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Available
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Library's review
Sverige, november 1967
13 november 1967, 23.03, en sen bus bliver scene for et massemord. 9 mennesker er skudt med en maskinpistol, heraf er 8 døde og en hårdt såret. Kristiansson og Kvant kommer til stedet 23.11 og tramper rundt i og omkring bussen for at se om morderen stadig er der. Martin
Martin Beck har været gift i 17 år og ægteskabet knager. Han snakker godt med datteren Ingrid på 16.
En af de 8 døde i bussen er Marine Becks kollega Åke Stenström, der nåede at trække pistolen inden han blev skudt. Ofrene er chauffør Gustav Bengtsson, 48 år, Åke Stenström, 29 år, Britt Danielsson, 28 år, Alfons Schwerin, 43 år, Mohammed Boussie, 36 år, en uidentificeret, Johan Kellström, 52 år, Gösta Assarsson, 42 år, Hildur Johansson, 68 år.
Martin Beck, Gunvald Larsson, Melander, Rönn og Lennart Kollberg går i gang med at optrævle passagerernes baggrund og undres over hvad Åke egentlig var i gang i, da han døde for kæresten Åsa Torell siger at han havde vældigt travlt på job, men faktisk var der helt stille på jobbet. Den sårede dør efter at have sagt "Dnrk og Samalson" hvilket Rönn omsider får tydet som "Didn't recognize him. Som Olsson.", dvs det var en ukendt person, men han lignede Olsson.
Gunvald Larsson skygger Assarssons bror og knalder ham med narkotika for en milion.
Den sidste døde bliver langt om længe identificeret som Nils Erik Göransson, 38 år. Melander kan huske ham fra en gammel sag. Åke var godt til at skygge folk og efterhånden finder holdet ud af at han var ved at kigge på Teresa Camarão-sagen fra 1957, som også passer med Melanders hukommelse. Teresa var en 26 år gammel kvinde, der i to år havde levet som prostitueret. Hun blev fundet dræbt og en karakteristisk bil var set i nærheden, men aldrig fundet, selv om den burde være gået i det net, politiet kastede ud. Martin Beck har 11 år tidligere gået sagen igennem på samme måde som Åke, så han kender sagen og ved at al suppen er kogt af benene for længst. Men Åke har fundet et nyt spor og ved at følge det finder Martin Beck morderen, som er Björn Forsberg. Han blev afpresset af Nils Erik, som også havde fortalt at han blev skygget af en politimand, som så ud til at arbejde på egen hånd. Björn havde derfor besluttet at tage to fluer med et smæk, og faktisk alle passagerer der kørte med til endestationen den dag.
Björn Forsberg forsøger at begå selvmord, da han bliver arresteret, men det bliver forhindret og han aflægger fuld tilståelse inden døren til gummicellen smækker.
Til sidst finder Månsson en manglende side fra Teresa-sagen under Åkes skriveunderlag og der står faktisk Björn Forsberg og et spørgsmålstegn. Havde de fundet det fra starten, havde de kunnet trævle sagen op på et par dage.
Den absurditet får for en gangs skyld Martin Beck til at le højt.
Vældig god og spændende politiroman, hvor man følger holdet og deres forskellige relationer til hinanden og deres familie
13 november 1967, 23.03, en sen bus bliver scene for et massemord. 9 mennesker er skudt med en maskinpistol, heraf er 8 døde og en hårdt såret. Kristiansson og Kvant kommer til stedet 23.11 og tramper rundt i og omkring bussen for at se om morderen stadig er der. Martin
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Beck og hans folk bliver tilkaldt.Martin Beck har været gift i 17 år og ægteskabet knager. Han snakker godt med datteren Ingrid på 16.
En af de 8 døde i bussen er Marine Becks kollega Åke Stenström, der nåede at trække pistolen inden han blev skudt. Ofrene er chauffør Gustav Bengtsson, 48 år, Åke Stenström, 29 år, Britt Danielsson, 28 år, Alfons Schwerin, 43 år, Mohammed Boussie, 36 år, en uidentificeret, Johan Kellström, 52 år, Gösta Assarsson, 42 år, Hildur Johansson, 68 år.
Martin Beck, Gunvald Larsson, Melander, Rönn og Lennart Kollberg går i gang med at optrævle passagerernes baggrund og undres over hvad Åke egentlig var i gang i, da han døde for kæresten Åsa Torell siger at han havde vældigt travlt på job, men faktisk var der helt stille på jobbet. Den sårede dør efter at have sagt "Dnrk og Samalson" hvilket Rönn omsider får tydet som "Didn't recognize him. Som Olsson.", dvs det var en ukendt person, men han lignede Olsson.
Gunvald Larsson skygger Assarssons bror og knalder ham med narkotika for en milion.
