala og Vättern. Kollegaerne Kollberg og Melander er taget i forvejen. Han er førstekriminalassistent ved rigspolitiet og har været tilknyttet
Ingrid kaldet Lillan på 12 år og Rolf på ca 10 år. Hans kone er ca 44 år og hjemmegående i deres lejlighed i Stockholm. Ægteskabet er kedeligt trummerum, Martin ryger og drikker spandevis af kaffe, så han hoster og har tit kvalme og hjertebanken.
Liget viser sig efter mange ugers uvished at være Roseanna McGraw, bibliotekar, single, 27 år gammel og meget aktiv seksuelt.
Beck og kollegaerne finder ud af at hun var med på en af kanalbådene og støver alle passagerer og besætningsmedlemmer op.
Det giver ikke resultat, men så giver de sig til at lede efter de billeder, folk har taget. Her finder de en knallert og en høj mand med kasket. De finder en servitrice, der kender ham, men hun er hunderæd og stikker af.
Ved et tilfælde ser en betjent manden, Folke Lennart Bengtson, og skygger ham. Martin Beck stiller en fælde for manden og han går i den, men det går noget ud over den kollega, Sonja Hansson, der er madding i fælden.
I en komisk situation, der er lige ved at ende tragisk, bliver Kollberg, Ahlberg og Beck spærret inde i deres bil i flere minutter, fordi de bliver indblandet i et trafikuheld. Åke Stenström har skygget Bengtson, men tabt ham af syne kort forinden.
Udmærket politiprocedure, som er en klassiker indenfor social-realistiske krimie
Martin Beck bliver sat på en sag om et kvindelig, der bliver trukket op af vandet i slusebassinet i Borenshult, tæt ved Motala og Vättern. Kollegaerne Kollberg og Melander er taget i forvejen. Han er førstekriminalassistent ved rigspolitiet og har været tilknyttet
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drabsafdelingen i 8 år. En erfaren og dygtig forhørsleder. Han er 42 år gammel og har to børnIngrid kaldet Lillan på 12 år og Rolf på ca 10 år. Hans kone er ca 44 år og hjemmegående i deres lejlighed i Stockholm. Ægteskabet er kedeligt trummerum, Martin ryger og drikker spandevis af kaffe, så han hoster og har tit kvalme og hjertebanken.
Liget viser sig efter mange ugers uvished at være Roseanna McGraw, bibliotekar, single, 27 år gammel og meget aktiv seksuelt.
Beck og kollegaerne finder ud af at hun var med på en af kanalbådene og støver alle passagerer og besætningsmedlemmer op.
Det giver ikke resultat, men så giver de sig til at lede efter de billeder, folk har taget. Her finder de en knallert og en høj mand med kasket. De finder en servitrice, der kender ham, men hun er hunderæd og stikker af.
Ved et tilfælde ser en betjent manden, Folke Lennart Bengtson, og skygger ham. Martin Beck stiller en fælde for manden og han går i den, men det går noget ud over den kollega, Sonja Hansson, der er madding i fælden.
I en komisk situation, der er lige ved at ende tragisk, bliver Kollberg, Ahlberg og Beck spærret inde i deres bil i flere minutter, fordi de bliver indblandet i et trafikuheld. Åke Stenström har skygget Bengtson, men tabt ham af syne kort forinden.
Udmærket politiprocedure, som er en klassiker indenfor social-realistiske krimie
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Genres
Publication
[Kbh.] : Gyldendal, 1976. 3. udgave, 5. oplag.
Description
"The masterful first novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries ... finds Beck hunting for the murderer of a lonely traveler. On a July afternoon, a young woman's body is dredged from Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern. With no clues, Beck begins an investigation not only to uncover a murderer but also to discover who the victim was. Three months later, all Beck knows is that her name was Roseanna and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people on a cruise. As the melancholic Beck narrows the list of suspects, he is drawn increasingly to the enigma of the victim, a free-spirited traveler with a penchant for casual sex, and to the psychopathology of a muderer with a distinctive -- indeed, terrifying -- sense of propriety"--P. [4] of cover.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Dry.
We are introduced to one Martin Beck a swedish homicide detective in Stockholm, with what would now be called a health problem - coffee and smokes, and a dysfunctional family. At the time this might have been novel. Now it is tedious.
