With its authentically rendered settings and vividly realized characters, and its command over the intricately interwoven details of police detecti...
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Feb 09, 2011
Sun
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The body of a young woman is found at the locks of Borenshult. The local police call in Martin Beck and his team from Stockholm to help identify her and catch her killer. Thorough and meticulous investigations follow.
There's a strong sense of patience and time in Roseanna, as in Sjowall & Wahloo's The Laughing Policeman. I like the reality of long stretches of time, the deliberate treatment of procedural details that, instead of being tedious, give a heightened sense of reality and More...
There's a strong sense of patience and time in Roseanna, as in Sjowall & Wahloo's The Laughing Policeman. I like the reality of long stretches of time, the deliberate treatment of procedural details that, instead of being tedious, give a heightened sense of reality and More...
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May 17, 2011
Greg
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This is sort of like a police procedural version of John La Carre's Smiley novels. They aren't jargon littered like Le Carre's novels but the hero, Martin Beck, is sort of a non-traditional hero of the same ilk of George Smiley. Beck is a depressed middle-aged man, his only real quirk is that he likes building model boats, he doesn't like being around groups of people, coffee makes him feel sick, he's resigned to having to deal with his family who he doesn't seem to have enough energy to really
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Jan 29, 2012
Bettie
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Mar 16, 2009
Trish
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The clarity of the writing and translation held me in thrall. In Henning Mankell's introduction to the reprint out in late 2008, he mentions that his husband and wife team inspired the new breed of police procedurals by the greats we read now. The view of the cop as a flawed individual with physical and personal issues was a new concept when they began. The slow, solid build-up of tension in Roseanna was so subtle that the denoument, when it came, had me actually gasping for breath. A resounding
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Aug 04, 2011
I have been spoiled with white knuckle murder mysteries that I almost didn't finish this book. Written in 1965, it really made me slow down and think about crimes and how they were solved back then. I think this book was a breath of fresh air, mostly because I'm not used to the old detective or manual solving of a murder. I gave this book a chance and really learned how murders were solved back in the 60s. This book took place mostly in Sweden, with many references to other parts of the world,
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Dec 28, 2011
Ugh
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If Carlsberg wrote crime, they would probably write crime like Roseanna. The section of Carlsberg that actually makes the beer, that is, rather than the section that tries to convince us that their product is anything more than a bog-standard, widely available, instantly forgettable cup of bubbles.
Roseanna is workmanlike. It's controlled and competent. It's realistic. There are no superhuman leaps of deductive reasoning, no subhuman monsters, no cliffhangers. It's a police procedural More...
Roseanna is workmanlike. It's controlled and competent. It's realistic. There are no superhuman leaps of deductive reasoning, no subhuman monsters, no cliffhangers. It's a police procedural More...
Aug 21, 2011
Kurt
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The first thing I should say in relation to this review is that I'll be reading the second book in the series, The Man Who Went Up in Smoke - that should put the rest of my responses into perspective.
Martin Beck is a smart cop, but unlike CSI's Gil Grissom or Luther's John Luther or nearly any other TV show's main cop (in a procedural), he is not compelling or charismatic and he doesn't solve the mystery in an hour. It takes him three months just to figure out the victim's name - a d More...
Martin Beck is a smart cop, but unlike CSI's Gil Grissom or Luther's John Luther or nearly any other TV show's main cop (in a procedural), he is not compelling or charismatic and he doesn't solve the mystery in an hour. It takes him three months just to figure out the victim's name - a d More...
Jun 19, 2011
Algernon
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I found out about this book through a recommendation for something similar the Henning Mankell, and it is revealing that Mankell is the one who writes the foreword of this true classic of police procedural novels.
Indeed, Kurt Wallander and Martin Beck seem cut from the same cloth, 40 years apart: middle aged, slightly depressive, with broken marriages, stubborn and unrelenting in the pursuit of justice. I'm not talking about any plagiarizing, each series stands on its own merits and has di More...
Indeed, Kurt Wallander and Martin Beck seem cut from the same cloth, 40 years apart: middle aged, slightly depressive, with broken marriages, stubborn and unrelenting in the pursuit of justice. I'm not talking about any plagiarizing, each series stands on its own merits and has di More...
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Dec 02, 2010
Fleur
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I spotted this set of books on the crime fiction shelves in the library and I had to look more closely. I was intrigued by the numbering, by the twin Swedish names, and I was sure that a couple of the titles rang bells.
I picked up this, the first book, and I discovered that a series of ten books exactly had been planned from the start, by a husband and wife team. That there had been awards,and film adaptations. That back in the early sixties these books changed the genre. They were t More...
I picked up this, the first book, and I discovered that a series of ten books exactly had been planned from the start, by a husband and wife team. That there had been awards,and film adaptations. That back in the early sixties these books changed the genre. They were t More...
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Aug 15, 2010
Bernadette
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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 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 readi More...
It’s a bit shameful in crime fiction circles to have to admit to never having heard of the ten Martin Beck books 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 readi More...