Den sidste døde bliver langt om længe identificeret som Nils Erik Göransson, 38 år. Melander kan huske ham fra en gammel sag. Åke var godt til at skygge folk og efterhånden finder holdet ud af at han var ved at kigge på Teresa Camarão-sagen fra 1957, som også passer med Melanders hukommelse. Teresa var en 26 år gammel kvinde, der i to år havde levet som prostitueret. Hun blev fundet dræbt og en karakteristisk bil var set i nærheden, men aldrig fundet, selv om den burde være gået i det net, politiet kastede ud. Martin Beck har 11 år tidligere gået sagen igennem på samme måde som Åke, så han kender sagen og ved at al suppen er kogt af benene for længst. Men Åke har fundet et nyt spor og ved at følge det finder Martin Beck morderen, som er Björn Forsberg. Han blev afpresset af Nils Erik, som også havde fortalt at han blev skygget af en politimand, som så ud til at arbejde på egen hånd. Björn havde derfor besluttet at tage to fluer med et smæk, og faktisk alle passagerer der kørte med til endestationen den dag.
Björn Forsberg forsøger at begå selvmord, da han bliver arresteret, men det bliver forhindret og han aflægger fuld tilståelse inden døren til gummicellen smækker.
Til sidst finder Månsson en manglende side fra Teresa-sagen under Åkes skriveunderlag og der står faktisk Björn Forsberg og et spørgsmålstegn. Havde de fundet det fra starten, havde de kunnet trævle sagen op på et par dage.
Den absurditet får for en gangs skyld Martin Beck til at le højt.
Vældig god og spændende politiroman, hvor man følger holdet og deres forskellige relationer til hinanden og deres familie
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Genres
Publication
Gyldendal, 1976. 3. udgave, 5. oplag
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: On a cold and rainy Stockholm night, nine bus riders are gunned down by an unknown assassin. The press, anxious for an explanation for the seemingly random crime, quickly dubs the killer a madman. But Superintendent Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad suspects otherwise: this apparently motiveless killer has managed to target one of Beck's best detectives, young �ke Stenstr�m. Reasoning that Stenstr�m would not have been riding that lethal bus without a reason, Beck retraces his steps and chases year-old clues to a crime long thought unsolvable. With its wonderfully observed lawmen (including the inimitable Martin Beck), its brilliantly rendered felons and their murky Stockholm underworld, and its deftly engineered plot, this is another incredible installment in the acclaimed Martin Beck mystery series..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Best yet. 4th book so the series and the authors are beginning to really hit their stride.
In the days of Vietnam war protests the police have their hands full with civil issues. When someone guns down a busload (nine) passengers the homicide team led by Martin Beck once again have their hands full
The writing is much better. There is a distinct build up of tension in the early sections and the character development proceeds through the book. Particularly noteworthy is the contrast between Beck's family and his colleagues'. There is also plenty of commentry on how the police are viewed by the citizens and what actions they can take to change this - something that still rings true 40 years later.
Liek all of the serie sos far the plot itself is very slow moving. Much of the policeowkr is hampered byt he modern high speed communications we take for granted, but even so cases proceed slowly over weeks and months with the coppers involved not seeming to do anything inbetween. A chance thought sparks a new line of inquiry and eventually Martin beck laughs.
In the days of Vietnam war protests the police have their hands full with civil issues. When someone guns down a busload (nine) passengers the homicide team led by Martin Beck once again have their hands full
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to try and trace the culprit when there are few clues to be found. It's all made more complicated when it is discovered that one of the dead is a policeman from the homicide squad.The writing is much better. There is a distinct build up of tension in the early sections and the character development proceeds through the book. Particularly noteworthy is the contrast between Beck's family and his colleagues'. There is also plenty of commentry on how the police are viewed by the citizens and what actions they can take to change this - something that still rings true 40 years later.
Liek all of the serie sos far the plot itself is very slow moving. Much of the policeowkr is hampered byt he modern high speed communications we take for granted, but even so cases proceed slowly over weeks and months with the coppers involved not seeming to do anything inbetween. A chance thought sparks a new line of inquiry and eventually Martin beck laughs.
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LibraryThing member ten_floors_up
Devoured very quickly: after finishing 'The fire engine that disappeared', I luckily found this in a charity shop shortly afterwards. I'll be reading more of these.
LibraryThing member gilly1944
This is a good detective story. A good plot and a good atmosphere.
LibraryThing member bfister
Fourth in the Martin Beck series. Police are stunned when someone boards a bus and commits mass murder. This sort of thing might happen in Austin, Texas, but Stockholm? And what was a young detective doing on the bus? The brass wants it solved quickly, but nothing moves fast in these thoughtful,
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well-plotted, slyly funny but not at all comic mysteries. It doesn't help that police are too busy battling war protesters to do their jobs. Though the authors are critics of society, their stories are far from lugubrious or glum. Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is considered a classic of detective fiction, a prime example of the police procedural. The book's reputation is well deserved. Sjowall and Wahloo populate their novel with characters that run the gamut of Stockholm society circa 1970. A multiple
Of course, the investigation eventually takes the reader into Stockholm's underworld. If you think Scandinavia is a land of clean, well-ordered people, that's not what you'll find in The Laughing Policeman. The dead detective was using his free time to investigate the murder of a sixteen-year-old Portuguese prostitute. He hoped to solve this decade old case thereby making is reputation. Now, his work is the only possible lead Beck has into his own murder.