A woman's body is found - no ID, name or anything, not even
The first two thirds of the book are very dry. Some of it is just technically poor prose - either the translators or the original. I'm fairly sure it's not the best translation as examination is used throughout where interview (or even interrogation) would be better. But sometimes the feeling is that even the original text was dull - 'he ordered a ham sandwich, and ate it'. There is a lot of third person description. He walked down the street and he turned a corner and he went into a shop. Very very flat and dry to read. Discussing the translation with a native Swede, it was described as 'very bad ... In some aspects it almost looked like text was translated by a machine... That's how bad it is'.
One of the blurbers claimed 'vivid details' this is just so wrong. Hardly any details or descriptions at all. 'Taut prose' might be accurate, but even here it's hardly tight and fast moving. Sparse and grey might be a better description. Something like watching black and white films where nothing happens for a very long time. Still the ending is good, the translator seems to get a better grip on the text, the action flows faster and there is almost a moment of suspense.
Supposedly preplanned as a series of preciesly 10 novels each of 30 chapters, rife with social commentary on the nature of Swedish society, and founding the entire genre of a police procedral crime novels, I'd say it was a poor first attempt, shows some promise but could do better. Try again.
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We are introduced to one Martin Beck a swedish homicide detective in Stockholm, with what would now be called a health problem - coffee and smokes, and a dysfunctional family. At the time this might have been novel. Now it is tedious.
A woman's body is found - no ID, name or anything, not even
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a missing person report. Martin is stumped, but as you can guess from the title, he eventually learns her name is Roseanna. But in 60's Sweden there are obviously no computers, fingerprint databases, mobile phones or anything more advanced than a fax machine. When Beck has managed to find out something about her, and her life, he then has to try and find her killer.... The first two thirds of the book are very dry. Some of it is just technically poor prose - either the translators or the original. I'm fairly sure it's not the best translation as examination is used throughout where interview (or even interrogation) would be better. But sometimes the feeling is that even the original text was dull - 'he ordered a ham sandwich, and ate it'. There is a lot of third person description. He walked down the street and he turned a corner and he went into a shop. Very very flat and dry to read. Discussing the translation with a native Swede, it was described as 'very bad ... In some aspects it almost looked like text was translated by a machine... That's how bad it is'.
One of the blurbers claimed 'vivid details' this is just so wrong. Hardly any details or descriptions at all. 'Taut prose' might be accurate, but even here it's hardly tight and fast moving. Sparse and grey might be a better description. Something like watching black and white films where nothing happens for a very long time. Still the ending is good, the translator seems to get a better grip on the text, the action flows faster and there is almost a moment of suspense.
Supposedly preplanned as a series of preciesly 10 novels each of 30 chapters, rife with social commentary on the nature of Swedish society, and founding the entire genre of a police procedral crime novels, I'd say it was a poor first attempt, shows some promise but could do better. Try again.
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LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
The Göta Canal needs dredging as it's becoming a bit of a slog for the work and pleasure boats to pass through. When a dead body of a young woman surfaces the police think they may have caught a break as the corpse is reasonably fresh and has probably only been there a few days. Hoping to discover
Written in 1965 the only thing that really dates this book is the technological aspect or more specifically, the lack thereof. Every step of the investigation takes time. Whether it is in dealing with other authorities in Sweden, or especially so when potential leads head out to other European countries and even America the feeling of time passing is very evident and the chances of catching the killer grow smaller with each passing chapter. This is an extremely good police procedural and starter of a ten book series with a very dogged and sombre lead detective in Martin Beck. Inspiration for the series is said to come from the likes of Ed McBain and Edgar Allan Poe but the husband & wife team have provided the groundwork for many a Scandinavian crime writer since. I doubt that fans of Henning Mankell or Arnaldur Indriðason wouldn't fail to recognise elements in this book. A good starter and certainly a series I will want to continue
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her identity quickly they are soon disappointed when she does not match the description of any missing person and so begins a case of dogged investigation to discover who she was before they can even think about putting together a list of potential suspects nevermind actually solving the case. Written in 1965 the only thing that really dates this book is the technological aspect or more specifically, the lack thereof. Every step of the investigation takes time. Whether it is in dealing with other authorities in Sweden, or especially so when potential leads head out to other European countries and even America the feeling of time passing is very evident and the chances of catching the killer grow smaller with each passing chapter. This is an extremely good police procedural and starter of a ten book series with a very dogged and sombre lead detective in Martin Beck. Inspiration for the series is said to come from the likes of Ed McBain and Edgar Allan Poe but the husband & wife team have provided the groundwork for many a Scandinavian crime writer since. I doubt that fans of Henning Mankell or Arnaldur Indriðason wouldn't fail to recognise elements in this book. A good starter and certainly a series I will want to continue
