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The Laughing Policeman (Martin Beck #4)

by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö, Alain Blair (Translator), Nicci French (Introduction)

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 2,288 ratings · 204 reviews

In this classic police procedural, the ever-dyspeptic Martin Beck has nothing to be amused about, even though it's Christmastime. Åke Stenstrom, a young detective in Beck's squad, has just been killed in an unprecedented mass murder aboard a Stockholm city bus. Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or did he push a murderer too far in his efforts to make a name...more

Paperback, 248 pages

Published 2007 by HarperPerennial (first published 1967)

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May 19, 2012 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: detective, swedish-lit, mystery, audio-book

One of the things I dig most about the "Martin Beck" mysteries is that they are only named "Martin Beck" mysteries out of convenience. He's the highest ranking policeman in Sjowall and Wahloo's Stockholm Homicide Division, and a couple of the early books tended to focus on him, but as the series goes on the books can be about any of the men who work with Beck.

The Laughing Policeman revolves around two of the detectives: Lennart Kollberg and Åke Stenström. In fact, the central mystery of the book...more One of the things I dig most about the "Martin Beck" mysteries is that they are only named "Martin Beck" mysteries out of convenience. He's the highest ranking policeman in Sjowall and Wahloo's Stockholm Homicide Division, and a couple of the early books tended to focus on him, but as the series goes on the books can be about any of the men who work with Beck.

The Laughing Policeman revolves around two of the detectives: Lennart Kollberg and Åke Stenström. In fact, the central mystery of the book is the shooting of Stenström and seven others on a double decker bus on the edge of Stockholm and Skåne. No one has any idea what Stenström is doing on the bus, and the hunt for a mass murderer in 1968 Sweden is all a bit surreal to the detectives who expect that kind of thing in Vietnam war torn USA, but not late-sixties Sweden.

The investigation (refreshingly bereft of the "cop killer" chest beating we've come to expect from our police procedurals) digs deep into the life of Stenström, trying to figure out what he is doing and why he is on that bus. We meet his girlfriend and future cop Åsa Torell, we discover their sexual proclivities, Stenström's love of guns, and his lofty ambitions.

It is Kollberg who does most of the work on this front, befriending Åsa Torell after Stenström's death and going so far as to invite her to stay with him, his wife, Gun, and their baby (only one at this point) for a while. We discover much more about Kollberg's Socialist politics, his disdain for guns, his and Gun's sexual proclivities, and that he is a damn good detective. No wonder he and Beck get along so well.

The Kollberg and Stenström stuff is exactly the kind of stuff I love. Getting to know characters in the midst of whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. But what Kollberg is supposed to be doing, along with Beck and Melander, Larsson and Rönn, is finding a mass murderer. And that part of the story is as satisfying as it can possibly be. If you love mystery novels, and if you're even mildly interested in Swedish crime fiction, you will love this book. I did. (less)

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Nov 17, 2012 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: BBC radio listeners

Shelves: radio-4, series, sweden, politics, mystery-thriller, fradio, autumn-2012

17th November: Saturday Drama The Martin Beck Series, The Laughing Policeman

4/10 The investigation of a mass shooting leads Beck back to an unsolved case from the past.

BBC blurb: In the fourth of the Martin Beck Killings, Beck is now a Detective Superintendant. But his promotion hasn't made him any more cheerful; if anything, it's only confirmed his gloomy belief that the best way to solve crimes is by hard slog, dogged persistence, a grimly realistic view of human nature - and the occasional fl...more

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May 20, 2012 Algernon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, 2012

The fourth book featuring Stockholm Police Commissioner Martin Beck is probably the best known, due to a movie adaptation with Walther Matthau in the main role. I can understand its popularity, as it is my favorite so far in this ongoing police procedural series.
It is important to accentuate the procedural nature of the story, in order to give a warning to readers who expect all crime stories to have a super smart detective who solves cases by smoking a pipe ot twirling a moustache while the aut...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Nancy Oakes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-crime-fiction-and-myst, translated-to-film, translated-fiction

After finishing The Man on the Balcony, I decided to go back for more of Martin Beck and his colleagues, and I'm so happy I did. 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 police officers who just so happened to have inadvertently solved the case i...more After finishing The Man on the Balcony, I decided to go back for more of Martin Beck and his colleagues, and I'm so happy I did. 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 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. (less)

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Feb 25, 2013 Maria João Fernandes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-english, own, sjöwall-wahlöö, favorites

"An investigation which didn't even deserve to be called a guessing game."

