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Martin Beck #2
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
The second book in the hugely acclaimed Martin Beck the novels that shaped the future of Scandinavian crime fiction and influenced writers from Stieg Larrson to Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and Lars Kepplar.
A Swedish journalist has vanished without a trace in Budapest. When Detective Inspector Martin Beck arrives in the city to investigate, he is drawn to an Eastern European underworld in search of a man nobody knows. With the aid of the coolly efficient local police, he reveals a web of crime, stretching back across Europe – a discovery that will put his own life at risk.
A Swedish journalist has vanished without a trace in Budapest. When Detective Inspector Martin Beck arrives in the city to investigate, he is drawn to an Eastern European underworld in search of a man nobody knows. With the aid of the coolly efficient local police, he reveals a web of crime, stretching back across Europe – a discovery that will put his own life at risk.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1966
293 people are currently reading
3162 people want to read
About the author
Maj Sjöwall
108 books470 followersMaj Sjöwall was a Swedish author and translator. She was 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 for Best Novel. They also wrote novels separately.
Sjöwall had a 13 year relationship with Wahlöö which lasted until his death in 1975.
Sjöwall had a 13 year relationship with Wahlöö which lasted until his death in 1975.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 634 reviews
October 29, 2017
”Martin Beck, the born detective and famous observer, constantly occupied making useless observations and storing them away for future use. Doesn’t even have bats in the belfry-they couldn’t get in for all the crap in the way.”
For those fans of Kurt Wallander there will be a deja vu moment when you start reading a Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo novel. Henning Mankell has admitted he was heavily influenced by this series. My relationship with Martin Beck is a little better than my relationship with Kurt Wallander. I often find myself, and Kenneth Branagh does an excellent job depicting Wallander, seeing myself grabbing Wallander/Branagh by the shoulders and giving him a good shake. The guy spends most of his time out past Mars somewhere. Wallander’s personal life and sometimes his professional life start to erode around him as he ponders a case or he sinks into a malaise of depression.
Martin Beck does not annoy me as much as Kurt Wallander. He does drift away spending most of his time solving a case in his head instead of wearing out shoe leather. For him life is just a series of cases even if he is wondering why the milkman set the bottle on the left side of the stoop instead of the right side on a particular morning. Because he notices EVERYTHING his mind is constantly churning through data trying to understand EVERYTHING.
Despite my issues or maybe because of my issues with Beck and Wallander I got to say I love these guys.
Like Wallander, Beck is having issues with his personal relationships. Surprise, surprise when he is with his wife and kids he is withdrawn even cold. He spends one day on vacation with his family when he gets the call from his boss that he is needed on a case involving Budapest. Now the superintendent wants Beck to investigate a missing celebrity journalist, but he says he can find someone else. Anybody who knows Beck can tell you what his decision will be. He puts up a fight for about two seconds and then he is on the next boat back to work.
The wife...well she is used to it.
Wallander generally ignores his colleagues even to the point of not answering pointed questions they may ask him. His fellow cops are immaterial to what is being weighed and considered in his own mind. Beck works better with others. The key word is better, not great. He is short with them especially over the phone. If someone talks too much he may end the conversation not by commenting on what they have told him, but simply saying ‘are you done now?’
I worked with a guy like that for several years. I had vivid dreams about taking him by the ears and slamming his head down on his desk. Never realized of course just a daydream to bring a brief smile to my lips and make him more tolerable. I, like most people, don’t like to be ignored or dismissed.
Even though Beck is having issues with his wife he doesn’t seem to be on the make. He may not have the proper feelings for his wife, but she is FUNCTIONAL. There is an interesting scene with a receptionist at the hotel in Budapest.
”She was very pretty, in a sweet, ordinary way. Rather small, well built, long fingers, pretty calves, fine ankles, a few dark hairs on her shins, long thighs under her skirt. No rings. He stared at her with his thoughts far away.”
He logs all the information and may even be slightly discombobulated by the fact that he finds her attractive. He stands there so long filing away all this new data that he makes her uncomfortable.
”He remained standing there, thinking about something. The girl blushed. She moved to the other end of the reception desk, adjusting her skirt and pulling at her bra and girdle. He could not understand why.”
Well Mr. Beck pretty young ladies start to feel like you are a perv when you stare TOO long.
As the plot begins to heat up he has an encounter with a temptress named Ari Boeck.
”Her hair was dark and short, and her features were strong. She had thick black eyebrows, a broad straight nose and full lips. Her teeth were good but somewhat uneven. Her mouth was half-open and the tip of her tongue was resting against her lower teeth, as if she was just about to say something. She was hardly taller than five foot one, but strongly and harmoniously built, with well-developed shoulders, broad hips and quite a narrow waist. Her legs were muscular and her feet short and broad, with straight toes. She had a very deep suntan and her skin appeared soft and elastic, especially across her diaphragm and stomach. Shave armpits, Large breasts and curved stomach with thick down that seemed very light against her tanned skin. Here and there, long and curly black hairs had made their way out from under the elastic at her loins. She might have been twenty-two or twenty-three years old, at the most. Not beautiful in the conventional sense of the word, but a highly functional specimen of the human race.”
There is that word functional again. Few of us could withstand that level of scrutiny without trying to move away from it. Ari has confidence enough that she takes her clothes off and attempts a seduction. Martin tells her to put her clothes back on and ushers her on her way.
Woman get rather annoyed under those circumstances.
Next thing Beck knows two guys are trying to kill him.
Now there are people that say this book moves slow and that nothing happens. It is my assumption that these are the same kind of people that can’t watch baseball, that find baseball boring. When I watch baseball I’m on the edge of my seat. The duel between pitchers and batters is a pressure cooker that builds with each new pitch. Will the batter win or will the pitcher win? Will the runner at first try to steal? The same thing is happening with the novel. Sjowall and Wahloo have the patience to let the plot advance at a trickle, clues so miniscule; and yet, so important are being logged in Beck’s head. I actually started to feel tension at the seemingly lack of progress in the case. Martin isn’t worried so I have to be worried for him. It is well...brilliant.
Don’t worry there is a bloody good twist at the end.
There has only been one translated book to ever win the Edgar Award for best novel and that book is The Laughing Policeman. It is the fourth book in the series. My first thought on learning this is...”they wrote a better one?” It is my understanding that the series will become more political with social commentary on Swedish society as the books advance. I have a feeling those concepts will be so cleverly weaved seamlessly into the plot that most readers may not even notice. I also read and reviewed the first book in the series Roseanna and here is the link to that review. Click for my Roseanna review This series is highly recommended!!!
For those fans of Kurt Wallander there will be a deja vu moment when you start reading a Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo novel. Henning Mankell has admitted he was heavily influenced by this series. My relationship with Martin Beck is a little better than my relationship with Kurt Wallander. I often find myself, and Kenneth Branagh does an excellent job depicting Wallander, seeing myself grabbing Wallander/Branagh by the shoulders and giving him a good shake. The guy spends most of his time out past Mars somewhere. Wallander’s personal life and sometimes his professional life start to erode around him as he ponders a case or he sinks into a malaise of depression.
Martin Beck does not annoy me as much as Kurt Wallander. He does drift away spending most of his time solving a case in his head instead of wearing out shoe leather. For him life is just a series of cases even if he is wondering why the milkman set the bottle on the left side of the stoop instead of the right side on a particular morning. Because he notices EVERYTHING his mind is constantly churning through data trying to understand EVERYTHING.
Despite my issues or maybe because of my issues with Beck and Wallander I got to say I love these guys.
Like Wallander, Beck is having issues with his personal relationships. Surprise, surprise when he is with his wife and kids he is withdrawn even cold. He spends one day on vacation with his family when he gets the call from his boss that he is needed on a case involving Budapest. Now the superintendent wants Beck to investigate a missing celebrity journalist, but he says he can find someone else. Anybody who knows Beck can tell you what his decision will be. He puts up a fight for about two seconds and then he is on the next boat back to work.
The wife...well she is used to it.
Wallander generally ignores his colleagues even to the point of not answering pointed questions they may ask him. His fellow cops are immaterial to what is being weighed and considered in his own mind. Beck works better with others. The key word is better, not great. He is short with them especially over the phone. If someone talks too much he may end the conversation not by commenting on what they have told him, but simply saying ‘are you done now?’
I worked with a guy like that for several years. I had vivid dreams about taking him by the ears and slamming his head down on his desk. Never realized of course just a daydream to bring a brief smile to my lips and make him more tolerable. I, like most people, don’t like to be ignored or dismissed.
Even though Beck is having issues with his wife he doesn’t seem to be on the make. He may not have the proper feelings for his wife, but she is FUNCTIONAL. There is an interesting scene with a receptionist at the hotel in Budapest.
”She was very pretty, in a sweet, ordinary way. Rather small, well built, long fingers, pretty calves, fine ankles, a few dark hairs on her shins, long thighs under her skirt. No rings. He stared at her with his thoughts far away.”
He logs all the information and may even be slightly discombobulated by the fact that he finds her attractive. He stands there so long filing away all this new data that he makes her uncomfortable.