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LibraryThing member cathyskye
Sooner or later, anyone who loves reading crime fiction will run across the names of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Their books have been recommended to me countless times, and I finally decided that I'd pull Roseanna off the shelf and read it. I wanted to know why the ten Martin Beck mysteries
The detailed accounting they give of Beck's work is low on word count and high on facts. There is not one wasted word to be found, and as I read, I smiled. I could hear a little Jack Webb voice muttering "Just the facts, ma'am" in my head. All the police work that's done is shared with the reader-- and it's brilliant. Originally published in 1965, all the work done during the course of the investigation is pre-computer, before all the electronic gizmos that we depend on today. By seeing all the work being done, by watching the facts and evidence begin to pile up, by listening to the detectives talk amongst themselves sharing thoughts and ideas, the reader can really get a feel for how the case proceeds.
Time is one of the most important characters in Roseanna. Seasons change. The reader is told how many days it takes for translations to be done and for evidence to be gathered from tourists who have returned to their homes around the world. We see how a stakeout is planned and carried out. The time involved is always logged. There's a stopwatch ticking away, and we are never allowed to forget it.
While the investigation is being carried out, we also learn about the melancholic Inspector Beck with the iffy stomach, who obsesses about finding the killer of this young free spirit, and who can't stop mourning the fact that he and his wife have grown apart over the years. Arguments with the spouse? Chronically upset stomach? Dismal days of rain? Everything that's disagreeable just gets plowed under as Beck focuses on his case load... and on a young woman he simply cannot forget.
I now see why Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are considered by many to be the masters of crime fiction. Roseanna is a brilliant and hypnotic piece of work that refuses to turn loose of a reader's mind. From the very beginning, the momentum slowly gathers like snowfall in the mountains until Martin Beck recognizes the killer... and the avalanche begins.
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they wrote between 1965 and 1975 are considered to be among the finest ever written in any language. Now I do.The detailed accounting they give of Beck's work is low on word count and high on facts. There is not one wasted word to be found, and as I read, I smiled. I could hear a little Jack Webb voice muttering "Just the facts, ma'am" in my head. All the police work that's done is shared with the reader-- and it's brilliant. Originally published in 1965, all the work done during the course of the investigation is pre-computer, before all the electronic gizmos that we depend on today. By seeing all the work being done, by watching the facts and evidence begin to pile up, by listening to the detectives talk amongst themselves sharing thoughts and ideas, the reader can really get a feel for how the case proceeds.
Time is one of the most important characters in Roseanna. Seasons change. The reader is told how many days it takes for translations to be done and for evidence to be gathered from tourists who have returned to their homes around the world. We see how a stakeout is planned and carried out. The time involved is always logged. There's a stopwatch ticking away, and we are never allowed to forget it.
While the investigation is being carried out, we also learn about the melancholic Inspector Beck with the iffy stomach, who obsesses about finding the killer of this young free spirit, and who can't stop mourning the fact that he and his wife have grown apart over the years. Arguments with the spouse? Chronically upset stomach? Dismal days of rain? Everything that's disagreeable just gets plowed under as Beck focuses on his case load... and on a young woman he simply cannot forget.
I now see why Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are considered by many to be the masters of crime fiction. Roseanna is a brilliant and hypnotic piece of work that refuses to turn loose of a reader's mind. From the very beginning, the momentum slowly gathers like snowfall in the mountains until Martin Beck recognizes the killer... and the avalanche begins.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
The body is found in a canal near Lake Vattern. Martin Beck is sent from Stockholm to lead the investigation. But the body is all they have and it seems impossible to even find out who she is. Roseanna is the first in a series of books written by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall and featuring Martin
Police work was also unrecognizable. Stakeouts depended on the undercover officer being able to find a public phone when he needed to. Getting information from somewhere else depended on digging through physical files and sending them by mail. Beck is dogged in his pursuit of the murderer of the young woman, but unlike a modern crime novel, there's quite a lot of hanging around doing nothing going on. Hunches take weeks to follow through. The great fun in reading this book now is in enjoying all the period details. This is a solid police procedural written long before the Scandinavian crime novels became popular.