O quarto do livro da famosa série do Martin Beck é mais uma prova da grandiosidade das mentes do casal Maj Sojwäll e Per Wahlöö.

Uma atmosfera cinzenta acompanha toda esta história. O tempo é horrível: faz frio, muito vento e chove constantemente. A escuridão parece permanente, mesmo durante o dia, como que para igualar a disposição deprimente das pessoas envolvidas.

"The Laughing Policeman" começa por nos mostrar uma das m...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Srinivas Prasad Veeraraghavan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

Set in Stockholm amidst chilling winds, swirling rain and forbidding snow; this is a grim, authentic police procedural that is profoundly gripping and provides a snapshot of an unflattering 1960's Scandinavia where the apparently bland surface conceals seething whirlpools underneath.

I had seen the stunning "Man On The Roof" (A terrific Swedish Film adapted from a Maj Sjöwall-Per Wahloo novel) and filed away the name of the duo for future use a while back. Suffice to say, they didn't disappoint...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had to go back and re-read this having recently been sampling the wares of the new generation of Swedish detective fiction writers. In the early 80’s I read and enjoyed the entire Martin Beck series of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, but “The Laughing Policeman” was my favorite.

“The Laughing Policeman” is a police procedural published in 1968 when mass murders had yet to appear on the scene in Sweden. The subject of the investigation in the book purports to be the first. The technology available...more

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May 30, 2008 Nikki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: edgar-best-novel-winners, mysteries, re-reads, fiction, guardian-1000-novels, books-set-in-sweden

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 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 defi...more

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Mar 29, 2008 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have been reading the Martin Beck series chronologically and this is one of the best. The original Roseanna is withoutdoubt outstanding but this comes close.

The authors of these books are the inspiration for other great Swedish crime novelists such as Henning Mankell and you can see that reflected in the latters books. The bleak cold descriptions of the Sweden of the 1970's, not the clinical society we imagine today, is racked with crime, drink and drug problems. The city streets are dirty and...more

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Oct 26, 2008 Sun rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookaweek2008

This is a breath of fresh air to one used to reading English and American crime fiction. Part of the Martin Beck series, it details the case of a mass murder on a bus in Stockholm.

It's written in a clean and simple style by Swedish journalists Sjowall and Wahloo, who incidentally were also husband and wife. It's damn good writing, dominated by the quirky consistency of the characters and the gloom of Swedish weather.

I can't recommend this enough for its straightforward storyline, the neat poli...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, nordic-noir, scandinavian-literature, suspense-thriller, read-2012

From BBC radio 4 - Saturday Drama:
The investigation of a mass shooting leads Beck back to an unsolved case from the past.

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Feb 27, 2013 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The fourth novel by the married couple who basically invented Scandi-crime as we know it is the first novel I've read in a single day, in, well, years. Stockholm detective Martin Beck has to investigate a puzzling case where a gunman has massacred a number of people (including a respected police officer) onboard a bus which was travelling on an unusual route.

The novel is thoroughly absorbing and well-structured. As ever, the job of policing Sweden is seen as an unglamorous profession, and Beck's...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Dhiraj Sharma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An assasin guns down 9 passengers on a bus on a cold and rainy Stockholm night and one of the victims is a young cop.

Thus starts the painstaking investigation led by Martin Beck of the Stockholm police, a depressed cop who leades a team of other depressed cops. His team drivels through past history of each victim on the bus in order to get a clue as to the identity of the killer.