”He remained standing there, thinking about something. The girl blushed. She moved to the other end of the reception desk, adjusting her skirt and pulling at her bra and girdle. He could not understand why.”
Well Mr. Beck pretty young ladies start to feel like you are a perv when you stare TOO long.
As the plot begins to heat up he has an encounter with a temptress named Ari Boeck.
”Her hair was dark and short, and her features were strong. She had thick black eyebrows, a broad straight nose and full lips. Her teeth were good but somewhat uneven. Her mouth was half-open and the tip of her tongue was resting against her lower teeth, as if she was just about to say something. She was hardly taller than five foot one, but strongly and harmoniously built, with well-developed shoulders, broad hips and quite a narrow waist. Her legs were muscular and her feet short and broad, with straight toes. She had a very deep suntan and her skin appeared soft and elastic, especially across her diaphragm and stomach. Shave armpits, Large breasts and curved stomach with thick down that seemed very light against her tanned skin. Here and there, long and curly black hairs had made their way out from under the elastic at her loins. She might have been twenty-two or twenty-three years old, at the most. Not beautiful in the conventional sense of the word, but a highly functional specimen of the human race.”
There is that word functional again. Few of us could withstand that level of scrutiny without trying to move away from it. Ari has confidence enough that she takes her clothes off and attempts a seduction. Martin tells her to put her clothes back on and ushers her on her way.
Woman get rather annoyed under those circumstances.
Next thing Beck knows two guys are trying to kill him.
Now there are people that say this book moves slow and that nothing happens. It is my assumption that these are the same kind of people that can’t watch baseball, that find baseball boring. When I watch baseball I’m on the edge of my seat. The duel between pitchers and batters is a pressure cooker that builds with each new pitch. Will the batter win or will the pitcher win? Will the runner at first try to steal? The same thing is happening with the novel. Sjowall and Wahloo have the patience to let the plot advance at a trickle, clues so miniscule; and yet, so important are being logged in Beck’s head. I actually started to feel tension at the seemingly lack of progress in the case. Martin isn’t worried so I have to be worried for him. It is well...brilliant.
Don’t worry there is a bloody good twist at the end.
There has only been one translated book to ever win the Edgar Award for best novel and that book is The Laughing Policeman. It is the fourth book in the series. My first thought on learning this is...”they wrote a better one?” It is my understanding that the series will become more political with social commentary on Swedish society as the books advance. I have a feeling those concepts will be so cleverly weaved seamlessly into the plot that most readers may not even notice. I also read and reviewed the first book in the series Roseanna and here is the link to that review. Click for my Roseanna review This series is highly recommended!!!
December 28, 2012
With the first snow storm of the year hitting my area, it seemed like a great time to pick up a Swedish mystery novel. I figured I could put on a comfy sweater and sip some coffee while reading about the Stockholm police tracking criminals across a gloomy winter landscape that matched the view out my window. Unfortunately, the book is set during the summer, and the main character spends most of his time in hot and humid Hungary. So I got very confused and ended up putting on my shorts and going out on the deck with a cooler of cold beer. The doctor managed to save four of my toes.
Police detective Martin Beck joins his family on their summer holiday but gets called back to work before he even has time to get a sunburn. A journalist named Alf Matsson has vanished while on an assignment in Budapest and with the newspaper he worked for threatening to cause a political fuss, the Swedish government wants Beck to find him. Beck journeys to Hungary and since the book was written in the mid-60s, this is behind the old Iron Curtain, and Beck has no official status as he tries to locate Matsson.
Thanks to growing up in Cold War era America, I was expecting a book involving a Western European cop going into the Eastern Bloc to get political and involve Beck investigating in a harsh socialist state while dealing with a hostile Hungarian police force. However, the Budapest of this book seems like an idyllic vacation spot, and the police are polite and fairly helpful to Beck. It was a nice surprise that this was more of cop-out-of-his-element story rather than a mystery with political/conspiracy overtones.
This series gets a lot of credit for being among the first police procedurals, and it’s easy to see the influence they had on the genre. Val McDermid has a great introduction in this edition that talks about how groundbreaking the books were at the time and how many of the elements introduced in them went on to become clichés. Unfortunately, this copycatting has familiarized me with the style enough to enable me to guess the solution to the mystery about half way through the book.
However, I also liked the way that so much of what Beck is feeling and thinking is explained via his actions and not exposition or dialogue. There are several hints that his marriage isn’t going so well and you get the feeling that he welcomes the chance to get away from a family vacation, but it’s never expressed plainly. The way we only know Beck through the way approaches his police work reminds me a lot of the early Matt Scudder novels by Lawrence Block.
Police detective Martin Beck joins his family on their summer holiday but gets called back to work before he even has time to get a sunburn. A journalist named Alf Matsson has vanished while on an assignment in Budapest and with the newspaper he worked for threatening to cause a political fuss, the Swedish government wants Beck to find him. Beck journeys to Hungary and since the book was written in the mid-60s, this is behind the old Iron Curtain, and Beck has no official status as he tries to locate Matsson.
Thanks to growing up in Cold War era America, I was expecting a book involving a Western European cop going into the Eastern Bloc to get political and involve Beck investigating in a harsh socialist state while dealing with a hostile Hungarian police force. However, the Budapest of this book seems like an idyllic vacation spot, and the police are polite and fairly helpful to Beck. It was a nice surprise that this was more of cop-out-of-his-element story rather than a mystery with political/conspiracy overtones.
This series gets a lot of credit for being among the first police procedurals, and it’s easy to see the influence they had on the genre. Val McDermid has a great introduction in this edition that talks about how groundbreaking the books were at the time and how many of the elements introduced in them went on to become clichés. Unfortunately, this copycatting has familiarized me with the style enough to enable me to guess the solution to the mystery about half way through the book.
However, I also liked the way that so much of what Beck is feeling and thinking is explained via his actions and not exposition or dialogue. There are several hints that his marriage isn’t going so well and you get the feeling that he welcomes the chance to get away from a family vacation, but it’s never expressed plainly. The way we only know Beck through the way approaches his police work reminds me a lot of the early Matt Scudder novels by Lawrence Block.
June 14, 2025
I could hear the cigarettes and bourbon tearing apart narrator Tom Weiner's vocal chords as I listened to his reading of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Weiner's voice adds aural texture to a book overflowing with atmospheric texture; he compliments the Martin Beck tale perfectly with his slurry gravelly voice.
And that's seems important to me here in a way that it doesn't in all audiobooks. I think it is because of how important this series is to its genre.
The Martin Beck books aren't merely perceived as the inspiration for the authors who followed Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahloo, many of the authors who have gone on to write police procedurals admit their debt fully. Val McDermid claims this inspiration in her foreword to this edition of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke and Henning Mankell did the same in his foreword to Roseanna.
Mankell's debt is easily traceable. His Kurt Wallander novel, The Dogs of Riga, is a direct descendent of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke. Wallander spends his time in Riga, Latvia, at the height of the Cold War, investigating a murder, just as Martin Beck spends his time in Budapest, Hungry investigating a man's disappearance. The similarities are such that they feel like companion pieces, pieces meant to be read together as a way to consider the same tale from the perspectives of different eras.
But I discovered a potential link of inspiration that surprised me (and I'd love to have an admission for this from the author himself -- just to satisfy my curiosity). I am willing to bet that China Miéville read The Man Who Went Up in Smoke when he was gearing up to write The City and the City. Though The Man Who Went Up in Smoke is much simpler in form, the tale of Tyador Borlú's search for the killer of Mahalia Geary is present here. But the most interesting link is the way Beck moves between the cities that are Buda/pest. It is a city and a city, and that idea is playing on the edges of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke.
These connections and those who've been inspired by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahloo don't really matter for too many of us. What does matter is that these are some seriously satisfying mysteries. Must reading (or listening) for any serious fan of the police procedural.
2025 -- haiku review
Leave Sweden behind
To find your quarry is home
Watch your back Martin
And that's seems important to me here in a way that it doesn't in all audiobooks. I think it is because of how important this series is to its genre.
The Martin Beck books aren't merely perceived as the inspiration for the authors who followed Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahloo, many of the authors who have gone on to write police procedurals admit their debt fully. Val McDermid claims this inspiration in her foreword to this edition of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke and Henning Mankell did the same in his foreword to Roseanna.
Mankell's debt is easily traceable. His Kurt Wallander novel, The Dogs of Riga, is a direct descendent of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke. Wallander spends his time in Riga, Latvia, at the height of the Cold War, investigating a murder, just as Martin Beck spends his time in Budapest, Hungry investigating a man's disappearance. The similarities are such that they feel like companion pieces, pieces meant to be read together as a way to consider the same tale from the perspectives of different eras.
But I discovered a potential link of inspiration that surprised me (and I'd love to have an admission for this from the author himself -- just to satisfy my curiosity). I am willing to bet that China Miéville read The Man Who Went Up in Smoke when he was gearing up to write The City and the City. Though The Man Who Went Up in Smoke is much simpler in form, the tale of Tyador Borlú's search for the killer of Mahalia Geary is present here. But the most interesting link is the way Beck moves between the cities that are Buda/pest. It is a city and a city, and that idea is playing on the edges of The Man Who Went Up in Smoke.