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Beck. First published in 1965, Roseanna is a snapshot of a very different world, one where everyone smoked like chimneys and a Transatlantic phone call was an event. Police work was also unrecognizable. Stakeouts depended on the undercover officer being able to find a public phone when he needed to. Getting information from somewhere else depended on digging through physical files and sending them by mail. Beck is dogged in his pursuit of the murderer of the young woman, but unlike a modern crime novel, there's quite a lot of hanging around doing nothing going on. Hunches take weeks to follow through. The great fun in reading this book now is in enjoying all the period details. This is a solid police procedural written long before the Scandinavian crime novels became popular.
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LibraryThing member RDHawk6886
The origin of the Swedish mystery and inspiration of Henning Mankell is evident in this book. Martin Beck is the obvious precursor to Wallander, brooding, cynical, single-minded, solitary, and only briefly content. I liked the characters but found the book, and the mystery, to be rather thin. That
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being said, there is enough to recommend and continue the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member smik
I have been promising myself to read this, the first in the Martin Beck series. I have read a number of the series (see the list below) and enjoyed them. Fifty six years on from the publication of ROSEANNA, it would be easy to dismiss the signals in the book that crime fiction was embarking on a
The introduction to both the Audible and Kindle versions is the same, written by Henning Mankell who pays tribute to how the authors thought they could use "crime novels to form the framework for stories containing social criticism. ... They wanted to use crime and criminal investigations as a mirror of Swedish society... Their intent was never to write crime stories as a form of entertainment."
In ROSEANNA Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo experimented with a number of formats. Parts of the novel are simply narrative while in other sections we have verbatim transcripts of interview.
In 2009 an article in The Guardian titled The queen of crime said
When Maj Sjöwall and her partner Per Wahlöö started writing the Martin Beck detective series in Sweden in the 60s, they little realised that it would change the way we think about policemen for ever.
Tom Weiner does an excellent job of the audio version. (Just a personal anecdote - about two chapters before the end, my iPod ceased to work, and I was forced to read the last two chapters on my Kindle.)
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new style of police procedural, one that not only focussed on the crime committed but also on the way the policeman felt about his job, the way the investigation gnawed at the detective's consciousness, affected his family life, and even how well he felt.The introduction to both the Audible and Kindle versions is the same, written by Henning Mankell who pays tribute to how the authors thought they could use "crime novels to form the framework for stories containing social criticism. ... They wanted to use crime and criminal investigations as a mirror of Swedish society... Their intent was never to write crime stories as a form of entertainment."
In ROSEANNA Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo experimented with a number of formats. Parts of the novel are simply narrative while in other sections we have verbatim transcripts of interview.
In 2009 an article in The Guardian titled The queen of crime said
When Maj Sjöwall and her partner Per Wahlöö started writing the Martin Beck detective series in Sweden in the 60s, they little realised that it would change the way we think about policemen for ever.
Tom Weiner does an excellent job of the audio version. (Just a personal anecdote - about two chapters before the end, my iPod ceased to work, and I was forced to read the last two chapters on my Kindle.)
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LibraryThing member LaurieRKing
The the ten book series (set in Sweden) taken as a whole is an exciting, moving, real-life exploration of the lives of a team of cops and their ciminal investigations. Sjowall and Wahloo, a husband-and-wife writing team (Sjowall died in 1975) use crime fiction as a way of talking about the inherent
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wickedness of the capitalist system, but politics isn't what the books are about: they're about crime, and justice, and heartbreak, and strength, and all the other things we read crime fiction for. If I had to choose two of the ten to recommend, those would probably be The Man on the Balcony and The Fire Engine that Disappeared, but really, start at the beginning and revel in brilliant writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member JohnH99
Very realistic development of the principal character who is flawed and slightly disfunctional in respect of his own family.
LibraryThing member CBJames
The fourth word in Roseanna by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is "corpse."