Though the premise was good I found the novel to be boring, there are too many characters, excess of police detectives...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Avadhut rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://avadhutrecommends.wordpress.com/

My Rating – 5/5

Summary –

On a cold, rainy November night in 1967, when Stockholm is witnessing protests against America’s Vietnam War, nine people on a bus are gunned down by an unknown assailant. One of the victims is young detective Ake Stenstrom sitting beside a young nurse. Was it the handiwork of a madman or a mass murderer was on prowl? And what was Stenstrom doing on the bus?

Review –

The book opens with Martin Beck playing chess with colleague Kollber...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Rod rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the fourth in the authors’ Martin Beck series. By the time they came to write it, they had it down to a fine art. The plot is very well constructed and the book continually absorbing.

A gunman shoots all the passengers on a bus with a sub-machine gun killing eight people, one of whom is a fellow detective, Åke Stenström. Martin Beck and his team have remarkably little to go on, since it is not at all obvious what Stenström was doing on the bus in the first place. Though it soon becomes c...more This is the fourth in the authors’ Martin Beck series. By the time they came to write it, they had it down to a fine art. The plot is very well constructed and the book continually absorbing.

A gunman shoots all the passengers on a bus with a sub-machine gun killing eight people, one of whom is a fellow detective, Åke Stenström. Martin Beck and his team have remarkably little to go on, since it is not at all obvious what Stenström was doing on the bus in the first place. Though it soon becomes clear that he was investigating something, he has confided in no one, not even his girlfriend, so a major task is to figure out what he was up to and whether or not it involved another passenger.

The investigation is so labour-intensive that help is called in from elsewhere, and in due course a link is suspected to the murder of a Portuguese prostitute which had occurred sixteen years before.

In the first book of the series, Martin Beck is plainly the most important character. By the time of this book, the authors have developed a team of which Beck is but one. For example, in this novel Kollberg is as important as Beck. Other detectives from previous books also figure, including the pipe-smoking Melander, who acts as a human memory bank for the other officers.

The conclusion is wonderful, though I can’t say why without spoiling it for the reader. The motivation of the killer is unusually clear and the explanation he gives of his actions is only made possible by a piece of forward thinking by Beck.

Criticism of Swedish society occurs from time to time, brought into focus not only by the motivation of the killer but also by the out-of-town policemen brought in to help. Both are less than impressed by Stockholm and keen to return to their own less metropolitan areas of Sweden.

Given when it was written, there are no computers or mobile phones, all the officers are male and quite a lot of smoking goes on. But this book is entirely convincing and doesn’t feel even slightly dated.
(less)

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Aug 21, 2011 Mohnish Lad rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book came highly recommended to me by a friend. And it didnt disappoint. The beauty of this book lies in the way Maj and Per compress their writing yet gives away a lot in terms of plot and characterization. At the end of the book i came across a chapter where they have actually listed names of 30 people with their last names,age and occupation! So you ll never complain that a 250-odd pages book will never consist of detailing. The 250-odd pages is just a decoy, mind you - this novel is as...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Kat Hagedorn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, mystery

http://tinyurl.com/byn8z5

I guess long ago they didn't call these mystery novels or crime stories, they called them police procedurals. Or at least they did for stories like those written by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, set in Stockholm and starring Martin Beck, police detective.

For some people, their stories may seem plodding because they detail the work performed by the police while solving the crime. Every bit of detail. But if you read closely, you find humor, different and engaging personalit...more

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May 26, 2009 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-audio-books, 2009-mysteries

The Laughing Policeman, by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö narrated by Tom Weiner, produceed by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

This is the fourth book in the Martin Beck series. This one has an introduction from another husband-wife team, John and Nicci French, their name, for purposes of their books being Nicci French. In this book, the police are called to a crime scene when a transit two-decker bus is found pulled off the road with its doors wide open, and the eight to ten passengers a...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Julka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-2013, mystery

Komisarz Martin Beck prowadzi sprawę masakry pasażerów miejskiego autobusu. Nad sprawą pracuje oczywiście cały zespół, w tym ludzie spoza Sztokholmu. W końcu burmistrz obiecał pomoc najtęższych głów z całej Szwecji. Śledzimy posunięcia i decyzje każdej z nich. W tej powieści widać wyraźnie, że prowadzenie tak poważnej sprawy to praca zespołowa, a nie popis jednej osoby, nawet tak genialnej jak komisarz Beck. Śledztwo posuwa się powoli, zamach wygląda jak zbrodnia doskonała. Ośmiu zastrzelonych p...more

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Mar 21, 2012 kit rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally posted here: http://bibliotekit.blogspot.co.uk/201...