These connections and those who've been inspired by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahloo don't really matter for too many of us. What does matter is that these are some seriously satisfying mysteries. Must reading (or listening) for any serious fan of the police procedural.
2025 -- haiku review
Leave Sweden behind
To find your quarry is home
Watch your back Martin
December 25, 2012
A Swedish national, a "sports" journalist, goes missing in Budapest, behind the "Iron Curtain." It's the height of the Cold War, and Swedish homicide detective Martin Beck, about to enjoy his vacation, is sent, instead, to look into the disappearance.
A Canadian boy would expect a 70s Budapest to be riddled with spies and spying and suspicion. A Canadian boy would expect oppressiveness and oppression at every Hungarian turn. A Canadian boy would expect high adventure mixed with the KGB and CIA. A Canadian boy would expect an international murder, with international implications. A Canadian boy would expect something thrillingly action packed. A Canadian boy would be wrong, though.
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahloo were not as foolish as the Canadian boy. They didn't have his prejudices and indoctrinations. They knew the story they were telling, and they told it their way, with integrity. So their story has a beautiful Budapest, with bath houses, and quays and the Danube outside Metropolitan hotels. It has local police just like anyone else's police, no better or worse, just doing their job. It has a little danger at the hands of some German drug dealers who make their home in Budapest. And the solution to the mystery of the missing man is mundane and lying back in Sweden. Budapest was just a step in the path to the appropriately depressing conclusion.
It is what all the Martin Beck mysteries are -- true -- and that is the highest praise I can bestow on a work of fiction.
A Canadian boy would expect a 70s Budapest to be riddled with spies and spying and suspicion. A Canadian boy would expect oppressiveness and oppression at every Hungarian turn. A Canadian boy would expect high adventure mixed with the KGB and CIA. A Canadian boy would expect an international murder, with international implications. A Canadian boy would expect something thrillingly action packed. A Canadian boy would be wrong, though.
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahloo were not as foolish as the Canadian boy. They didn't have his prejudices and indoctrinations. They knew the story they were telling, and they told it their way, with integrity. So their story has a beautiful Budapest, with bath houses, and quays and the Danube outside Metropolitan hotels. It has local police just like anyone else's police, no better or worse, just doing their job. It has a little danger at the hands of some German drug dealers who make their home in Budapest. And the solution to the mystery of the missing man is mundane and lying back in Sweden. Budapest was just a step in the path to the appropriately depressing conclusion.
It is what all the Martin Beck mysteries are -- true -- and that is the highest praise I can bestow on a work of fiction.
March 2, 2022
The second of ten in a series by the Swedish crime writing duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, with an introduction that makes it clear this pair paved the way for other serious police procedurals that respect the work of the work of every day cops. And takes them seriously as human beings. Character-driven books that pay attention to the crime, but are situated in the real worlds of the cops and socio-cultural circumstances. I had read the Kurt Wallander mystery series by Henning Mankell and found getting to know Wallander to be increasingly moving, and he was inspired in his conception of crime fiction by the Beck novels.
I really liked the first volume in this series, but liked this one far less because--while I appreciate getting to know him as a character, not much happened for a very long time in the book, and the plot was not ultimately memorable in any real way. I would have actually given this two stars except the resolution pleased me. Not really a spoiler, here, but when his wife asks him how he's doing he simply replies, "Not well." But we already knew that, as his character is largely expressed through action, not deep reflection, throughout. He's driven to solve crimes, but little else satisfies him. Feels a little like the way Matt Scudder is developed by Lawrence Block in his series. Somewhat of an existential mystery.
I really liked the first volume in this series, but liked this one far less because--while I appreciate getting to know him as a character, not much happened for a very long time in the book, and the plot was not ultimately memorable in any real way. I would have actually given this two stars except the resolution pleased me. Not really a spoiler, here, but when his wife asks him how he's doing he simply replies, "Not well." But we already knew that, as his character is largely expressed through action, not deep reflection, throughout. He's driven to solve crimes, but little else satisfies him. Feels a little like the way Matt Scudder is developed by Lawrence Block in his series. Somewhat of an existential mystery.
November 22, 2016
A real page turner of a book. A Swedish journalist has gone missing in Budapest and it is Martin Beck's job to find him. The politicians want the case settled quickly to avoid a scandal in cold war Europe (Wallenburg Mark 2 perhaps?) - but can Beck solve the case in time?
The case is absolutely baffling with the journalist leaving only the lightest of traces in Budapest - a couple of hotel check ins and taxi rides. Surely even Beck will find this insufficient. A couple of plot twists keep you guessing throughout what is a relatively slim book - 200 pages.
This book was written in the 60's but it still feels contemporary- except maybe for the relentless smoking by all and sundry.
A good read.
The case is absolutely baffling with the journalist leaving only the lightest of traces in Budapest - a couple of hotel check ins and taxi rides. Surely even Beck will find this insufficient. A couple of plot twists keep you guessing throughout what is a relatively slim book - 200 pages.
This book was written in the 60's but it still feels contemporary- except maybe for the relentless smoking by all and sundry.
A good read.
August 28, 2012
I think I'm starting to understand Martin Beck now.
If Roseanna was a very good first book that I had some problems with then The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is a very good second book that tackles some of those issues and really gives you a feel for the protagonist Martin Beck.
This time Martin is recalled from his family vacation and despatched to Budapest at the request of a government department who fears that a Swedish journalist has disappeared behind "The Iron Curtain," but far from being a cold war mystery ala Le Carre this is a study of a man out of his comfort zone, interracting with foreign culture and dedicating himself to his profession.
Beck is a singular detective, evolved from the brilliant Simenon creation Maigret with a dash of the hardboiled Marlowes and Spades thrown in to the mix. His dedication to the job means his home life is slowly becoming a mess that he doesn't know how to interact with. This kind of thing is a genre staple but when reading the Martin Beck books it feels fresh and interesting, perhaps thanks to the subtlety of the writing but also because it was fresh back in the sixties.
The descriptive passages of Budapest from the point of view of Beck were both fascinating as a look at the city and as a view in to the way the mans mind works and were a joy to read. The fact that I am shortly to be visiting the city added a little extra pleasure too.
The plot is a good one and approached as if on holiday it has a leisurely, winding feel to it in the same way Beck wanders the Hungarian city with plenty of distractions to keep you looking/guessing. And in the same way life moves quicker when you return home from your holidays so too does the plot when Beck flies home to Sweden; no longer inebriated with foreign weather and cigarettes his little grey cells put the pieces together almost as if he'd known all along.
The fact that the authors have gone on record of wanting to "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideologically pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type" serves to emphasise the importance of the team of detectives surrounding Beck; alone in Budapest he is not the famous detective, he is nothing, but on his return to his police family, with a support network of his equals he is once more able to achieve great things.
As Richard Shephard says in the p.s. section of the book after reading this you feel what is almost a compulsion to discover more about Beck and his life, what choice is there but to turn hurriedly to the third instalment?
Part 1: Roseanna
If Roseanna was a very good first book that I had some problems with then The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is a very good second book that tackles some of those issues and really gives you a feel for the protagonist Martin Beck.
This time Martin is recalled from his family vacation and despatched to Budapest at the request of a government department who fears that a Swedish journalist has disappeared behind "The Iron Curtain," but far from being a cold war mystery ala Le Carre this is a study of a man out of his comfort zone, interracting with foreign culture and dedicating himself to his profession.
Beck is a singular detective, evolved from the brilliant Simenon creation Maigret with a dash of the hardboiled Marlowes and Spades thrown in to the mix. His dedication to the job means his home life is slowly becoming a mess that he doesn't know how to interact with. This kind of thing is a genre staple but when reading the Martin Beck books it feels fresh and interesting, perhaps thanks to the subtlety of the writing but also because it was fresh back in the sixties.
The descriptive passages of Budapest from the point of view of Beck were both fascinating as a look at the city and as a view in to the way the mans mind works and were a joy to read. The fact that I am shortly to be visiting the city added a little extra pleasure too.
The plot is a good one and approached as if on holiday it has a leisurely, winding feel to it in the same way Beck wanders the Hungarian city with plenty of distractions to keep you looking/guessing. And in the same way life moves quicker when you return home from your holidays so too does the plot when Beck flies home to Sweden; no longer inebriated with foreign weather and cigarettes his little grey cells put the pieces together almost as if he'd known all along.
The fact that the authors have gone on record of wanting to "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideologically pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state of the bourgeois type" serves to emphasise the importance of the team of detectives surrounding Beck; alone in Budapest he is not the famous detective, he is nothing, but on his return to his police family, with a support network of his equals he is once more able to achieve great things.
As Richard Shephard says in the p.s. section of the book after reading this you feel what is almost a compulsion to discover more about Beck and his life, what choice is there but to turn hurriedly to the third instalment?
Part 1: Roseanna
September 16, 2013
Book Review
With an introduction by VaL McDermid (she of the famous Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series). And if you haven't ever seen the BBC America televised series Wire In The Blood (available on Netflix as well) and if you like psycholigical serial killer dramas, than this an absolute must-see. The show is excellent!