There will be no beating around the bush in this mystery novel. A victim, a detective and a suspect. What more do you need? No quirky characters. No digressions about dog show politics or the history of Irish pub goers. Just a
Which is not to claim that Roseanna doesn't have anything relevant to say about the culture that produced it. The first of the ten volume Martin Beck mysteries, Roseanna, like all good detective stories, speaks to the fears and frustrations of it's age. The title character is the victim, a young single woman with an active sex life. She went looking for Mr. Goodbar ten years before Diane Keaton did, but she came to the same end.
The authors.
Photo Credit Here
Detective Martin Beck arrives on the scene when her body is discovered some three months after she was killed. The case is so cold no one expects anything to come of it; it's clear his superiors won't hold it against him if this one is never solved. But Beck does not give up. Instead, he digs, and digs until he identifies the body as an American tourist who went missing while travelling through Sweden by boat.
Ship's pervade the novel. During his investigation, Beck learns the habits and customs of boat travel through Sweden, its system of locks and the practice of taking on deck passengers who ride the ships like buses from one lock to another. The few brief scenes of Beck at home describe him as an unhappily married man who spends his off hours building model ships instead of interacting with his family. Ships provide a means of escape for Beck, for Roseanna the American tourist and for the suspected killer who rides them throughout Sweden when on vacation.
In spite of all the talk of ships in Roseanna and in spite of a victim found floating face up in a swamp, one review I read in preparation for this post described the book in a single word, 'dry.' I wondered if this reviewer had read much in the way of police procedurals. Their dryness is the calling card. Detective Martin Beck describes himself:
"Remember, that you have three of the most important virtues a policeman can have," he thought. "You are stubborn and logical, and completely calm. You don't allow yourself to lose your composure and you act only professionally on a case, whatever it is. Words like repulsive, horrible, and bestial belong in the newspapers not in your thinking. A murderer is a regular human being, only more unfortunate and maladjusted."
I suppose that is a bit 'dry.' It's also perfect reading for a rainy day.
There will be no beating around the bush in this mystery novel. A victim, a detective and a suspect. What more do you need? No quirky characters. No digressions about dog show politics or the history of Irish pub goers. Just a
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crime and a detective trying to solve it. If you want to learn a how to prepare southern cuisine, buy a cookbook. The subject here is murder.Which is not to claim that Roseanna doesn't have anything relevant to say about the culture that produced it. The first of the ten volume Martin Beck mysteries, Roseanna, like all good detective stories, speaks to the fears and frustrations of it's age. The title character is the victim, a young single woman with an active sex life. She went looking for Mr. Goodbar ten years before Diane Keaton did, but she came to the same end.
The authors.
Photo Credit Here
Detective Martin Beck arrives on the scene when her body is discovered some three months after she was killed. The case is so cold no one expects anything to come of it; it's clear his superiors won't hold it against him if this one is never solved. But Beck does not give up. Instead, he digs, and digs until he identifies the body as an American tourist who went missing while travelling through Sweden by boat.
Ship's pervade the novel. During his investigation, Beck learns the habits and customs of boat travel through Sweden, its system of locks and the practice of taking on deck passengers who ride the ships like buses from one lock to another. The few brief scenes of Beck at home describe him as an unhappily married man who spends his off hours building model ships instead of interacting with his family. Ships provide a means of escape for Beck, for Roseanna the American tourist and for the suspected killer who rides them throughout Sweden when on vacation.
In spite of all the talk of ships in Roseanna and in spite of a victim found floating face up in a swamp, one review I read in preparation for this post described the book in a single word, 'dry.' I wondered if this reviewer had read much in the way of police procedurals. Their dryness is the calling card. Detective Martin Beck describes himself:
"Remember, that you have three of the most important virtues a policeman can have," he thought. "You are stubborn and logical, and completely calm. You don't allow yourself to lose your composure and you act only professionally on a case, whatever it is. Words like repulsive, horrible, and bestial belong in the newspapers not in your thinking. A murderer is a regular human being, only more unfortunate and maladjusted."
I suppose that is a bit 'dry.' It's also perfect reading for a rainy day.
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LibraryThing member nikon
Utter, utter tosh! He spends too much time detailing details that you've already got in an instant. He takes an age getting anywhere - So, I gave up on page 180 but really I should've given up on page 80.