The Laughing Policeman satisfies on several levels. It is expertly plotted. A crime without any clues is a tough place to start from, but the authors create a plot that remains entirely believable as it becomes more complicated. The characters are all those one expects to find in a detective novel, but while familiar they are fully fleshed and likable--well, enjoyable if not always likable. The prose, translated from the Swedish by Alan Blair is as terse as it should be--to the point, no nonsense, full of dialogue that illustrates the procedure used to solve the crime. There are no quirky characters in The Laughing Policeman. If you want a mystery with recipes or funny next door neighbors, look elsewhere.
The Laughing Policeman gives the reader a glimpse into life in Sweden. Not the life one will find in a guidebook. Scandinavia looks like it may soon become the next big thing in literature, detective literature at least. The other day I saw a counter display of Swedish mysteries at my local bookstore. I've not read enough of them to say how important The Laughing Policeman is in the world of Scandinavian mystery novels. I can say that it is an excellent book and a very entertaining read.
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murder, the worst on in Stockholm's history, with random victims allows the authors to send their detectives into many levels of society. It's surprising who one will find on a bus late at night. Everyone has a story.Of course, the investigation eventually takes the reader into Stockholm's underworld. If you think Scandinavia is a land of clean, well-ordered people, that's not what you'll find in The Laughing Policeman. The dead detective was using his free time to investigate the murder of a sixteen-year-old Portuguese prostitute. He hoped to solve this decade old case thereby making is reputation. Now, his work is the only possible lead Beck has into his own murder.
The Laughing Policeman satisfies on several levels. It is expertly plotted. A crime without any clues is a tough place to start from, but the authors create a plot that remains entirely believable as it becomes more complicated. The characters are all those one expects to find in a detective novel, but while familiar they are fully fleshed and likable--well, enjoyable if not always likable. The prose, translated from the Swedish by Alan Blair is as terse as it should be--to the point, no nonsense, full of dialogue that illustrates the procedure used to solve the crime. There are no quirky characters in The Laughing Policeman. If you want a mystery with recipes or funny next door neighbors, look elsewhere.
The Laughing Policeman gives the reader a glimpse into life in Sweden. Not the life one will find in a guidebook. Scandinavia looks like it may soon become the next big thing in literature, detective literature at least. The other day I saw a counter display of Swedish mysteries at my local bookstore. I've not read enough of them to say how important The Laughing Policeman is in the world of Scandinavian mystery novels. I can say that it is an excellent book and a very entertaining read.
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LibraryThing member markatread
A very high level police procedural novel from Stockholm, Sweden. The names of all the streets and the districts will drive you crazy to some degree (all of them seem to have 20 letters in the name), but the solving of the mass murder that happens on a double decker bus is exceptionally good. The 7
The pacing is exceptionally good as is the plot. There is an ebb and flow to the pacing that helps the reader feel the frustration and then the excitement every time things slow down for the detectives and then speed up again for them. The plot juggles the two cases, the stories of the 9 dead riders on the bus and the personal stories of the 10 detectives without ever becoming confusing. It is a very entertaining mystery.
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homocide detectives from Stockholm and the 3 rural detectives assigned to the case are a pretty depressed, cantankerous bunch even before 9 people are shot to death. The lack of clues and suspects adds to the strain that the oncoming winter and constant rain have already done to their collective mood. But slowly they began to check every thing they can possible think of to pursue only to find that there may be a link with a 16 year old unsolved murder case that one of the people in the bus may have been looking into. All the detectives have different personalities and special abilities that are brought to bear on both the mass murder and then the 16 year old unsolved murder of a prostitute.The pacing is exceptionally good as is the plot. There is an ebb and flow to the pacing that helps the reader feel the frustration and then the excitement every time things slow down for the detectives and then speed up again for them. The plot juggles the two cases, the stories of the 9 dead riders on the bus and the personal stories of the 10 detectives without ever becoming confusing. It is a very entertaining mystery.
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LibraryThing member flobmac
there are 10 books in this series and i'm halfway through them. this is the best so far but they're all pretty good
LibraryThing member tixylix
This is the fourth and best known book in the Martin Beck series by Sjowell and Wahloo. As with the other books, the police take some time to piece together the clues to work out who killed who and for what reason. The book starts with a couple of bobbie on the beat (who reminded me of the
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policement in the TV series Early Doors!) who stumble upon on a bus in Stockholm whihc has crashed and is full of dead bodies. The writing is crisp and sparse and although it's slow, it's never boring and I really enjoy the seemingly mundane details of the policemen's private lives as well as the case being investigated. On to the 5th... Show Less
LibraryThing member dougwood57
The Laughing Policeman is the best known book of the multi-volume Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Despite the title there is little laughing in this grim and gloomy yet classic police procedural. The book is marked by the sparse dialogue and buttoned-down personalities of the
The entire detective force of Sweden is assigned to solve the murder of 9 people on a Stockholm bus in 1968 (an anti-war - Vietnam that is - demonstration is the backdrop for the book's opening). One of the murdered is Ake Stenstrom, a Stockholm detective. His presence on the bus begins to unravel the mystery of this seemingly random and insane mass murder. Insane it may be, but never random.
Each detective obsessively follows their own path and the paths lead into Stockholm's underworld. Could an old unsolved murder somehow be related to this insane bloodshed many years later? Mass murder so un-Swedish after all - the police don't even have any psychological profiles they can use. Can the always miserable Beck or his top-notch partner Lennart Kollberg crack the case?