McDermid writes: So many of the elements that have become integral to the point of cliche in the police procedural subgenre started life in these ten novels. [...] The books of Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are different. Although they are generally referred to as the Martin Beck novels, they're not really about an individual. They're ensemble pieces. (with a equally important supporting cast).
Beck's not a genius, not a solo artist (as up to then police procedurals tended to cast), not glamorous, nor does he solve crimes by simply lifting an eyebrow.
He's none of these things, McDermid writes. He's a driven, middle aged dyspeptic whose marriage slowly disintegrates during the series. [...]He's also something of an idealist whose job forces him to confront the gulf between what should exist in an ideal world and what exists in actuality. [...] But more than this, he is part of a team, each member of which is a fully realized character.[...] And there is their interest in the philosophical aspects of crime.
It might be interesting to note that at the time (1960s) Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, in turn, were heavily influenced, by several other writers, most notably by the American writer Ed McBain. And speaking of influences, it is well known that this pair of authors were the primary influence for Henning Mankell's work a few decades later (Mankell writes the introduction for the first in the Martin Beck series).
In The Man Who Went Up In Smoke we can see close similarities between Mankell's novel Dogs of Riga, and this much earlier novel. Both detectives (Wallander and Beck) are driven, both find themselves outside of their element (and their team at home), both take place in eastern bloc countries, both feature detectives whose personal lives are going to hell, both comment philosophically on the sociopolitical environment they encounter: in the case of Mankell, it is Riga, Latvia. In the case of Beck, it is Budapest.
Of the two novels, this and Mankell's, I consider The Man Who Went Up In Smoke to be the superior one. First of all, Beck definitely has a hand in solving the crime whereas in The Dogs of Riga Wallander sort of stumbles onto it. Second, Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are edgier especially as to their leftist musings. Not that this is apparent to the average American reader. You have to be alert to find the Marxist crumbs sprinkled here and there. For example, in the below passage, Beck is doing a bit of research on the plane to Budapest,as he reads several pamphlets:
The leaflet was published by the German journalist's union and dealt with the Springer concern, one of the most powerful newspaper and magazine publishers in West Germany, and its chief, Axel Springer. It gave examples of the company's menacing fascist politics and quoted several of its more prominent contributors.
For Marxists like Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall any conservative, right wing publication (and the Springer publishing house was right wing), is by its nature fascist (although given it's West Germany post Nazism, there may be some truth to the statement). Now, if you really want to read novels that espouse Marxist idealogy (the Beck series are tame by comparison), read Per Wahlöö's novels written by himself.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and the decalogue of Martin Beck novels should be required reading for anyone who enjoys police procedurals. The plots are exquisite, the writing near perfection. Enjoy!
For a previous review on the first in this series:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Series Review
Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall
Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious."
Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen.
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 for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately.
Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing.
Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude.
Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case).
For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own work.
With an introduction by VaL McDermid (she of the famous Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series). And if you haven't ever seen the BBC America televised series Wire In The Blood (available on Netflix as well) and if you like psycholigical serial killer dramas, than this an absolute must-see. The show is excellent!
McDermid writes: So many of the elements that have become integral to the point of cliche in the police procedural subgenre started life in these ten novels. [...] The books of Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are different. Although they are generally referred to as the Martin Beck novels, they're not really about an individual. They're ensemble pieces. (with a equally important supporting cast).
Beck's not a genius, not a solo artist (as up to then police procedurals tended to cast), not glamorous, nor does he solve crimes by simply lifting an eyebrow.
He's none of these things, McDermid writes. He's a driven, middle aged dyspeptic whose marriage slowly disintegrates during the series. [...]He's also something of an idealist whose job forces him to confront the gulf between what should exist in an ideal world and what exists in actuality. [...] But more than this, he is part of a team, each member of which is a fully realized character.[...] And there is their interest in the philosophical aspects of crime.
It might be interesting to note that at the time (1960s) Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, in turn, were heavily influenced, by several other writers, most notably by the American writer Ed McBain. And speaking of influences, it is well known that this pair of authors were the primary influence for Henning Mankell's work a few decades later (Mankell writes the introduction for the first in the Martin Beck series).
In The Man Who Went Up In Smoke we can see close similarities between Mankell's novel Dogs of Riga, and this much earlier novel. Both detectives (Wallander and Beck) are driven, both find themselves outside of their element (and their team at home), both take place in eastern bloc countries, both feature detectives whose personal lives are going to hell, both comment philosophically on the sociopolitical environment they encounter: in the case of Mankell, it is Riga, Latvia. In the case of Beck, it is Budapest.
Of the two novels, this and Mankell's, I consider The Man Who Went Up In Smoke to be the superior one. First of all, Beck definitely has a hand in solving the crime whereas in The Dogs of Riga Wallander sort of stumbles onto it. Second, Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are edgier especially as to their leftist musings. Not that this is apparent to the average American reader. You have to be alert to find the Marxist crumbs sprinkled here and there. For example, in the below passage, Beck is doing a bit of research on the plane to Budapest,as he reads several pamphlets:
The leaflet was published by the German journalist's union and dealt with the Springer concern, one of the most powerful newspaper and magazine publishers in West Germany, and its chief, Axel Springer. It gave examples of the company's menacing fascist politics and quoted several of its more prominent contributors.
For Marxists like Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall any conservative, right wing publication (and the Springer publishing house was right wing), is by its nature fascist (although given it's West Germany post Nazism, there may be some truth to the statement). Now, if you really want to read novels that espouse Marxist idealogy (the Beck series are tame by comparison), read Per Wahlöö's novels written by himself.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and the decalogue of Martin Beck novels should be required reading for anyone who enjoys police procedurals. The plots are exquisite, the writing near perfection. Enjoy!
For a previous review on the first in this series:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Series Review
Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall
Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious."
Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen.
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 for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately.
Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing.
Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude.
Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case).
For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own work.
March 13, 2018
Fumo, lampade e telefoni di backelite.
anche se, avendo deciso di affrontare l'opera di Per Wahloo e Maj Sjowall (padre e madre del giallo scandinavo), ero interessato ad altro.
Quando qui in Italia (soprattutto sui social) si parla di Scandinavia, emerge l'immagine di paesi così perfetti da dare quasi sui nervi. Stato sociale meraviglioso, tutti inclusi in un progetto, povertà assente, corruzione a zero: è nell'opera di questa zelante coppia che Svezia e Norvegia mostrano il loro volto oscuro. Un volto oscuro fatto di alcolismo, depressioni, legami familiari che si spezzano strozzati dal troppo lavoro...il male ha un volto diverso rispetto a quello a cui siamo abituati.
Ma stavolta Martin Beck è condotto dall' indagine al di fuori della sua terra, il quel mondo sconosciuto ed inquietante che è stato il blocco comunista: la caccia ad un uomo scomparso porterà l'ufficiale della polizia di Stoccolma tra i colli di Budapest, ancora freschi del sangue delle repressioni russe del maresciallo Konev.
La detective story è chiara, lineare e godibile: me lo sono bevuto in tre giorni: ma è l'atmosfera che rende questo libro speciale. Siamo negli anni sessanta e si capisce, un mondo in cui l'aria ha l'odore acre del tabacco (tutti fumano ovunque, negli anni sessanta), un mondo coi telefoni di backelite, con gli interrogatori sotto la lampada, con la guerra fredda che è come un brontolio lontano: resta sullo sfondo, ma la sua minaccia non ti abbandona mai del tutto.
Siamo nel blocco sovietico: ma la soffocante società comunista (in cui tante individualità sono finite strozzate in nome di una feroce uguaglianza) non ha niente di quel fumettistico inferno che abbiamo imparato a conoscere dai tanti libri che ci hanno fatto leggere. Il peso del comunismo è nell'ossessiva richiesta di documenti, nella qualità della vita distrutta da una burocrazia schiacciante, nel martellante incontro con continui e snervanti difetti di qualità di ogni cosa, nella costante e minacciosa presenza della polizia politica in ogni momento della giornata.
Piacevole, veloce, con un'ambientazione per nulla banale; mi è piaciuto. Per la Scandinavia aspetterò il prossimo capitolo, magari riuscirà a spiegarmi come si possa arrivare a pensare che lo stoccafisso sia un piatto succulento senza suicidarsi.
Quasi quasi preferisco la corruzione, ma con la pizza.
anche se, avendo deciso di affrontare l'opera di Per Wahloo e Maj Sjowall (padre e madre del giallo scandinavo), ero interessato ad altro.
Quando qui in Italia (soprattutto sui social) si parla di Scandinavia, emerge l'immagine di paesi così perfetti da dare quasi sui nervi. Stato sociale meraviglioso, tutti inclusi in un progetto, povertà assente, corruzione a zero: è nell'opera di questa zelante coppia che Svezia e Norvegia mostrano il loro volto oscuro. Un volto oscuro fatto di alcolismo, depressioni, legami familiari che si spezzano strozzati dal troppo lavoro...il male ha un volto diverso rispetto a quello a cui siamo abituati.