LibraryThing member elizapoppy
Similar to Kurt Wallender in tone.
LibraryThing member ChrisConway
It's a bit dated and the protagonist is a jerk toward his wife but it's still pretty compelling as a mystery. And exciting at the end as well. In fact, Stieg Larsson seems to have borrowed one of the biggest clues from The Girl from the Dragon Tattoo from this novel, originally published over fifty
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years ago. Show Less
LibraryThing member willmurdoch
The first title of the 10 book Martin Beck series written in the '60s. It still holds up! The precursor to the Wallendar series and the discovery of scando crime fiction!
LibraryThing member stuart10er
A few weeks ago I saw a program on the TV about Nordic Crime Fiction. It was very interesting and I took notes on which authors sounding interesting to me. These authors were discussed as starting the whole new wave of Nordic crime fiction in the 1960s. I really, really enjoyed it. The foreward was
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written by Mankell and his observation that I thought was the most spot on was that the story wasn't really very dated considering it was written 40 years ago. I agree. It was really good. There was some stuff that wouldn't happen now - like having to actually write letters and mail them and wait 10 days for a return letter. Wow! Did we really live that way? Great book, wonderful tracing of the investigation process. Show Less
LibraryThing member lizzyg
I wanted to find something similar to the Millennium Trilogy. This just didn't do it for me.
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
Over recent years Scandinavian crime novels have come into vogue, though I have struggled with this genre. Indeed, despite the great plaudits lauded on the likes of Steig Larsson and Jo Nesbo, I had never managed to summon the strength of spirit to finish one, and was starting to think that I could
This book was something entirely different. Written in the 1960s this was the first in a series that husband and wife team Sjowall and Wahloo wrote, each featuring Inspector Martin Beck. Indeed, the series was very closely planned in advance - ten novels each of thirty chapters, which, when read in sequence, would constitute a single overarching novel. They stuck to that plan, with the final novel "The Terrorists" being published inj 1975 shortly before Per Wahloo's death from cancer.
Throughout the series the authors were eager to focus on the necessity of close teamwork within the police as they investigate any significant crime, and while the principal protagonist is Inspector Martin Beck he is dependent upon the extensive contributions of his colleagues. This is certainly the case in Roseanna, the first novel in the sequence.
The novel opens with a dredger at work on one of Sweden's principal canals. As the workman struggle to keep the waterway sufficiently clear they discover the body of a young woman. The pathologists' examination suggest that the body had been in the water for about a week, and that the victim was in her mid twenties. There are no other indications of her identity, and the police have to work entirely from scratch.
Sjowall and Wahloo give a fascinating insioght into the workings of the police system at a time before faxes, computers or mobile telephones, and while procedure is kept to the fore the novel never drags. I shall certainly be reading the rest of the series!
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understand why Sweden has such a high suicide rate.This book was something entirely different. Written in the 1960s this was the first in a series that husband and wife team Sjowall and Wahloo wrote, each featuring Inspector Martin Beck. Indeed, the series was very closely planned in advance - ten novels each of thirty chapters, which, when read in sequence, would constitute a single overarching novel. They stuck to that plan, with the final novel "The Terrorists" being published inj 1975 shortly before Per Wahloo's death from cancer.
Throughout the series the authors were eager to focus on the necessity of close teamwork within the police as they investigate any significant crime, and while the principal protagonist is Inspector Martin Beck he is dependent upon the extensive contributions of his colleagues. This is certainly the case in Roseanna, the first novel in the sequence.
The novel opens with a dredger at work on one of Sweden's principal canals. As the workman struggle to keep the waterway sufficiently clear they discover the body of a young woman. The pathologists' examination suggest that the body had been in the water for about a week, and that the victim was in her mid twenties. There are no other indications of her identity, and the police have to work entirely from scratch.
Sjowall and Wahloo give a fascinating insioght into the workings of the police system at a time before faxes, computers or mobile telephones, and while procedure is kept to the fore the novel never drags. I shall certainly be reading the rest of the series!
