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6th out of 20 books
—
11 voters
Roseanna (Martin Beck #1)
Le cadavre dénudé d’une jeune inconnue est retrouvé dans un canal proche de la petite ville de motala. La victime semble avoir été violée. Martin Beck, de la criminelle de Stockholm, est envoyé en renfort auprès de l’équipe locale chargée de l’enquête. Longtemps, les investigations piétinent, mais si Beck est un bon flic, c’est parce qu’il possède « les trois qualités les...more
Paperback, 245 pages
Published
2006
by HarperPerrenial
(first published 1965)
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196th out of 415 books
—
68 voters
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"He looked tired and his sunburned skin seemed yellowish in the gray light. His face was lean with a broad forehead and a strong jaw. His mouth, under his short, straight nose, was thin and wide with two deep lines near the corners. When he smiled, you could see his healthy, white teeth. His dark hair was combed straight back from the even hairline and had not yet begun to gray. The look in his soft blue eyes was clear and calm. He was thin but not especially tall and somewhat round-shouldered....more
So first off, this has nothing to do with that Toto song. Just thought I’d get that out of the way right off the bat.
This was published in 1965 and was the first in a series of ten books about Swedish police investigator Martin Beck. When the body of a woman who was raped and murdered is pulled out of a Swedish canal, Beck is called in to investigate, and he’ll spend months pulling together the facts he’ll need to solve it.
This has an interesting introduction by the Swedish crime writer Henning...more
This was published in 1965 and was the first in a series of ten books about Swedish police investigator Martin Beck. When the body of a woman who was raped and murdered is pulled out of a Swedish canal, Beck is called in to investigate, and he’ll spend months pulling together the facts he’ll need to solve it.
This has an interesting introduction by the Swedish crime writer Henning...more
26 likes · like · see review
roseanna is a melancholy novel: i felt sad for the victim, and sad for the detectives (especially martin beck - the titular detective of the series) investigating her death. as they sought to discover the mystery behind her death and found out more about her, i felt worse and worse. i think the novel tries to underscore the fact that people are complex, that they act and react as the result of their experience and predispositions. roseanna reminds us that pain comes to all, and it isn't really a...more
4 likes · like · see review
The Martin Beck series is supposed to amazing, I was very excited to finally find the first book so I could find out why. So far, so ordinary.
I can understand how it might have been revolutionary in Swedish crime circles, being the first of its kind to move away from the classic British mystery style of Agatha Christie but for me reading it in 2012 it doesn't have that shock to the senses factor it might have had in 1965.
This mixture of Ed McBain's police procedural style and Georges Simenon's p...more
I can understand how it might have been revolutionary in Swedish crime circles, being the first of its kind to move away from the classic British mystery style of Agatha Christie but for me reading it in 2012 it doesn't have that shock to the senses factor it might have had in 1965.
This mixture of Ed McBain's police procedural style and Georges Simenon's p...more
7 likes · like · see review
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 show the...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 show the...more
Sep 26, 2012
Brad
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Kelly Hawkins
When I finished Roseanna again last night I thought I should write a review talking about how rare it is for me to reread a book, and how Sjöwall & Wahloo have conjured something exceptional from me as a reader. When I started thinking about how rare it is for me to reread, however, I realized what a load of crap that is.
I am a rereader. I reread quite often, actually. Most of the books I reread, admittedly, are due to the classes I teach. I've read Hamlet and The Tempest and One Day in the...more
I am a rereader. I reread quite often, actually. Most of the books I reread, admittedly, are due to the classes I teach. I've read Hamlet and The Tempest and One Day in the...more
12 likes · like · see review
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...more
16 likes · like · see review
This is a nice, easy-going, laid back kind of police procedural richly set in Sweden. The characters are well-developed and the plot interesting. I found it compelling without being gruesome and disturbing. Originally published in 1965, it is good, old-fashioned detective work. The first in a series of ten.
2 likes · like · see review
Oct 30, 2012
Bettie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-thriller,
sweden
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Quite outstanding, and I can see how (written in 1965) this was a game-changer for the genre.
BTW -- let me state here that these five-stars are to be measured, as I suppose with my other ratings, only in the context of the genre in which the book was written -- not as compared, say, to Pynchon or Virgil.
BTW -- let me state here that these five-stars are to be measured, as I suppose with my other ratings, only in the context of the genre in which the book was written -- not as compared, say, to Pynchon or Virgil.