Ma stavolta Martin Beck è condotto dall' indagine al di fuori della sua terra, il quel mondo sconosciuto ed inquietante che è stato il blocco comunista: la caccia ad un uomo scomparso porterà l'ufficiale della polizia di Stoccolma tra i colli di Budapest, ancora freschi del sangue delle repressioni russe del maresciallo Konev.
La detective story è chiara, lineare e godibile: me lo sono bevuto in tre giorni: ma è l'atmosfera che rende questo libro speciale. Siamo negli anni sessanta e si capisce, un mondo in cui l'aria ha l'odore acre del tabacco (tutti fumano ovunque, negli anni sessanta), un mondo coi telefoni di backelite, con gli interrogatori sotto la lampada, con la guerra fredda che è come un brontolio lontano: resta sullo sfondo, ma la sua minaccia non ti abbandona mai del tutto.
Siamo nel blocco sovietico: ma la soffocante società comunista (in cui tante individualità sono finite strozzate in nome di una feroce uguaglianza) non ha niente di quel fumettistico inferno che abbiamo imparato a conoscere dai tanti libri che ci hanno fatto leggere. Il peso del comunismo è nell'ossessiva richiesta di documenti, nella qualità della vita distrutta da una burocrazia schiacciante, nel martellante incontro con continui e snervanti difetti di qualità di ogni cosa, nella costante e minacciosa presenza della polizia politica in ogni momento della giornata.
Piacevole, veloce, con un'ambientazione per nulla banale; mi è piaciuto. Per la Scandinavia aspetterò il prossimo capitolo, magari riuscirà a spiegarmi come si possa arrivare a pensare che lo stoccafisso sia un piatto succulento senza suicidarsi.
Quasi quasi preferisco la corruzione, ma con la pizza.
February 14, 2017
In urma dispariției unui cunoscut jurnalist suedez, detectivul Martin Beck este nevoit să-și întrerupă concediul și să încerce elucidarea misterului în Budapesta. Ajuns acolo, Beck se confruntă inițial cu atitudinea circumspectă a poliției maghiare, apoi cu o lipsă dubioasă a indiciilor care l-ar putea ajuta să soluționeze cazul. Deși în partea a doua a poveștii apar treptat mai multe elemente care sugerează adevăratele implicații ale dispariției, deznodământul cazului a fost o adevărată surpriză pentru mine.
Poate dacă aș fi putut empatiza cu Martin Beck, m-ar fi încântat mai mult… Stilul autorilor mi s-a părut detașat și destul de sec, se pare ca nu-mi priește genul acesta de expunere obiectivă, oarecum lipsită de nuanțe. Ținând cont că a fost publicată în anii '60, cartea mi se pare curios de actuală, decorul, acțiunea și personajele nu emana izul de comunism; m-aș fi așteptat la mai multă politică, spionaj și corupție. Mi-a plăcut Budapesta, așa cum am simțit-o în paginile cărții, mi-a plăcut construcția treptată a cazului și finalul surprinzător al poveștii; per ansamblu, o lectură plăcută și antrenantă.
Poate dacă aș fi putut empatiza cu Martin Beck, m-ar fi încântat mai mult… Stilul autorilor mi s-a părut detașat și destul de sec, se pare ca nu-mi priește genul acesta de expunere obiectivă, oarecum lipsită de nuanțe. Ținând cont că a fost publicată în anii '60, cartea mi se pare curios de actuală, decorul, acțiunea și personajele nu emana izul de comunism; m-aș fi așteptat la mai multă politică, spionaj și corupție. Mi-a plăcut Budapesta, așa cum am simțit-o în paginile cărții, mi-a plăcut construcția treptată a cazului și finalul surprinzător al poveștii; per ansamblu, o lectură plăcută și antrenantă.
March 4, 2012
My third Martin Beck police procedural, although some lists consider this the second in the series. This is a standalone story, so the order of reading is not that important. Although the emotional intensity is dialed down compared to Roseanna and The Man on the Balcony, the Sjowall / Wahloo presentation is as convincingly realistic as usual re. the "banality of evil".
The book starts with Martin Beck leaving office for his summer vacation, only to be interrupted by the call of duty the very first evening. A mysterious disparition of a Swedish journalist in a Budapest hotel sends him on what is for about half of the book on a laidback, tourist brochure stroll behind the Iron Curtain. Compared to other authors put in a similar situation (most recently Henning Mankell in Dogs of Riga) the games of right wing / left wing politics are ignored, letting the manic depressive Beck cross the Danube on an old fashioned steamer, listen to Strauss waltzes in an opulent restaurant, relax in the sulphurous hot baths or gazing from the heights of Buda at the sprawling city basking in the summer heat.
At about the halfway mark of the book things pick up and the various secondary characters introduced start to make sense and the scarcity of clues give way to revelations that I can't describe without giving the plot away. I can only say this is another story solved by brains, empathy and gumshoe persistence, although Beck proves himself no slouch when it comes down to physical action. The final revelation will make up for any slowness in build up.
I rate this a bit lower than the first books only because I felt more emotionally detached about the story, but I'm looking forward to more from this detective.
The book starts with Martin Beck leaving office for his summer vacation, only to be interrupted by the call of duty the very first evening. A mysterious disparition of a Swedish journalist in a Budapest hotel sends him on what is for about half of the book on a laidback, tourist brochure stroll behind the Iron Curtain. Compared to other authors put in a similar situation (most recently Henning Mankell in Dogs of Riga) the games of right wing / left wing politics are ignored, letting the manic depressive Beck cross the Danube on an old fashioned steamer, listen to Strauss waltzes in an opulent restaurant, relax in the sulphurous hot baths or gazing from the heights of Buda at the sprawling city basking in the summer heat.
At about the halfway mark of the book things pick up and the various secondary characters introduced start to make sense and the scarcity of clues give way to revelations that I can't describe without giving the plot away. I can only say this is another story solved by brains, empathy and gumshoe persistence, although Beck proves himself no slouch when it comes down to physical action. The final revelation will make up for any slowness in build up.
I rate this a bit lower than the first books only because I felt more emotionally detached about the story, but I'm looking forward to more from this detective.
February 27, 2015
At their best these books have a great no fuss, straightforwardness. These are police procedurals with little in the way of histrionics, leftfield plot twists or characters whose motivations don’t have much relation to reality. The characters at the centre of these books are professionals who get on with their job – they interview the suspects, pull the pieces together and arrive at the correct conclusion. Indeed in this volume even the reveal of the killer is done in an understated, without thrills way – which actually in its ordinariness I found grippingly tense. And the fact that – without literal or metaphoric explosions – these books can bring me to bite my fingernails probably explains their success. These are quietly effective thrillers.
A Swedish journalist disappears in Hungary and Martin Beck is sent to investigate. The foreign locale takes him away from his support network and places him more as a lone man in a disaffecting city. In a way this give the book a Chandler-esque feel (and I wonder if Philip Kerr read it before creating his Marlowe as European cop character, Bernie Gunther). It’s a story with a strong – if subdued – emotional core, but no sentiment (for a book written by journalists, it really gives an unromantic portrayal of the profession). As Martin Beck tries to get to grips with possible murder behind the Iron Curtain, the tension builds and a genuinely intriguing and tense tale unfolds.
A Swedish journalist disappears in Hungary and Martin Beck is sent to investigate. The foreign locale takes him away from his support network and places him more as a lone man in a disaffecting city. In a way this give the book a Chandler-esque feel (and I wonder if Philip Kerr read it before creating his Marlowe as European cop character, Bernie Gunther). It’s a story with a strong – if subdued – emotional core, but no sentiment (for a book written by journalists, it really gives an unromantic portrayal of the profession). As Martin Beck tries to get to grips with possible murder behind the Iron Curtain, the tension builds and a genuinely intriguing and tense tale unfolds.
May 22, 2023
Becks zweiter Fall ist ein Gegenstück zum ersten: Wurde dort eine Leiche entdeckt, deren Identität lange Zeit nicht geklärt werden konnte, stellt sich in DER MANN, DER SICH IN LUFT AUFLÖSTE die Frage, ob ein schwedischer Bürger in Ungarn untergetaucht oder vermisst ist, oder ob er gar Opfer eines Verbrechens wurde. Die Ermittlungen gestalten sich auch hier ausgesprochen schwierig, da Beck in Ungarn keine Ermittlungsbefugnisse hat, der Fall ohnehin diskret behandelt werden soll, um internationale Verwicklungen zu vermeiden, und weil letztlich eben nicht einmal feststeht, ob es überhaupt ein Verbrechen gibt.
Auch dieser Krimi liest sich ausgesprochen gut, allerdings fand ich, dass die Detailfülle, die in DIE TOTE IM GÖTAKANAL ihre Berechtigung hat, hier doch an manchen Stellen etwas überdosiert ist. Mit Gesellschaftskritik hält sich das Autoren-Paar weitestgehend zurück, für die gehörige Portion skandinavischer Depri-Stimmung sorgt stattdessen Becks Ehe.