Highly recommended for fans of detective stories with an international bent.
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Swedish characters. (The book was later made into a movie of the same name starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, but set in San Francisco!) The entire detective force of Sweden is assigned to solve the murder of 9 people on a Stockholm bus in 1968 (an anti-war - Vietnam that is - demonstration is the backdrop for the book's opening). One of the murdered is Ake Stenstrom, a Stockholm detective. His presence on the bus begins to unravel the mystery of this seemingly random and insane mass murder. Insane it may be, but never random.
Each detective obsessively follows their own path and the paths lead into Stockholm's underworld. Could an old unsolved murder somehow be related to this insane bloodshed many years later? Mass murder so un-Swedish after all - the police don't even have any psychological profiles they can use. Can the always miserable Beck or his top-notch partner Lennart Kollberg crack the case?
Highly recommended for fans of detective stories with an international bent.
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LibraryThing member Bookish59
A mass-murder on a bus has a team of mostly mediocre police scrambling to investigate. Few clues or leads are demoralizing but eventually all the time spent on leg work, interviews with family / friends of the victims, in-house meetings, and small discoveries yield questions and answers.
Great plot,
Great plot,
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timing and even better character development. Good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Unkletom
At a recent author event Norwegian mystery writer Jo Nesbø was asked why he thought Scandinavian mysteries were such a hot commodity these days. His answer was that the primary driver for this was husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. Their ten books featuring Martin Beck and his team
The Laughing Policeman has been on my TBR list for a long time and Nesbø’s remarks tipped the scale. First published in 1967, it is a well-written police procedural, with a diverse cast of officers each following different leads in their efforts to solve the case of a mass murder aboard a double-decker bus that took the life of one of their fellow officers.
Reading the book almost half a century after it was written, it’s interesting that it is liberally sprinkled with reminders that the so-called ‘free love’ era of the 60s was really a lot more repressed than it seemed to be at the time. Unmarried couples who cohabited were ‘living in sin’. Murders involving rape were ‘sex murders’. Women who enjoyed frequent sex were ‘nymphomaniacs’. I can’t tell if Sjöwall & Wahlöö were actually trying to actively point out the hypocrisy of these views or if they were as much a victim of them as everyone else. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.
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blended crime fiction and social commentary so ably that the mystery genre in Scandinavia was pulled out of its niche market and blended in with general fiction. The result was to attract many of the region’s finest authors to the genre. The Laughing Policeman has been on my TBR list for a long time and Nesbø’s remarks tipped the scale. First published in 1967, it is a well-written police procedural, with a diverse cast of officers each following different leads in their efforts to solve the case of a mass murder aboard a double-decker bus that took the life of one of their fellow officers.
Reading the book almost half a century after it was written, it’s interesting that it is liberally sprinkled with reminders that the so-called ‘free love’ era of the 60s was really a lot more repressed than it seemed to be at the time. Unmarried couples who cohabited were ‘living in sin’. Murders involving rape were ‘sex murders’. Women who enjoyed frequent sex were ‘nymphomaniacs’. I can’t tell if Sjöwall & Wahlöö were actually trying to actively point out the hypocrisy of these views or if they were as much a victim of them as everyone else. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.
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LibraryThing member DowntownLibrarian
Mass murder in Sweden? A group of people are gunned down on a Stockholm city bus. Inspector Martin Beck is unhappily married and has a bad cold, so – not really laughing all that much. Sort of the archetypal morose, middle-aged Scandinavian detective. This married author team wrote the first
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Scandinavian mysteries readily available to English language readers – a ten book series collectively titled The Story of Crime. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
I can’t really explain the circumstances that led me to read a Swedish police procedural published in 1970, but I’m glad I discovered this gem of a book. It is written in a straightforward style with spare, precise language that propels the story along. The mystery begins with the discovery of
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a bus on which all of the passengers have been brutally shot. One of the passengers is a police detective who didn’t belong on the bus in the first place. A team of detectives take on the case, and despite the absence of leads, eventually work out the convoluted solution. The resolution may seem like a bit of a stretch, but it’s the getting there that provides all of the enjoyment. I had some difficulty following the plot with all of the unfamiliar Swedish names and the roundabout way the case was solved, which only means that this may be worth rereading someday. Show Less
LibraryThing member auntieknickers
This was only the second of the Edgar Best Novel winners so far that I knew for certain I had read before. But, I decided it would be worthwhile to reread it, and how right I was. Martin Beck, the protagonist of this series, is the spiritual ancestor of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander. He pretty
One thing I don't recall noticing when I first read this book back in the 1970s was how it is set in a definite time -- 1967, with protest demonstrations worldwide about America's involvement in Vietnam. The book opens with such a demonstration in Stockholm, with most police detailed to keep order. Shortly, however, Beck is called to a crime scene -- someone has shot all the passengers and the driver of a city bus. And one of the victims is one of his own homicide detectives.
The solution of the case leads to the solution of a "cold case" from the early 50s, and owes more to good, solid, routine police investigation than to any stunning intuitions on the part of Beck or his colleagues. (As is my wont, I had forgotten "whodunnit" long ago so that I enjoyed not only the writing, but the mystery.) I very seldom reread mysteries, but the Sjowall and Wahloo series is well worth a reread, or a first read if you haven't encountered them yet.