Mar 16, 2009
Trish
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mysteries,
scandinavian
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...more
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, i...more
The nude, violated body of a young woman is dredged up from the bottom of Sweden’s Lake Vattern. With no other information, much less no identity, Martin Beck and his associates must put together the solution piece by piece, beginning with the victim’s identity. Inquiries stretch through Europe, Turkey, South Africa, and the United States. She happens to be an American named Roseanna Mcgraw. They build a picture of the victim and her killer. In the end, they set a trap, hoping to lure the killer...more
Personal experience prohibits me from imagining husband-and-wife teams successfully collaborating on a vacation or living-room color scheme, never mind together producing ten consecutive homicide procedurals that combine to create a whole—the Story of Crime—hailed as the world’s “first great series of police thrillers.” Roseanna is the first of the books written in tandem by Maj Sjowall (wife) and Per Wahloo (husband), introducing phlegmatic and depressed detective Martin Beck of the Stockholm P...more
Nov 04, 2012
Leajk
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
any one who likes crime, Stieg Larsson fans
Shelves:
detective-crime,
scandinavian
Having read the whole series about Martin Beck as a teenager I remember this one, the first one, as being the slowest one, though still worth the read. The later ones are much more developed and includes borth harsh critique against the Swedish wellfare society as well as laugh out funny scenes.
This book introduces the protaganist of the series, Martin Beck as he slowly solves the mystery of an American woman who died during a boat trip while visiting Sweden. A lot of time is spent on figuring...more
This book introduces the protaganist of the series, Martin Beck as he slowly solves the mystery of an American woman who died during a boat trip while visiting Sweden. A lot of time is spent on figuring...more
Roseanna is credited with introducing a new kind of crime writing – socially realist police procedurals that provided accounts of the everyday lives of ordinary police officers, the interlinking of various agencies, the banal politics of personal and institutional interactions, the mundane and tedious practices of detection, and the role of crime in society. The police officers are, for the most part, ordinary people doing difficult jobs, trying to balance home commitments with the demands of be...more
Jul 25, 2012
Nancy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-or-something-akin-to-it
Picked up on a whim - a new book for $1? Can't beat that. Never heard of this series or this writing team, so no expectations. A bit sombre in tone, maybe those long winter nights predispose the characters towards a certain melancholy, but Beck does seem to be mildly depressed and his work, although depressing, gives him the excuse he needs to avoid his homelife.
Although the book was published in 1965, the lack of cell phones and computers wasn't terribly noticeable, except where the communicati...more
Although the book was published in 1965, the lack of cell phones and computers wasn't terribly noticeable, except where the communicati...more
Before Stieg Larsson, before Henning Mankell, there was the duo of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. If you are a fan of the genre of contemporary Swedish crime fiction, this is where it all began. This is the first of a series of ten novels (together known as "The Story of Crime") featuring police detective Martin Beck. They have been dramatized for television and are part of the MHzNetwork's International Mystery series. In my opinion the actor who plays Martin Beck perfectly captures the personalit...more
May 28, 2012
Linda
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
my-3-stars,
books-reviewed-by-me
Reading this book was an interesting experience. It was written long before much of the forensic technology that we take for granted was invented, when fingerprinting and blood-typing was your best bet for solving a crime forensically. In some regards, that made the book more realistic. Not every murder has endless numbers of clues left behind that the detectives can enter into a computer and, in CSI-like fashion, have a name conveniently spit out to go and summarily arrest. However, it also mad...more
Roseanna The Martin Beck Series
Roseanna The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall
and Per Wahloo
This is book 01 in the 10 part Martin Beck
series written by Husband and wife Swedish
writing legends Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo it
originally came out in Sweden in 1965 and was
first translated into english in 1968 and in
many ways it seems to be the precursor to Steig
Larssons Millenium Trilogy as it is about a
mysterious murder hunt after a womans body is
dredged out of a canal lock and detective Mart...more
Roseanna The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall
and Per Wahloo
This is book 01 in the 10 part Martin Beck
series written by Husband and wife Swedish
writing legends Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo it
originally came out in Sweden in 1965 and was
first translated into english in 1968 and in
many ways it seems to be the precursor to Steig
Larssons Millenium Trilogy as it is about a
mysterious murder hunt after a womans body is
dredged out of a canal lock and detective Mart...more
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 in the true...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 in the true...more
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 dismaying fac...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 dismaying fac...more
1 like · like · see review
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 distinct...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 distinct...more
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 the first rea...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 the first rea...more
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 and his c...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 and his c...more
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,...more
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 Frederik Melander are intr...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 Frederik Melander are intr...more
Jul 01, 2011
Kat
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Jessica Fox-Wilson, Rachel Hirstwood
Shelves:
recently-read
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 Scandinavian detective.
Read...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 Scandinavian detective.
Read...more
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 them.
1 like · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scandinavian and ...: BBC Dramatisation of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's 10-book series featuring detective Martin Beck | 1 | 9 | Oct 23, 2012 12:31pm | |
| Pulp Fiction: Sjowall & Wahloo | 5 | 11 | May 13, 2012 06:39am | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Wrong language indicated | 2 | 20 | Jul 31, 2011 07:09am |
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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Nov 04, 2012 04:00pm
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