DER MANN ... ist auch heute noch ein lesenswerter Krimi, sofern man keine thrillermäßigen Schießereien und Verfolgungsfahrten oder einen durchgeknallten Serienkiller als Mindesanforderung ans Genre hat.
Auch dieser Krimi liest sich ausgesprochen gut, allerdings fand ich, dass die Detailfülle, die in DIE TOTE IM GÖTAKANAL ihre Berechtigung hat, hier doch an manchen Stellen etwas überdosiert ist. Mit Gesellschaftskritik hält sich das Autoren-Paar weitestgehend zurück, für die gehörige Portion skandinavischer Depri-Stimmung sorgt stattdessen Becks Ehe.
DER MANN ... ist auch heute noch ein lesenswerter Krimi, sofern man keine thrillermäßigen Schießereien und Verfolgungsfahrten oder einen durchgeknallten Serienkiller als Mindesanforderung ans Genre hat.
December 21, 2022
This is the second in the Martin Beck series, first published in 1966. It is August in Stockholm and Beck is about to join his wife and children on an island for his summer holiday. However, no sooner has he arrived than he receives a call asking for him to return. A Swedish journalist, Alf Matsson, has disappeared in Hungary. Counter-espionage are interested in the missing journalist, who is said to be an expert on Eastern Europe. Abandoning the holiday (his wife bemoaning her lot in being left alone there with the children is wonderfully done and perfectly captures the ambiguous feelings most of us have about the summer), Beck goes, in dispirited mood, to Hungary.
Once there, Beck is wonderfully written. He looks at the boats outside the hotel, eats meals and basically spends much of his time lying on the bed, unsure of what to do or who to ask questions. It is refreshing to have a hero with no idea of what to do next, but, of course, eventually, things begin to occur and the mystery is solved. However, this series, and this book, feel extremely contemporary. The missing journalist is extremely unlikeable and it is debatable whether either the police or the reader, is particularly concerned about his whereabouts. Adding in Beck's inability to begin his investigation and the fact that he is not a stand-alone hero, but relies on his colleagues, and this does have a modern feeling. I look forward to reading on and have enjoyed the two books I have read in the series so far very much. Highly recommended.
Once there, Beck is wonderfully written. He looks at the boats outside the hotel, eats meals and basically spends much of his time lying on the bed, unsure of what to do or who to ask questions. It is refreshing to have a hero with no idea of what to do next, but, of course, eventually, things begin to occur and the mystery is solved. However, this series, and this book, feel extremely contemporary. The missing journalist is extremely unlikeable and it is debatable whether either the police or the reader, is particularly concerned about his whereabouts. Adding in Beck's inability to begin his investigation and the fact that he is not a stand-alone hero, but relies on his colleagues, and this does have a modern feeling. I look forward to reading on and have enjoyed the two books I have read in the series so far very much. Highly recommended.
March 19, 2016
I finished this one last Thursday and it was fine. I mean the writing was smooth, the story is interesting with few twists. However it lacks the thrill, and the progress is very slow. but I guess each writer has his own style. Also what I find interesting is that when the case is solved, rather than feeling satisfaction and triumph, Inspector Beck express gloom and despair instead. The reason according to the writer is due to his introverted personality.
The story begins when inspector Martin Beck start to spend his holiday in an island. However, his holiday is ruined when he is summoned by his superior to investigate in a delicate case. It's about a journalist who has traveled to Budapest and disappeared there without a trace and the newspaper where he worked for wants to relate his disappearance to a political conspiracy, which might damage the relations between Sweden and Hungary. So Beck must travel there and find him within a week in order prevents this from happening, in a country where he's on his own.
The story begins when inspector Martin Beck start to spend his holiday in an island. However, his holiday is ruined when he is summoned by his superior to investigate in a delicate case. It's about a journalist who has traveled to Budapest and disappeared there without a trace and the newspaper where he worked for wants to relate his disappearance to a political conspiracy, which might damage the relations between Sweden and Hungary. So Beck must travel there and find him within a week in order prevents this from happening, in a country where he's on his own.
November 5, 2021
Seconda tappa del percorso investigativo di Martin Beck. Anche questa volta non si puo' far certo conto su azione frenetica o trovate sceniche ma la qualita' della scrittura e la bravura con i dialoghi supportano una trama non scoppiettante ma quasi sempre intrigante.
September 7, 2016
The second 'chapter' in the Inspector Martin Beck chronicles sees Martin Beck our man away from home, out of ideas and lacking resources when he is recalled from his month long summer holiday with his family. Exactly twenty-fours hours into his sojourn, Martin Beck once again finds himself sitting in the office of Chief Inspector Hammar and agreeing to undertake a relatively hush hush investigation on behalf of the foreign office into the disappearance of a well-known journalist, a Swede named Alf Matsson. As ever, the refrain from wife Inga is familiar:
Occurring two years after the Roseanna investigation, Martin Beck is at odds with the language as he follows the trail behind the Iron Curtain with the Hungarian police force eschewing any attempts to share knowledge and highly suspicious of his motives for being there. Checking into the hotel of the missing man, and indeed into the room he was designated, Martin Beck learns that he disappeared on the day he arrived, leaving behind his luggage and his room key turning up on the steps of the local police department that very same day. Going through the motions, travelling to the place where he spent his first night, Martin Beck again takes one step forward and two back. Thanks to the erstwhile Kollberg whom he has patchy telephone contact with and some masterful eavesdropping on Alf Matsson's Swedish cronies, a glimmer of hope emerges, only to once again prove a dead end. However, the Hungarian police are circling closely and taking a keen interest as Martin Beck stumbles headlong into a even darker quagmire of international drug smuggling.
It is a morose Martin Beck who wanders the streets of Budapest and ponders just what he has taken on. As he brokers a fragile accord between his home nation and their counterparts is Hungary the results are once again down to more good fortune and arduous cross-referencing of facts than to the power of deduction. As painstakingly slow as the events of the Roseanna investigation, Martin Beck moves between meals times and bedtime as a sense of trust is fostered with the curious Major Vilmos Szluka of the Hungarian force. The result owes more to the unstinting slog and mundane work of fact checking, than to any spark of ingenuity and can be marked down to sheer determination and a thirst for the truth.
Published in 1966 one of the most topical aspects of The Man Who Went Up In Smoke was in furthering the discussion of drug smuggling into formerly capitalist countries via the Eastern bloc regions, largely because the authorities didn't think their was anything worth smuggling out of these regions! One of the most interesting facets of this case is the fact that something of a very similar nature did actually arise and the 'Wallenberg affair" referenced by the men from the foreign office is actually referring to the disappearance of Swedish architect, diplomat and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest in 1945. Whilst working as Sweden's special envoy in the later part of 1944, Wallenberg was accused of sheltering Jews and issuing protective passports and was subsequently detained by the KGB on suspicion of espionage.
"There must be other policeman besides you. Do you have to take on every assignment?"
Occurring two years after the Roseanna investigation, Martin Beck is at odds with the language as he follows the trail behind the Iron Curtain with the Hungarian police force eschewing any attempts to share knowledge and highly suspicious of his motives for being there. Checking into the hotel of the missing man, and indeed into the room he was designated, Martin Beck learns that he disappeared on the day he arrived, leaving behind his luggage and his room key turning up on the steps of the local police department that very same day. Going through the motions, travelling to the place where he spent his first night, Martin Beck again takes one step forward and two back. Thanks to the erstwhile Kollberg whom he has patchy telephone contact with and some masterful eavesdropping on Alf Matsson's Swedish cronies, a glimmer of hope emerges, only to once again prove a dead end. However, the Hungarian police are circling closely and taking a keen interest as Martin Beck stumbles headlong into a even darker quagmire of international drug smuggling.
It is a morose Martin Beck who wanders the streets of Budapest and ponders just what he has taken on. As he brokers a fragile accord between his home nation and their counterparts is Hungary the results are once again down to more good fortune and arduous cross-referencing of facts than to the power of deduction. As painstakingly slow as the events of the Roseanna investigation, Martin Beck moves between meals times and bedtime as a sense of trust is fostered with the curious Major Vilmos Szluka of the Hungarian force. The result owes more to the unstinting slog and mundane work of fact checking, than to any spark of ingenuity and can be marked down to sheer determination and a thirst for the truth.
Published in 1966 one of the most topical aspects of The Man Who Went Up In Smoke was in furthering the discussion of drug smuggling into formerly capitalist countries via the Eastern bloc regions, largely because the authorities didn't think their was anything worth smuggling out of these regions! One of the most interesting facets of this case is the fact that something of a very similar nature did actually arise and the 'Wallenberg affair" referenced by the men from the foreign office is actually referring to the disappearance of Swedish architect, diplomat and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest in 1945. Whilst working as Sweden's special envoy in the later part of 1944, Wallenberg was accused of sheltering Jews and issuing protective passports and was subsequently detained by the KGB on suspicion of espionage.
August 8, 2024
Interesting with a whiff of outdated charm. Oh the slow investigation, rumbling in physical archives, notes written on slips of paper that get lost, the difficulty of getting hold of people and waiting for phone calls and to boot to order a phone call to another country and wait for it to be processed, so utterly quaint and sweet, it is like it is centuries ago and not just some 50-60 years ago.