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LibraryThing member rwt42
I was hoping for a new detective series to read. But I only finished this one to see how it ended. Written in the mid sixties, these writers may well be the ones who set the style for many other Scandinavian crime writers to follow: prose so spare and uninteresting it reads like meeting notes. To
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the extent that characters are developed, they tend to be dull, lifeless and depressing to know. If the depictions are accurate, Swedish police perform in the manner of postal employees. This could just be the case. Show Less
LibraryThing member michelesw
This is a reread. I am watching the Kurt Wallender mysteries on PBS, and I got the urge to reread Faceless Killers by Mankell and also the first in the Martin Beck series by husband and wife team Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo.
LibraryThing member jeremyfarnumlane
A slow burner, for sure, and written in the starkest, sparest of styles, it took a long time to grab me, but when the investigation picked up, I was hooked. On to the next one, "The Man Who Went Up In Smoke."
LibraryThing member JenneB
This was recommended to me as a page-turner, but I was so very bored.
LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
On a summer’s day in Sweden the body of a young woman is dredged from a lake. Roseanna depicts in realistic detail the process of identifying first the woman and then her killer.
It’s a bit shameful in crime fiction circles to have to admit to never having heard of the ten Martin Beck books
But there is, of course, much more than that or else the book and its series mates would not still be being re-issued every few years. The thing that struck me most about the style of the book was its realism. Policing is depicted as a slow process in which the vast bulk of the time was spent on activities and leads that would ultimately prove to go nowhere. Of course in 1965 this was even more true than it is today as communicating with other police forces and international jurisdictions was all done via physical post and the occasional unintelligible trans-Atlantic phone call.
Martin Beck too is realistic, perhaps a little too much so. If the phrase ‘dour Swede’ has been over-used since Scandinavian crime fiction has become flavour of the month then surely the blame must lie mostly at the feet of the rarely smiling, crowd hating, always ill, never wanting to go home Martin Beck. As a characterisation I think he’s marvelous but as a human being I’d rather not be stuck in an elevator for any great length of time with him. However his dogged persistence in doing the work that needed to be done regardless of how time consuming and potentially fruitless it might be, is quite wonderful. And there are glimpses of a very dry humour in the book though I did get the feeling these were being rationed by the authors in the way that a strict parent might ration a child’s sweets.
The edition of the book I read had an introduction by Henning Mankell in which he discussed his own joy at reading the book when it was first released and described Sjowall and Wahloo’s very clear plan to use ”crime and criminal investigation as a mirror of Swedish society…they realised there was a huge, unexplored territory in which crime novels could form the framework for stories containing social criticism”. In Roseanna the authors tackled the nature of bureaucracy, the rise of consumerism and even used the nature of the crime itself in a country that prided itself on being the kind of place where such things did not happen with a subtlety that I would dearly love to see more of in modern fiction.
I do have a minor grizzle about this translation being a bit too full of modern Americanisms, for example ‘vamp’ being used as a verb, to be totally authentic to the book’s time and place and I would be curious to read a contemporary translation. But that is a minor gripe about an otherwise enjoyable reading experience and I would heartily recommend the book to fans of modern police procedurals who want to know more about the history of this fine art form.
It’s a bit shameful in crime fiction circles to have to admit to never having heard of the ten Martin Beck books
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before a couple of years ago, let alone acknowledging that I’ve never read one until now. Like Peter from Detectives Beyond Borders, one of my immediate and overwhelming sensations as I started reading was that I was discovering the source material for many of the characters & writing styles that these books inspired in the more recently published works I am more familiar with. From that perspective alone the book was a delight to read.But there is, of course, much more than that or else the book and its series mates would not still be being re-issued every few years. The thing that struck me most about the style of the book was its realism. Policing is depicted as a slow process in which the vast bulk of the time was spent on activities and leads that would ultimately prove to go nowhere. Of course in 1965 this was even more true than it is today as communicating with other police forces and international jurisdictions was all done via physical post and the occasional unintelligible trans-Atlantic phone call.
Martin Beck too is realistic, perhaps a little too much so. If the phrase ‘dour Swede’ has been over-used since Scandinavian crime fiction has become flavour of the month then surely the blame must lie mostly at the feet of the rarely smiling, crowd hating, always ill, never wanting to go home Martin Beck. As a characterisation I think he’s marvelous but as a human being I’d rather not be stuck in an elevator for any great length of time with him. However his dogged persistence in doing the work that needed to be done regardless of how time consuming and potentially fruitless it might be, is quite wonderful. And there are glimpses of a very dry humour in the book though I did get the feeling these were being rationed by the authors in the way that a strict parent might ration a child’s sweets.