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May 31, 2010
Matt
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I really liked this-- it was a fun and surprisingly enthralling read, though I can't quite put my finger on why. The story itself isn't especially pulse pounding-- after all, only one woman is killed until the climax, and most of the novel is taken up with a level of procedural detail, and the resulting hundred and one dead ends that result from following procedure.
But I still couldn't put it down-- or rather I could, but didn't want to. I think it was the basic unflappablility of Beck More...
But I still couldn't put it down-- or rather I could, but didn't want to. I think it was the basic unflappablility of Beck More...
Nov 12, 2009
Gillies
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Martin Beck, for me, is one of the great fictional characters in all genres, although he doesn't say much. He doesn't need to. The narration of the 10 book series sets the tone, and if you sympathise with the voice of the narrator, then you sympathise with Beck, as he goes about his business of solving murders in 1960's Stockholm. The books are warts and all stories of police procedure, with a repeating cast of good and bad policemen who are either worn out & jaded, or too young, too eager, inco
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Jul 29, 2011
AmmarMajali
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This is the first book of the Martin Beck series. His name is English among all the Swedish names in the novel, which I found a bit strange, but interesting.
Written in 1965, it can be the novel that started the so-called Swedish crime genre in fiction.
The novel starts with the discovery of a dead body.. a naked white woman with dark hair in the canal.. who is she? Is she a swede? The police asks Martin Beck to investigate this brutal sexual crime.Lennart Kollberg and Freder More...
Written in 1965, it can be the novel that started the so-called Swedish crime genre in fiction.
The novel starts with the discovery of a dead body.. a naked white woman with dark hair in the canal.. who is she? Is she a swede? The police asks Martin Beck to investigate this brutal sexual crime.Lennart Kollberg and Freder More...
Jul 01, 2011
Kat
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Where do I start?
Without the casual remarks of a librarian in a nearby town, I may not have to come to the books of Swedish, married couple, Maj Sjöwall, poet, and Per Wahlöö, reporter. At least, I may not have found them when I did. Thankfully, that is not the case.
This book and the nine to follow, were written in the 1960s. This pair of writers can be considered the first of the great Scandinavian Crime Fiction authors and the policeman, Martin Beck, the first great Scandin More...
Without the casual remarks of a librarian in a nearby town, I may not have to come to the books of Swedish, married couple, Maj Sjöwall, poet, and Per Wahlöö, reporter. At least, I may not have found them when I did. Thankfully, that is not the case.
This book and the nine to follow, were written in the 1960s. This pair of writers can be considered the first of the great Scandinavian Crime Fiction authors and the policeman, Martin Beck, the first great Scandin More...
Jan 24, 2009
I heard of this series through a friend on Goodreads and I bought these as a set in the January 2009 sales, a mere £9.99 for all 10 books. I thought that I would read them and then offer them individually on "read it swap it" but, having seen them on the shelf, I doubt I will part with them as this particular set has been designed to spell out "Martin Beck", the central character, when they are all next to each other in order. A nice touch that will make me loath to part with
Jul 22, 2011
Rod
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Roseanna is a young American tourist who is murdered in Sweden. The lead detective on the case, Martin Beck, is certainly dogged in his attempt to track down the murderer, which he does in the teeth of an unsatisfactory lifestyle. He drinks far too much coffee, smokes, and eats when he remembers. Despite his poor physical shape, he is vigorous in his pursuit of the criminal - and just as vigorous in ignoring his wife and children. Not an attractive character then, though very conscientious. So c
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Jul 11, 2011
Bev
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Not too long ago I read my first Martin Beck book by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö--The Man on the Balcony. That book was a little intense for me (it involved the murders of children...something I have a really hard time reading about), but I enjoyed the writing so much, I wanted to give the series another try. So, I went back to the beginning and picked up Roseanna from the library.
Roseanna tells the story of a nameless young woman whose body is found in Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern More...
Roseanna tells the story of a nameless young woman whose body is found in Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern More...
Nov 30, 2010
Seth
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Roseanna is probably the best detective novel I have ever read. It is the first in a series of detective Martin Beck murder-mysteries by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, a Swedish couple that collaborated until Wahlöö died in 1975.
The preface by the more famous Swedish detective fiction writer Henning Mankell points out that this book offers a wonderful depiction of Sweden in the 1960s. In that decade, Sweden was a very homogeneous society so that any foreign visitors or immigrants were qu More...
The preface by the more famous Swedish detective fiction writer Henning Mankell points out that this book offers a wonderful depiction of Sweden in the 1960s. In that decade, Sweden was a very homogeneous society so that any foreign visitors or immigrants were qu More...