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much bears out any stereotype you may have about gloomy Swedes. But he's a heck of a policeman.One thing I don't recall noticing when I first read this book back in the 1970s was how it is set in a definite time -- 1967, with protest demonstrations worldwide about America's involvement in Vietnam. The book opens with such a demonstration in Stockholm, with most police detailed to keep order. Shortly, however, Beck is called to a crime scene -- someone has shot all the passengers and the driver of a city bus. And one of the victims is one of his own homicide detectives.
The solution of the case leads to the solution of a "cold case" from the early 50s, and owes more to good, solid, routine police investigation than to any stunning intuitions on the part of Beck or his colleagues. (As is my wont, I had forgotten "whodunnit" long ago so that I enjoyed not only the writing, but the mystery.) I very seldom reread mysteries, but the Sjowall and Wahloo series is well worth a reread, or a first read if you haven't encountered them yet.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
Wonderful police procedural mystery. Aside from a few bits about protests against the Vietnam War, this could have been set today - nothing dated about it at all.
LibraryThing member Michael_Drysdale
This is my first book by the Swedish writing couple.
The book starts with a great opening: eight occupants of a bus are murdered. Among the dead is a colleague of police detective Martin Beck. The entire book is about how this crime is solved and for a long time there are no clues or motives. This
There were too many characters, both detectives and suspects or witnesses. This makes for realism but it was slow and rather boring reading as a result. The book does capture the atmosphere of the time and place, a 1968 Stockholm winter.
The book starts with a great opening: eight occupants of a bus are murdered. Among the dead is a colleague of police detective Martin Beck. The entire book is about how this crime is solved and for a long time there are no clues or motives. This
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is a pure police procedural with detectives working through masses of details until a link is found with a 16 year old unsolved murder case.There were too many characters, both detectives and suspects or witnesses. This makes for realism but it was slow and rather boring reading as a result. The book does capture the atmosphere of the time and place, a 1968 Stockholm winter.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
The Laughing Policeman is the fourth in the Martin Beck series, and so far it is my favorite from this writing duo.
While the police in Stockholm are busy at the American Embassy where a protest against the Vietnam War has turned very ugly, patrolmen Kvant and Kristiansson, the Keystone Cop-ish
Sjöwall and Perlöö's plotting and storyline are not the only reasons this book and the series work so well. The authors also continue to develop their characters' personalities so that the people in the Stockholm homicide squad become more and more familiar to the reader as time progresses. Those two factors, along with their ability to evoke what they consider the social ills and the events of the time period make these short novels so compelling. In the space of only 211 pages the authors manage to set up the plot, detail the often-frustrating investigation, catch up on what's going on with Beck, Kollberg and the other main players, and wrap things up in a more than satisfying conclusion. They keep the superfluous prose away, giving the reader only what's needed to keep the story going. There are no torrid love affairs, no in-depth soul searching or major subplots to sidetrack the reader -- Sjöwall and Perlöö are probably among the best crime writers in terms of their focus on the crime at hand, while still managing to continue the growth of their beloved characters. The time frame is well established through their use of current events like the Vietnam War protests and American serial killers of the time (especially Charles Whitman and the U of Texas shootings). They also have this ability to make the reader laugh in the midst of terrible crimes; here they go on about psychologists and profiling of serial killers in a discussion that was priceless.
I'd definitely recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who wants to read something intelligent in the realm of crime fiction, and to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction in particular. You can't read just the current popular authors and feel like you have experienced the best that the Nordic countries have to offer -- this series is a no miss, for sure.
While the police in Stockholm are busy at the American Embassy where a protest against the Vietnam War has turned very ugly, patrolmen Kvant and Kristiansson, the Keystone Cop-ish
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police officers who just so happened to have inadvertently solved the case in The Man on the Balcony, are just biding their time until their shift is over. Crossing from the municipality of Solna into Stockholm, they're flagged down by a man walking a dog who reports an accident. The two drive on over and discover a doubledecker bus with lights on and doors open off the road. Inside the bus are several dead bodies, all gunned down in their seats, and the scene looks like a massacre. The homicide squad headed by Martin Beck arrives and discovers that one of their own is dead on the bus -- a young police inspector named Ake Stenstrom. There are very little clues on the scene, thanks to Kvant and Kristiansson, and as far as motive, until Beck and his men can go through the list of victims, it is not readily apparent. To bring the gunman to justice and close the case Beck and his team will have to put in long hours and examine the lives of all of the dead. To discover why this happened, the most important fact they need to discern is the identity of the intended target, not a simple task in the least.Sjöwall and Perlöö's plotting and storyline are not the only reasons this book and the series work so well. The authors also continue to develop their characters' personalities so that the people in the Stockholm homicide squad become more and more familiar to the reader as time progresses. Those two factors, along with their ability to evoke what they consider the social ills and the events of the time period make these short novels so compelling. In the space of only 211 pages the authors manage to set up the plot, detail the often-frustrating investigation, catch up on what's going on with Beck, Kollberg and the other main players, and wrap things up in a more than satisfying conclusion. They keep the superfluous prose away, giving the reader only what's needed to keep the story going. There are no torrid love affairs, no in-depth soul searching or major subplots to sidetrack the reader -- Sjöwall and Perlöö are probably among the best crime writers in terms of their focus on the crime at hand, while still managing to continue the growth of their beloved characters. The time frame is well established through their use of current events like the Vietnam War protests and American serial killers of the time (especially Charles Whitman and the U of Texas shootings). They also have this ability to make the reader laugh in the midst of terrible crimes; here they go on about psychologists and profiling of serial killers in a discussion that was priceless.