One thing leaps to mind, Martin Beck obviously has problems in his marriage, yet there is no mention of other women or any thoughts of divorce which I am pretty sure would happen in today’s crime novels, has so much really happened in such a relatively short span of time that the view on marriage and divorce has totally altered?
One thing leaps to mind, Martin Beck obviously has problems in his marriage, yet there is no mention of other women or any thoughts of divorce which I am pretty sure would happen in today’s crime novels, has so much really happened in such a relatively short span of time that the view on marriage and divorce has totally altered?
July 11, 2025
Ben okura yolu (metro, metrobüs) unutturan, muazzam bir kurgu, muazzam. 🌟Ters köşeye attı beni, kalakaldım. Ayrıntı kıyafetlerdeydi. Way be 👏👏👏
April 6, 2017
Some mystery novelists trace the origins of their craft to any one of several nineteenth century writers: Edgar Allen Poe, Willkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and others. But there appears to be a consensus among contemporary writers—at least among those who are partial to police procedurals—that the leading source of inspiration among modern authors was the Swedish husband-and-wife team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.
Writing in the 1960s and 70s, Sjöwall and Wahlöö produced a series of ten novels featuring Inspector Martin Beck of the Swedish National Police. Unlike the contrived and stylized drawing-room mysteries of Agatha Christie and her many imitators, the Swedish duo never appeared to be in the business of entertainment alone, though their work is unquestionably entertaining: they used their genre as a mirror on society with all its flaws, much as Henning Mankell (in Sweden) and Jo Nesbö (in Norway) have done so ably in later decades. And Martin Beck, like Mankell’s Kurt Wallander and Nesbö’s Harry Hole after them, is a deeply flawed human being. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö were the originators of Scandinavian noir.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s second Martin Beck novel. I found it to be a much more accomplished effort than the first book in the series, Roseanna, in which the authors went to extraordinary lengths to communicate the tedium and wasted effort of police work and succeeded in becoming boring at times in the process. Set largely in Budapest, where Martin Beck has been sent to track down a Swedish reporter who disappeared there, The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is a complex, fast-moving, and suspenseful tale that will keep a reader guessing until the end (as it did Martin Beck).
Writing in the 1960s and 70s, Sjöwall and Wahlöö produced a series of ten novels featuring Inspector Martin Beck of the Swedish National Police. Unlike the contrived and stylized drawing-room mysteries of Agatha Christie and her many imitators, the Swedish duo never appeared to be in the business of entertainment alone, though their work is unquestionably entertaining: they used their genre as a mirror on society with all its flaws, much as Henning Mankell (in Sweden) and Jo Nesbö (in Norway) have done so ably in later decades. And Martin Beck, like Mankell’s Kurt Wallander and Nesbö’s Harry Hole after them, is a deeply flawed human being. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö were the originators of Scandinavian noir.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s second Martin Beck novel. I found it to be a much more accomplished effort than the first book in the series, Roseanna, in which the authors went to extraordinary lengths to communicate the tedium and wasted effort of police work and succeeded in becoming boring at times in the process. Set largely in Budapest, where Martin Beck has been sent to track down a Swedish reporter who disappeared there, The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is a complex, fast-moving, and suspenseful tale that will keep a reader guessing until the end (as it did Martin Beck).
July 20, 2017
Very methodical, finely plotted book. I am amazed by the way the writers managed to achieve a calm texture while keeping the narrative conflict alive.
Almost nothing happens in the first half. Clues are sparse and lead only to deadlocks. But we somehow keep reading. Give it to the meticulous attention paid to every scene. We see and understand how painful an investigation can be and we cheer when a small detail, the kind that is not even considered in a more kinetic thriller, leads us somewhere. The way a payoff is arrived at is brilliant, yes brilliant... something only confident writers are capable of, because you have to learn to let go of extravagance and gimmicks and focus only on the mundane.
You have to be a conjurer to produce an effect from daily objects while lesser mortals have to rely on secret bloodlines!
Almost nothing happens in the first half. Clues are sparse and lead only to deadlocks. But we somehow keep reading. Give it to the meticulous attention paid to every scene. We see and understand how painful an investigation can be and we cheer when a small detail, the kind that is not even considered in a more kinetic thriller, leads us somewhere. The way a payoff is arrived at is brilliant, yes brilliant... something only confident writers are capable of, because you have to learn to let go of extravagance and gimmicks and focus only on the mundane.
You have to be a conjurer to produce an effect from daily objects while lesser mortals have to rely on secret bloodlines!
February 10, 2019
Authors Maj Sjowall and her husband, Per Wahloo, invite the reader into both the private and professional life of Detective Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad. It is Beck's and his co-workers' dogged determination and time that enable them to solve their crimes.
I enjoy this series for its lack of gimmickry on the part of the authors and protagonist. Police work, and that of detectives specifically, is a grind. That is portrayed no where better than in the Martin Beck series. The reader feels it along with the character. Even when the reader may be ready to throw in the towel, Beck moves forward with a pace that is often turtle-like -- whatever it takes to get the job done.
I enjoy this series for its lack of gimmickry on the part of the authors and protagonist. Police work, and that of detectives specifically, is a grind. That is portrayed no where better than in the Martin Beck series. The reader feels it along with the character. Even when the reader may be ready to throw in the towel, Beck moves forward with a pace that is often turtle-like -- whatever it takes to get the job done.
July 29, 2015
Quite a few four and five stars for this one. I must be missing something.
From the uninteresting characters to the story that was boring in every way possible, I just could not care for this book. most of the time, the policeman goes around and questions people and goes back to his hotel to eat dinner and sleep. Nothing about the story was interesting to me. The ending was not worth the 170 previous pages and I felt like I wasted my time reading it. I expected something better, something that popped but the whole ending scene was very boring. Sorry, i know this one one of those novels that introduced ideas that were spread to other crime books but this was not my cup of tea.
From the uninteresting characters to the story that was boring in every way possible, I just could not care for this book. most of the time, the policeman goes around and questions people and goes back to his hotel to eat dinner and sleep. Nothing about the story was interesting to me. The ending was not worth the 170 previous pages and I felt like I wasted my time reading it. I expected something better, something that popped but the whole ending scene was very boring. Sorry, i know this one one of those novels that introduced ideas that were spread to other crime books but this was not my cup of tea.
August 28, 2024
Nothing really different to say from the previous one. Another Swedish police procedural mystery from the 1960s by authors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the second in a series of ten centered around detective Martin Beck. Also masterfully written and just as unputdownable as the first.
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Niente di veramente diverso da dire rispetto al precedente. Un altro giallo procedurale svedese degli anni Sessanta degli autori Maj Sjöwall e Per Wahlöö, il secondo nella serie di dieci incentrati sul detective Martin Beck. Anche questo scritto magistralmente ed è stato ancora più impossibile da posare del primo.
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Niente di veramente diverso da dire rispetto al precedente. Un altro giallo procedurale svedese degli anni Sessanta degli autori Maj Sjöwall e Per Wahlöö, il secondo nella serie di dieci incentrati sul detective Martin Beck. Anche questo scritto magistralmente ed è stato ancora più impossibile da posare del primo.
April 9, 2021
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke is the 2nd book in the Martin Beck mystery series, set in Sweden, by author Maj Sjöwall. Beck is a police inspector working out of the Stockholm Homicide Squad.
In this story, Beck is finally, after a long while, going on vacation with his family. His boss tells him to lock up his desk and Beck makes sure his apartment is cleaned up and then he catches the boat to the island where his family awaits. (This is very nicely described, almost boringly, but you can picture Beck's actions, hear his thoughts). Not even being able to enjoy one day of vacation, Beck is called back to Stockholm.
A reporter, Alf Mattison, is reported missing in Hungary. The Foreign office wants Beck to go to Budapest and conduct an informal investigation. Reluctantly, Beck agrees, risking the anger of his wife due to putting police work over his family.
Beck heads off to Budpest and on arrival, begins an investigation. He is quite frustrated because he really doesn't have any info to work with. This investigation will involve the Swedish embassy, the Budapest police (Inspector Szulaka is a great character.) Is he helping Beck or tailing him? Also involved is a sexy, female predator. Is she trying to get Beck into a compromising situation?
In some ways the story reminds me of the Inspector Gideon mystery series or Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. It's a police procedural, with the difference in this case being that Beck, instead of using his normal team, works with another police department. But, even having said that, he still communicates with those personnel and the final resolution comes about back in Stockholm.
Don't look for tons of action, even though there will be some. It's methodical, thoughtful, clearly described and flows along so well. Beck is a great character (why did it take so long to get to this 2nd book, I ask myself??). I like how he interacted with Inspector Szulaka and also with his people back in Stockholm especially with his partner Killberg. There was a crustiness, that curt style that people who know and trust each other sometimes use. I enjoyed it very much and the resolution was maybe somewhat pat but still interesting and satisfying. Now to get the 3rd book. (4 stars)
In this story, Beck is finally, after a long while, going on vacation with his family. His boss tells him to lock up his desk and Beck makes sure his apartment is cleaned up and then he catches the boat to the island where his family awaits. (This is very nicely described, almost boringly, but you can picture Beck's actions, hear his thoughts). Not even being able to enjoy one day of vacation, Beck is called back to Stockholm.