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Jun 19, 2009
Becca
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As the first in the Martin Beck series, you expect an introduction to the central detective figure as you would in other crime novels (Sherlock Holmes's rather excited introduction, for example, in 'A Study in Scarlet', or Hastings's fond description of Hercule Poirot in 'The Mysterious Affair At Styles'). Instead, Sjöwall and Wahlöö prefer to simply present Martin Beck as he is, with very little to say about his past that isn't, somehow, entirely factual. You are left to discover his personalit
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Mar 31, 2011
Corey
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I am a sucker for terse writing. Think Hemingway, Carver, Jim Thompson, etc. I remember reading reviews on Roberto Bolano's "The Part About the Crimes" from 2666 that mentioned that he wrote that section like a police report. Concise and to the point. Sjowall and Wahloo are beyond concise and to the point. The novel reads like an actual investigation, sometimes nothing happens. Interviews can go on far too long (and they switch to a drama like form of writing). Clues aren't popping
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Nov 10, 2009
Paul
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Apr 05, 2010
Margaret
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Thank you to Kat for recommending this Swedish mystery series, of which this is the first in order. The story begins with a naked female corpse being pulled from a canal lock in process of being dredged, and then moves on to introduce us to inspector Martin Beck and others as they attempt to solve the twin mysteries of who the woman is and who killed her. My hat is off to translator Lois Roth, who preserves the husband and wife authors' non-flashy, almost spare writing style - what appears to
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Jan 04, 2009
Roseanna, by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö, A. Narrated by Tom Weiner, and produced by Blackstone Audio. CDownloaded from audible.com.
This is, apparently, the first Martin Beck novel, set in Sweden. A body of a woman is washed up. At first no one can identify her. Then she is identified as a woman, named Roseanna, from Lincoln Nebraska in America, a librarian. But the police can’t figure out who killed her or why. They figure she was killed on a cruise ship. They finally determine More...
This is, apparently, the first Martin Beck novel, set in Sweden. A body of a woman is washed up. At first no one can identify her. Then she is identified as a woman, named Roseanna, from Lincoln Nebraska in America, a librarian. But the police can’t figure out who killed her or why. They figure she was killed on a cruise ship. They finally determine More...
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Jan 31, 2010
Judi
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My only experience with Scandinavian authors (Swedish, specifically) until now has been Henning Mankell, who wrote the foreword to this edition of Roseanna. I certainly see similarities between Sjowall/Wahloo and Mankell, but couldn't say if this is because Mankell was so influenced by S/W, or if this style of writing is endemic to all Swedish writers of "roman policiers". The book is austere in its descriptions, it is an ensemble piece (with Martin Beck as the protagonist here and K
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Apr 28, 2009
Susan
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ROSEANNA, the first of Maj Sjövall's Martin Beck series, is a procedural in the truest sense, moving at an almost excruciating pace as it follows the obsessive thoughts and actions of the detective Beck solving the murder of a young American young woman aboard a small Swedish cruise ship who without his efforts would have been a nameless victim. I'd wanted to read something by Sjövall because Detective Inspector Montalban was reading one in Andrea Camilleri's most recent mystery AUGUST HEAT. C
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Sep 04, 2011
Kate
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The combo of Sjowall and Wahloo deliver their first Martin Beck novel with all of the grisly crime scene and downtrodden detective details that make Swedish crime reads so effective.
Sjowall and Wahloo were a pair that wrote together in the 60s and 70s. They were together for over a decade but never married. Wahloo's past includes work as a crime reporter while Sjowall worked as a translator. They came up with Martin Beck for this first novel Roseanna.
Detective Martin Beck is More...
Sjowall and Wahloo were a pair that wrote together in the 60s and 70s. They were together for over a decade but never married. Wahloo's past includes work as a crime reporter while Sjowall worked as a translator. They came up with Martin Beck for this first novel Roseanna.
Detective Martin Beck is More...
Aug 20, 2011
Anne
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Roseanna was written in 1965 by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, a husband and wife team from Sweden. Sjowall and Wahloo sat down and planned a ten part series featuring Detective Martin Beck, they wrote alternative chapters once their children were in bed each night.
This is a fairly straight forward murder mystery and begins with the discovery of a young woman's body, dredged up from Lake Vattern, in a small Swedish town. After a medical examination it becomes clear that this is More...
Dec 18, 2009
Jake
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Roseanna is the first novel in the Martin Beck "Story of Crime" series. I had already read The Laughing Policeman (the 4th book in the series), which was an excellent procedural written with a sardonic social wit. This one was very similar and another solid read. As on Law & Order, a body is discovered, and it's up to Martin Beck and his team to track down the murderer. Except unlike on TV, catching the killer takes months of drudgery following many leads down dead ends, and more th
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Jul 07, 2011
Rachel
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I haven't done much today because I couldn't put this down! It took a while to get my head into 1960s time - by comparison today's crime fiction is done and dusted in warp-speed. With this, the train took hours, telegrams got sent, there was no interpol computer etc. But there was good old fashioned detecting.
Martin Beck was a likeable character, as were his side kicks, and he was obsessed with this case for 6 and half months! He solved it using good detection, despite the lack of mod More...
Martin Beck was a likeable character, as were his side kicks, and he was obsessed with this case for 6 and half months! He solved it using good detection, despite the lack of mod More...
Dec 11, 2010
Brad
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Finally procured a copy of this book, an awfully good police procedural from the mid-1960s written by the heralded masters of Swedish crime fiction Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Once I started reading, I could not put this book down. The investigation moves methodically from a nameless murdered woman found in a Swedish lake to the capture of the murderer. We find out that the woman found murdered is a 27 year-old librarian from Lincoln, Nebraska, named Roseanna McGraw. I love the randomness of tha
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