This is the first Sjöwall and Wahlöö book I have read, and it turned out to be a solid, gripping, good old fashioned police procedural. It's 1968 in Stockholm, and Beck and his team are chasing a multiple murderer against a backdrop of Vietnam protests and a changing Swedish society (heightened consumerism and police distrust, but also more benign details like a switch to right hand traffic to fall into line with neighbouring countr...more

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Sep 21, 2011 F.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

The name of Martin Beck was only vaguely familiar to me when – the other week – a friend recommended these books. Having now waded in, I am immensely glad she did.

If I’m honest I was expecting something more contemporary – in the Stieg Larsson or Jo Nesbo line – not something far older and much more classic. Written and set in the Sixties, with protests against the Vietnam War as a backdrop, this is a beautifully conceived and wonderfully sharp police procedural. A bus crashes on a dark Stockhol...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A top notch entry (#4) in the ten book Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo. This book demonstrates again that this series is not nearly all about Martin Beck but rather is an ensemble cast, many of whom are very nicely developed. In this book, there is Martin Beck (Superintendant), Lennart Kollberg (Beck’s most trusted colleague), Fredrick Melander (pipe smoking and with encyclopedic knowledge and memory of just about everything), Ake Stenstrom (a young detective out to make his mark) and p...more

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Jun 28, 2008 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: something-borrowed

My mom lent me this Swedish police novel not long after I'd visited Sweden. The recent Scandinavian exposure helped me out with the names, but it turns out that when you get down to it, a police procedural is a police procedural no matter where it takes place.

The book is written by a husband-wife team, and they do a great job of putting the story together from the perspectives of a number of different detectives. It really picks up towards the end.

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Aug 26, 2012 Mark Stevens rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is no single hero. Martin Beck does the most brooding. He--mostly--puts the pieces together. Teamwork rules in The Laughing Policeman. The pieces come together through collaboration, not by lone wolves sniffing one trail.

Written in 1968, the style here is multiple points of view. The prose swoops down from extreme omniscience and scene-setting--a dry, matter-of-fact coolness to the tone--before picking up the thoughts and actions of one of the many cops in the ensemble.

The cops are warts-a...more

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Feb 20, 2012 B.V. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 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...more 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 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 question 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.

Tragically, like Larsson, who died at age 50 of a heart attack, Wahlöö had an untimely death in 1975 from cancer at the age of 48. Also, since Sjöwall and Wahlöö never married and he never legally adopted her daughter, she hasn't earned any royalties from the books, in the same way Larsson's common-law partner of 30 years, Eva Gabrielsson, has been shut out of any money from Larsson's estate.(less)

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Jul 20, 2011 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recently-read

"The Laughing Policeman" is a gripping ride from start to finish. Because it starts out with a mass murder on a double-decker bus, I was instantly reminded of the horrific massacre on a Greyhound bus out west in Manitoba, Canada, in 2008. Initially, I couldn't get that awful story out of my head.

But eventually, this book took over my thoughts and I was firmly planted in Sweden where the drudgery of police work is made entertaining to readers by the laconic dialogue and the sporadic breakthroughs...more "The Laughing Policeman" is a gripping ride from start to finish. Because it starts out with a mass murder on a double-decker bus, I was instantly reminded of the horrific massacre on a Greyhound bus out west in Manitoba, Canada, in 2008. Initially, I couldn't get that awful story out of my head.