A reporter, Alf Mattison, is reported missing in Hungary. The Foreign office wants Beck to go to Budapest and conduct an informal investigation. Reluctantly, Beck agrees, risking the anger of his wife due to putting police work over his family.
Beck heads off to Budpest and on arrival, begins an investigation. He is quite frustrated because he really doesn't have any info to work with. This investigation will involve the Swedish embassy, the Budapest police (Inspector Szulaka is a great character.) Is he helping Beck or tailing him? Also involved is a sexy, female predator. Is she trying to get Beck into a compromising situation?
In some ways the story reminds me of the Inspector Gideon mystery series or Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. It's a police procedural, with the difference in this case being that Beck, instead of using his normal team, works with another police department. But, even having said that, he still communicates with those personnel and the final resolution comes about back in Stockholm.
Don't look for tons of action, even though there will be some. It's methodical, thoughtful, clearly described and flows along so well. Beck is a great character (why did it take so long to get to this 2nd book, I ask myself??). I like how he interacted with Inspector Szulaka and also with his people back in Stockholm especially with his partner Killberg. There was a crustiness, that curt style that people who know and trust each other sometimes use. I enjoyed it very much and the resolution was maybe somewhat pat but still interesting and satisfying. Now to get the 3rd book. (4 stars)
August 19, 2021
“Martin Beck, the born detective and famous observer, constantly occupied making useless observations and storing them away for future use. Doesn’t even have bats in his belfry—they wouldn’t get in for all the crap in the way”
What is it that I love about Martin Beck? There’s something about him that I cannot get enough of. I think it’s actually his ordinariness to be honest that makes him quite extraordinary. His attention to detail, be it the meticulous details of the crime he is investigating or the mundane details of everyday life is so explicitly portrayed. The activities of daily life that intersperse with the investigative genius that he really is, come together to make him a totally believable and very likeable character albeit a somewhat aloof character.
“He got up, went out into the bathroom and coughed for a while, as he usually did in the mornings. After drinking a gulp of mineral water, he pulled on his dressing gown and opened the shutters and the window. The contrast between the dusky light of the room and the clear, sharp sunlight outside was almost overwhelming. So was the view”. What is it that I love about just knowing that Martin Beck goes to the bathroom and coughs for a while first thing in the morning? It’s his totally human and totally relatable portrayal.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is the second in the Martin Beck series written by the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the duo who virtually created Scandi Noir. The story sees Martin Beck investigating the disappearance of a Swedish man in communist Hungary. The climax of the investigation occurs back on Swedish soil, however, Martin Beck’s experiences in Hungary are what I enjoyed the most.. the descriptions of Budapest, what he could see from his hotel window and the interchanges with the Hungarian police.
I love too how Sjöwall and Wahlöö always and without fail refer to Martin Beck by both his names. Never just Martin or Beck but always Martin Beck. Not sure why I love that but somehow it adds to the whole style of their writing. Really looking forward to more of this series that set the scene for Scandinavian crime fiction.
What is it that I love about Martin Beck? There’s something about him that I cannot get enough of. I think it’s actually his ordinariness to be honest that makes him quite extraordinary. His attention to detail, be it the meticulous details of the crime he is investigating or the mundane details of everyday life is so explicitly portrayed. The activities of daily life that intersperse with the investigative genius that he really is, come together to make him a totally believable and very likeable character albeit a somewhat aloof character.
“He got up, went out into the bathroom and coughed for a while, as he usually did in the mornings. After drinking a gulp of mineral water, he pulled on his dressing gown and opened the shutters and the window. The contrast between the dusky light of the room and the clear, sharp sunlight outside was almost overwhelming. So was the view”. What is it that I love about just knowing that Martin Beck goes to the bathroom and coughs for a while first thing in the morning? It’s his totally human and totally relatable portrayal.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is the second in the Martin Beck series written by the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the duo who virtually created Scandi Noir. The story sees Martin Beck investigating the disappearance of a Swedish man in communist Hungary. The climax of the investigation occurs back on Swedish soil, however, Martin Beck’s experiences in Hungary are what I enjoyed the most.. the descriptions of Budapest, what he could see from his hotel window and the interchanges with the Hungarian police.
I love too how Sjöwall and Wahlöö always and without fail refer to Martin Beck by both his names. Never just Martin or Beck but always Martin Beck. Not sure why I love that but somehow it adds to the whole style of their writing. Really looking forward to more of this series that set the scene for Scandinavian crime fiction.
August 4, 2009
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke is #2 in the series featuring Inspector Martin Beck. It's his vacation time, and his family has taken a cottage on an island off the coast of Sweden. But only a day into vacation time, he's recalled to work for an important case. It seems that the foreign office is concerned about a missing journalist, Alf Matsson, who was last seen in Budapest. While Beck's not clear as to why the foreign office should be so concerned, he takes on the case, starting in Matsson's last-known location. But other than where he was last seen, he really has no clue as to how he's going to find the missing man. He has to solve the case on the fly -- but his questions attract the attention of the police and people who knew Matsson, and he can't decide which group to trust.
To be honest, I liked the previous book (Roseanna) better, but this one was also good, not so much for the mystery, but because of the character of Martin Beck. At times he seems like a bit of a bumbler, but he's very smart, catching criminals off guard with his innate cleverness. There are a few humorous moments as well, and the scenes with his wife are really enjoyable. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who is considering continuing in the series, or to anyone who enjoys a good mystery which is a cut above the normal stuff out there on the shelves. The Scandinavians can definitely write -- they are fast becoming my favorite group of mystery writers.
Overall -- enough of a good read to make me want to continue the series.
To be honest, I liked the previous book (Roseanna) better, but this one was also good, not so much for the mystery, but because of the character of Martin Beck. At times he seems like a bit of a bumbler, but he's very smart, catching criminals off guard with his innate cleverness. There are a few humorous moments as well, and the scenes with his wife are really enjoyable. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who is considering continuing in the series, or to anyone who enjoys a good mystery which is a cut above the normal stuff out there on the shelves. The Scandinavians can definitely write -- they are fast becoming my favorite group of mystery writers.
Overall -- enough of a good read to make me want to continue the series.
April 12, 2010
Based thus far only on the first in this mystery (police procedural) series and now this second title, I declare this series by wife / husband team Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo to be Compulsively Readable, as in everybody go away because I'm reading! Main character Martin Beck is an intelligent Everyman with subtle character quirks. The story in this book takes Beck behind the then Iron Curtain to Budapest (mid-60's), but with no emphasis on the Cold War - the authors make no East versus West political statements; the focus is on the police work as Beck traces a man who has simply vanished (hence the title). He teases out the truth in the authors' understated, wry style, wonderfully translated by Joan Tate. FYI, this is actually the second in the series - the English translation I read says it's the 3rd, but I think that's b/c the English pub dates for the 2nd and the 3rd (in original pub order in Sweden) were reversed. That said, and even though the next and third book in the series ("The Man on the Balcony") includes a quick reference to this second book, it's not important to read these two in order - I would read the 1st one first, though, to get an introduction to the main and supporting cast of characters. Given the current popularity of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (orig. in Swedish), for anyone who likes that book and the Swedish setting, the books in this series are a further particular treat.
February 14, 2021
I am thoroughly invested in getting to know more about the somewhat enigmatic Martin Beck after finishing this second book in the series. I also want to go to Budapest where Beck is sent to find a missing journalist.
This book continues to develop Beck and his team particularly Kollberg , and everything is understated yet the tension at the end when they are waiting for the murderer to break down and confess is really superb. Also really interesting is that I was in the dark with Beck - no clues to the reader here . Careful and painstaking procedure draws us to the conclusion - but there’s a lot of Budapest to enjoy and several meals , unlike the last book where he seemed to survive on coffee and cigarettes. There’s violence and boredom , although the latter is mainly induced by his wife. Can no detectives have happy marriages or relationships or holidays for that matter?
The Man on the Balcony is next and I’m looking forward to see where everyone is in this book.
This book continues to develop Beck and his team particularly Kollberg , and everything is understated yet the tension at the end when they are waiting for the murderer to break down and confess is really superb. Also really interesting is that I was in the dark with Beck - no clues to the reader here . Careful and painstaking procedure draws us to the conclusion - but there’s a lot of Budapest to enjoy and several meals , unlike the last book where he seemed to survive on coffee and cigarettes. There’s violence and boredom , although the latter is mainly induced by his wife. Can no detectives have happy marriages or relationships or holidays for that matter?
The Man on the Balcony is next and I’m looking forward to see where everyone is in this book.
August 9, 2016
The second "Beck/Novel about a crime"-book sends Martin Beck searching for a missing reporter in the 60's Eastern Europe. Quite slow evolving and low-key narrative, this never comes to mind when I'm asked to name the top books of the series, but every time I read it, I'm stunned about how much I like it.
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