I'd definitely recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who wants to read something intelligent in the realm of crime fiction, and to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction in particular. You can't read just the current popular authors and feel like you have experienced the best that the Nordic countries have to offer -- this series is a no miss, for sure.
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LibraryThing member brone
A couple of Marxist Swedes from the sixties manage to write a good mystery about the seedy side of Stockholm, if you can get by the anti american thread its not bad.
LibraryThing member John
There is a whole series of these Martin Beck police mysteries. This was my first, recommended through a book review I saw some time ago. It will not be my last. This story is set in Stockholm where a city bus is the scene of a mass murder with an unknown assailant murdering seven or eight people,
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including an offduty policeman, whose colleagues cannot figure out why he would have been on the bus in the first place. A good story, well-told and one that eschews fireworks for good description of dogged police work that finally allows Martin and others to pull the threads of the story together and find the murderer. Show Less
LibraryThing member jkdavies
I found this one a little far fetched...but still enjoyable.
Re-read 2016. A bus is abandoned with eight dead bodies, and one injured survivor. A policeman is one of the dead. Martin Beck tries to find out why he would even be on the bus in the first place, which leads to him unravelling the case.
Re-read 2016. A bus is abandoned with eight dead bodies, and one injured survivor. A policeman is one of the dead. Martin Beck tries to find out why he would even be on the bus in the first place, which leads to him unravelling the case.
LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
The fourth entry into the Swedish police procedural series featuring Martin Beck sees nine people gunned down while riding a double-decker bus. Mass murder is not a common occurrence so this is treated as a high profile case but what makes it even more so to the investigative team is that one of
This is the first entry in the series where the socio-political elements that this series is famous for really come to the fore. It starts out with heavy-handed policing of an anti-Vietnam war demonstration where a letter and sodden placards are no match for tear gas bombs, pistols, truncheons and any other element of their arsenal that the police could use for crowd control. The investigation itself meanders to its conclusion through the slow process of eliminating all leads that provide nothing to further their ongoing attempts to solve the case. Jumping on anything that might present a new avenue of approach the team work diligently though not without the odd moment of fun in their interplay. This far in to the series the characters themselves are becoming more rounded and fleshed out and we get to learn more of what drives them and their strengths and weaknesses and I’m looking forward to seeing them develop further in future instalments.
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the victims was one of their own homicide detectives. As there were no ongoing investigations for him to be working on, the reason he was on the bus in the first place is not readily apparent. Was he having an illicit affair with the nurse he was found next to? Or was there some ulterior motive for his presence? Martin Beck and his team set about trying to discover the killer’s identity and the motive behind such a vicious crime. Tracking their colleague’s last moments might just help them solve the case.This is the first entry in the series where the socio-political elements that this series is famous for really come to the fore. It starts out with heavy-handed policing of an anti-Vietnam war demonstration where a letter and sodden placards are no match for tear gas bombs, pistols, truncheons and any other element of their arsenal that the police could use for crowd control. The investigation itself meanders to its conclusion through the slow process of eliminating all leads that provide nothing to further their ongoing attempts to solve the case. Jumping on anything that might present a new avenue of approach the team work diligently though not without the odd moment of fun in their interplay. This far in to the series the characters themselves are becoming more rounded and fleshed out and we get to learn more of what drives them and their strengths and weaknesses and I’m looking forward to seeing them develop further in future instalments.
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LibraryThing member BVLawson
Before Stieg Larsson, before Jo Nesbø or Henning Mankell, Scandinavian crime fiction was dominated by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, journalists and common-law married writing partners from Sweden. In the 1960s, the couple set about to write 10 books in 10 years, each 30 chapters long, which they
According to Wahlöö, their intention was to "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideological pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type." The books (all of which have been adapted for film or TV), follow the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police, centered around the character of Superintendent Martin Beck of the Homicide Squad. About their main policeman, Ms. Sjöwall said, "We wanted a credible, trustworthy Swedish civil servant with empathy and real concern." The books really should be read in sequential order because the characters of Beck, his family, and Beck's police colleagues change throughout the series.
THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN was the only one in the series to win an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel, an honor bestowed in 1971. At the beginning of the book, police are off fighting peaceful Vietnam demonstrators and casually molest a girl demonstrator on her thirteenth birthday. Soon afterward, nine bus riders are gunned down by an unknown assassin on a cold and rainy Stockholm night. Unfortunately for Beck, the two inept patrolmen who stumbled upon the crime scene destroyed much of any useful evidence. The frenzied press, fishing for an explanation for the seemingly random crime, quickly dubs the killer a madman.