The edition of the book I read had an introduction by Henning Mankell in which he discussed his own joy at reading the book when it was first released and described Sjowall and Wahloo’s very clear plan to use ”crime and criminal investigation as a mirror of Swedish society…they realised there was a huge, unexplored territory in which crime novels could form the framework for stories containing social criticism”. In Roseanna the authors tackled the nature of bureaucracy, the rise of consumerism and even used the nature of the crime itself in a country that prided itself on being the kind of place where such things did not happen with a subtlety that I would dearly love to see more of in modern fiction.
I do have a minor grizzle about this translation being a bit too full of modern Americanisms, for example ‘vamp’ being used as a verb, to be totally authentic to the book’s time and place and I would be curious to read a contemporary translation. But that is a minor gripe about an otherwise enjoyable reading experience and I would heartily recommend the book to fans of modern police procedurals who want to know more about the history of this fine art form.
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
Martin Beck leads an investigation of the murder of a woman found in a lake. She had been a passenger on a cruise. There appears to be evidence of a possible sexual assault as well. This book was written in the 1960s, and the police techniques definitely correspond to that era rather than the
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present-day era when the Internet and digital photography would have radically altered some of the things in the investigation. I really enjoyed this mystery and will probably look for others in this series. It is not as dark as much of the present-day Scandi-crime. Show Less
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
very briefly:
First in a series featuring Martin beck, set in Sweden. As the story opens, the body of a young girl is found in a canal. Martin Beck is in charge of the investigation into her death, but to get anywhere they first have to figure out who she was. It takes awhile, but once they've
What a great series opener! The characters are very human and realistic, the prose is not overdone. There were a couple of places of laugh-out-loud humor, and this was another one I couldn't stop once I'd picked it up. Very highly recommended; now I'm off to pick up more in the series. People who enjoy Scandinavian mysteries cannot miss this one.
First in a series featuring Martin beck, set in Sweden. As the story opens, the body of a young girl is found in a canal. Martin Beck is in charge of the investigation into her death, but to get anywhere they first have to figure out who she was. It takes awhile, but once they've
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identified her, the real fun begins: finding out who might have wanted her dead and why.What a great series opener! The characters are very human and realistic, the prose is not overdone. There were a couple of places of laugh-out-loud humor, and this was another one I couldn't stop once I'd picked it up. Very highly recommended; now I'm off to pick up more in the series. People who enjoy Scandinavian mysteries cannot miss this one.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
The first of the ten Martin Beck police procedurals concerns the rape and murder of a woman whose body is dredged up from the Göta Canal at Motala. Before the age of the fax machine and the mobile phone, the investigation proceeds at a slow pace, with information from other European countries and
The book mentioned Söderköping a few times (a small town on the canal where I holidayed a few years ago), and reminded me that I would like to do the Göta Canal boat trip someday, although I would hope to make it all the way to Gothenburg, unlike Roseanna.
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the States taking days if not weeks to reach the Stockholm police.The book mentioned Söderköping a few times (a small town on the canal where I holidayed a few years ago), and reminded me that I would like to do the Göta Canal boat trip someday, although I would hope to make it all the way to Gothenburg, unlike Roseanna.
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LibraryThing member sogamonk
First Martin Beck book. Excellent police procedural .
Subjects
Language
Original language
Swedish
Original publication date
1965
Physical description
253 p.; 20 cm
ISBN
8700079014 / 9788700079014
Local notes
Omslag: Kjeld Brandt
Omslaget viser to billeder af den samme kvinde
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra svensk "Roseanna" af Grete Juel Jørgensen
Roman om en forbrydelse, bind 1
Side 77: Politikommisæren lagde ikke mærke til deres lettelse. Den bølgelængde, de brugte til deres stumme meddelelser, var ham fremmed.
Omslaget viser to billeder af den samme kvinde
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra svensk "Roseanna" af Grete Juel Jørgensen
Roman om en forbrydelse, bind 1
Side 77: Politikommisæren lagde ikke mærke til deres lettelse. Den bølgelængde, de brugte til deres stumme meddelelser, var ham fremmed.
Similar in this library
Series
Pages
253
DDC/MDS
| 839.7374 |