But eventually, this book took over my thoughts and I was firmly planted in Sweden where the drudgery of police work is made entertaining to readers by the laconic dialogue and the sporadic breakthroughs in the case.

I had always heard that the Swedes were a very sexually liberated people, and this book does nothing to dispel that notion, but it is handled in a fairly subtle and humourous way. The language too, is used to effect, not gratuitously as in some other books I've read recently.

From the outset, I told myself I was not going to fall for those "red herrings" (By the way, did that term originate in Scandinavia, I wonder?) I did pretty well for most of the book, but very close to the end, I started to have grave suspicions and found myself back-tracking and reading up on a particular character. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö got me again!

Unfortunately for me, I was unable to read the 2nd book in the sequence before I got this one from the library. (These books run at about $16 Canadian in their new paperback editions and I can hardly afford all ten of them!) I have to take the books as they come and at the moment, I'm in possession of three of the mid-range ones of the ten.

Thankfully, there don't appear to be any "spoilers" in the dialogue of the later books. There are references to earlier cases, but nothing you would hold in your mind that would ruin your pleasure in the ones you missed before.

There are a few twists in this particular book that make it really fun, but I must admit I got a bit bogged down with the load of Swedish names that come up along the way. Don't read this one when you're not wide awake, or, like the great majority of Scanians, riding on a wave of caffeine.

If you read this soon and you're anywhere in a warm climate, you'll be grateful for the cool descriptions of snowy days, although Sjöwall and Wahlöö are unforgiving in their depiction of the relentless rain, cold and wind. There is one priceless description of Christmas that is unforgettable, and like you've never heard it said before.

I don't think I'll visit in the wintertime, after all.

The series of Detective, Martin Beck books is known collectively as, "The Story of Crime" and I will not be happy until I have read and enjoyed all ten!

Next up: "The Fire Engine That Disappeared" (unless the library calls with "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" first.)(less)

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Dec 19, 2007 Christopher Kelsey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian

Part of the famous Martin Beck series written by Maj and Per (wife and husband) in the late 1960s / early 1970s. After the tenth and final novel in the series (The Terrorists), Per--I think it was Per--died.

Great reads, all of them. Really sharp characters, fine mysteries, and the books are an excellent reflection of the changes in Swedish society over that 10-year period.

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Dec 14, 2011 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book years ago, when it came out as a movie starring Walter Matthau. I'm glad I remembered only bits and pieces, because it was almost like reading it anew. It starts with a bang and then the fast moving action stops. But the tension remains. Being the fly on the wall as the case is solved makes for a good read. The plot moves along like a puzzle, each piece giving way to another. I enjoyed the true to life boringness of the workplace, because it was never actually boring. The squad...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Brenda Mengeling rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 49, fiction, mysteries

A stunning police procedural set in 1960s Stockholm. Although listed as a Martin Beck mystery, he is merely the most senior police officer on the case. One of the main pleasures of this story, is the cooperative working of the many detectives of the police force. A gunman has shot and killed eight people on a city bus late one night. One of the victims was an up-and-coming homicide detective, who had no apparent reason to be on that bus. Detective Kollberg delves deep into the life of the slain...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Seth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: police-procedural

The Laughing Policeman, of course, is #4 in the ten-part detective Martin Beck series. As I noted earlier in the series, the Swedish author-couple Sjöwall and Wahlöö were known to use the police procedural genre as a vehicle for social commentary. I will focus on this point exclusively without revealing anything about how the crime is solved.

Previously, the authors made occasional subtle references to the failings of American culture, but starting in this book they give full expression to their...more

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About Maj Sjöwall

Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America...more

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Books by Maj Sjöwall

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Martin Beck #2)

The Man on the Balcony (Martin Beck, #3)

The Fire Engine That Disappeared (Martin Beck #5)

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title link	preview: The Laughing Policeman
avg rating	preview: The Laughing Policeman Goodreads rating: 4.02 (2288 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1105469.The_Laughing_Policeman?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327568388l/1105469.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1105469.The_Laughing_Policeman?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall[/url]

The Laughing Policeman (Martin Beck #4)

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