With his usual dogged determination, Beck suspects the culprit isn't a madman, after all, upon discovering the apparently motiveless killer has managed to target one of Beck′s best detectives, Ake Stenstrom. But far too many questions remain: why was Stenstrom on that particular bus that night? Why was he sitting next to a young, female nurse? After Beck works with the murdered detective's girlfriend, he's able to piece together his activites right before his murder. Soon enough it becomes clear that Stenstrom was working off the books, and that the attack may be connected to an unsolved cold case.
The Beck novels are filled with brooding, multi-dimensional characters and the settings are equally gritty and dour, pointing out the dark underbelly of Swedish culture and clearly foreshadowing Larsson. There are also other parallels: Sjöwall/Wahlöö and Larsson wrote against the sub-class treatment of women in society, as well as the failings of the capitalistic system to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
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plotted and researched together, then wrote alternate chapters. Because they intended the books as a critique of capitalist society, all the books in their original editions were given the subtitle "Report of a Crime" as a politically double-entendre phrase.According to Wahlöö, their intention was to "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideological pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type." The books (all of which have been adapted for film or TV), follow the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police, centered around the character of Superintendent Martin Beck of the Homicide Squad. About their main policeman, Ms. Sjöwall said, "We wanted a credible, trustworthy Swedish civil servant with empathy and real concern." The books really should be read in sequential order because the characters of Beck, his family, and Beck's police colleagues change throughout the series.
THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN was the only one in the series to win an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel, an honor bestowed in 1971. At the beginning of the book, police are off fighting peaceful Vietnam demonstrators and casually molest a girl demonstrator on her thirteenth birthday. Soon afterward, nine bus riders are gunned down by an unknown assassin on a cold and rainy Stockholm night. Unfortunately for Beck, the two inept patrolmen who stumbled upon the crime scene destroyed much of any useful evidence. The frenzied press, fishing for an explanation for the seemingly random crime, quickly dubs the killer a madman.
With his usual dogged determination, Beck suspects the culprit isn't a madman, after all, upon discovering the apparently motiveless killer has managed to target one of Beck′s best detectives, Ake Stenstrom. But far too many questions remain: why was Stenstrom on that particular bus that night? Why was he sitting next to a young, female nurse? After Beck works with the murdered detective's girlfriend, he's able to piece together his activites right before his murder. Soon enough it becomes clear that Stenstrom was working off the books, and that the attack may be connected to an unsolved cold case.
The Beck novels are filled with brooding, multi-dimensional characters and the settings are equally gritty and dour, pointing out the dark underbelly of Swedish culture and clearly foreshadowing Larsson. There are also other parallels: Sjöwall/Wahlöö and Larsson wrote against the sub-class treatment of women in society, as well as the failings of the capitalistic system to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
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LibraryThing member rkreish
I'm very happy to get back to the Martin Beck series, even if I was a little weirded out by the cover of this book. I'm not sure I've ever read a book with a huge assault rifle on the cover. The cover stands in stark contrast to the source of the title, a 1920s novely record called The Adventures
The Laughing Policeman is a compact story about a horrible crime rife with social commentary. The political commentary seems to grow as the series goes on. The crime at the center of the story is the mass shooting of 9 people on a double decker bus on a cold rainy night on the border of Stockholm and the suburb of Solna, the same night that most of the police force is at an anti-Vietnam protest. One of the murder victims was Stenström, a young member of Beck's squad, but no one knows what he was doing on the bus.
The Martin Beck books tend to be heavy on the procedural part of a police procedural: it's not just interrogations, but it's scientific tests and strategy sessions. Because the crime was so large and garnered so much media attention, there are lots of characters as Beck's squad receives reinforcements from all over Sweden.
It's a compact story, which is a great change of pace. It feels quite contemporary, which speaks to the couple's influence on current crime writing. But parts of the story definitely place it in the 1960's: Gunnarson's rants are pretty retrograde, on purpose; and there is a bit of victim-blaming that reminded me very much to the first book in the series, Roseanna. This is my favorite entry in the series so far.
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of the Laughing Policeman.The Laughing Policeman is a compact story about a horrible crime rife with social commentary. The political commentary seems to grow as the series goes on. The crime at the center of the story is the mass shooting of 9 people on a double decker bus on a cold rainy night on the border of Stockholm and the suburb of Solna, the same night that most of the police force is at an anti-Vietnam protest. One of the murder victims was Stenström, a young member of Beck's squad, but no one knows what he was doing on the bus.
The Martin Beck books tend to be heavy on the procedural part of a police procedural: it's not just interrogations, but it's scientific tests and strategy sessions. Because the crime was so large and garnered so much media attention, there are lots of characters as Beck's squad receives reinforcements from all over Sweden.
It's a compact story, which is a great change of pace. It feels quite contemporary, which speaks to the couple's influence on current crime writing. But parts of the story definitely place it in the 1960's: Gunnarson's rants are pretty retrograde, on purpose; and there is a bit of victim-blaming that reminded me very much to the first book in the series, Roseanna. This is my favorite entry in the series so far.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rkreish
I'm very happy to get back to the Martin Beck series, even if I was a little weirded out by the cover of this book. I'm not sure I've ever read a book with a huge assault rifle on the cover. The cover stands in stark contrast to the source of the title, a 1920s novely record called The Adventures
The Laughing Policeman is a compact story about a horrible crime rife with social commentary. The political commentary seems to grow as the series goes on. The crime at the center of the story is the mass shooting of 9 people on a double decker bus on a cold rainy night on the border of Stockholm and the suburb of Solna, the same night that most of the police force is at an anti-Vietnam protest. One of the murder victims was Stenström, a young member of Beck's squad, but no one knows what he was doing on the bus.
The Martin Beck books tend to be heavy on the procedural part of a police procedural: it's not just interrogations, but it's scientific tests and strategy sessions. Because the crime was so large and garnered so much media attention, there are lots of characters as Beck's squad receives reinforcements from all over Sweden.
It's a compact story, which is a great change of pace. It feels quite contemporary, which speaks to the couple's influence on current crime writing. But parts of the story definitely place it in the 1960's: Gunnarson's rants are pretty retrograde, on purpose; and there is a bit of victim-blaming that reminded me very much to the first book in the series, Roseanna. This is my favorite entry in the series so far.
Show More
of the Laughing Policeman.The Laughing Policeman is a compact story about a horrible crime rife with social commentary. The political commentary seems to grow as the series goes on. The crime at the center of the story is the mass shooting of 9 people on a double decker bus on a cold rainy night on the border of Stockholm and the suburb of Solna, the same night that most of the police force is at an anti-Vietnam protest. One of the murder victims was Stenström, a young member of Beck's squad, but no one knows what he was doing on the bus.
The Martin Beck books tend to be heavy on the procedural part of a police procedural: it's not just interrogations, but it's scientific tests and strategy sessions. Because the crime was so large and garnered so much media attention, there are lots of characters as Beck's squad receives reinforcements from all over Sweden.
It's a compact story, which is a great change of pace. It feels quite contemporary, which speaks to the couple's influence on current crime writing. But parts of the story definitely place it in the 1960's: Gunnarson's rants are pretty retrograde, on purpose; and there is a bit of victim-blaming that reminded me very much to the first book in the series, Roseanna. This is my favorite entry in the series so far.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Setting the tone for some of the later Martin Beck novels, the opening of this book sees the Swedish police force distracted from its normal tasks by the much more entertaining pastime of beating up peaceful anti-Vietnam demonstrators outside the US embassy. But then Beck and his team are called in
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to investigate Sweden's first mass shooting incident: nine people have been shot on a Stockholm bus, one of them a detective from Beck's own squad. The absence of the shooter seems to rule out an American-style episode of random killing, whilst political terrorism doesn't figure either as a serious possibility (probably the most obvious thing that dates the book!), so the police are faced with a painstaking investigation into all the passengers and why they were there. It's maybe a bit of a detective story cliché that the mystery turns out to revolve around an old, unsolved case, but it's a typical Sjöwall & Wahlöö touch that there's a clue to this back-story that the investigators have missed the first time around by sheer bad luck... Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Edgar Award (Nominee — Novel — 1971)
Crime Writers' Association Awards (Shortlist — 1971)
Sherlock-priset (1968)
Language
Original language
Swedish
Original publication date
1968
1970 (English translation)
Physical description
237 p.; 20 cm
ISBN
8700517119 / 9788700517110
Local notes
Omslag: John Ovesen
Omslaget viser et puslespil med en bus som motiv
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra svensk "Den skrattande polisen" af Grete Juel Jørgensen
Roman om en forbrydelse, bind 4
Side 6: Operationen lededes af en højtstående politimand med militær grundskoling. Han ansås for at være ekspert i ordensspørgsmål og betragtede tilfreds det totale kaos, det var lykkedes ham at fremkalde.
Side 12: Hvorfor skulle man lade sig overbrække, når det ikke er nødvendigt?
Side 12: Kvant var ubestikkelig. Han gik aldrig på akkord, når det drejede sig om ting, han så, men på den anden side var han ekspert i at se så lidt som muligt.
Side 16: Gunvald Larsson var et hundrede og tooghalvfems centimeter høj og vejede nioghalvfems kilo. Han var skulderbred som en professionel sværvægtsbokser og havde et par kæmpemæssige behårede hænder.
Omslaget viser et puslespil med en bus som motiv
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra svensk "Den skrattande polisen" af Grete Juel Jørgensen
Roman om en forbrydelse, bind 4
Side 6: Operationen lededes af en højtstående politimand med militær grundskoling. Han ansås for at være ekspert i ordensspørgsmål og betragtede tilfreds det totale kaos, det var lykkedes ham at fremkalde.
Side 12: Hvorfor skulle man lade sig overbrække, når det ikke er nødvendigt?
Side 12: Kvant var ubestikkelig. Han gik aldrig på akkord, når det drejede sig om ting, han så, men på den anden side var han ekspert i at se så lidt som muligt.
Side 16: Gunvald Larsson var et hundrede og tooghalvfems centimeter høj og vejede nioghalvfems kilo. Han var skulderbred som en professionel sværvægtsbokser og havde et par kæmpemæssige behårede hænder.
Other editions
Endestation mord by Maj Sjöwall (Paper Book)
Similar in this library
Series
Pages
237
DDC/MDS
| 839.7374 |