Another of those wonderful Astrid Lindgren (in German translation) omnibuses published by Oetinger, Kalle Blomquist (and please note that in Germany, Kalle Blomkvist is known as Kalle Blomquist, with the pronunciation I assume being pretty much the same) contains (and unabridged) all three of the Kalle Blomkvist novels translated into German by Cäcilie Heinig and Karl Kurt Peters under the titles of Kalle Blomquist Meisterdetektiv (Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist), Kalle Blomquist lebt gefährlich (Kalle Blomkvist lever farligt) and Kalle Blomquist, Eva-Lotta und Rasmus (Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus). And yes, even though Astrid Lindgren penned her Kalle Blomkvist books in the the late 1940s and early 1950s (and that the German translations followed pretty soon afterwards), 2023 is actually the first time I have read the Kalle Blomkvist stories (both in the above mentioned German and also in the recent Oxford University Press English language renditions by Susan Beard). Because to be honest (and in retrospect also kind of unfortunately), I actively shied away from Kalle Blomkvist as a child and young teenager (and when I was reading Astrid Lindgren in German translation pretty voraciously and sometimes even rather exclusively). For I have never been all that much into mysteries (both then and also now), and I therefore as a younger reader kind of assumed that Astrid Lindgren's Kalle Blomkvist would simply be too much like a Nancy Drew or an Encyclopedia Brown type of character (and thus rather textually annoying to and for me).
But indeed, after now having read the three Kalle Blomkvist books in both German and English, I do have to admit that I definitely made a bit of a mistake not considering these novels (in German translation) when I had the opportunity to read them as an eleven year old (in 1978). Because indeed, albeit that the mysteries Kalle and his friends Anders and Eva-Lotta solve in Kalle Blomquist Meisterdetektiv (a jewel theft), Kalle Blomquist lebt gefährlich (a murder) and Kalle Blomquist, Eva-Lotta und Rasmus (a kidnapping) are still a bit too detective story oriented for me, that the entire kidnapping scenario of Kalle Blomquist, Eva-Lotta und Rasmus also feels a bit unbelievable, contrived and that the villains in all three novels equally are rather too stereotypically unnuanced and horrid, I do very much and happily appreciate that unlike the above mentioned Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown novels I read and totally did not enjoy as a young reader, fortunately NOT EVERYTHING in Astrid Lindgren's Kalle Blomkvist books revolves around solving mysteries, and that much of the presented texts in fact deal with friendship and a very nice celebration of late 1940s/early 1950s childhood in small town Sweden (and that aside from the featured mysteries, Kalle and his friends are described by Lindgren and also of course by her translators as first and foremost having fun, playing pranks and having good natured and imaginative mock battles with another group of children, with a rival "gang" of mutual friends, and have even created a "secret" language for their various escapades of play-acting and play-fighting).
Fun, engaging, interesting, always entertaining, and yes, both my adult self and also my inner child have very much and nicely enjoyed Kalle Blomquist. But I do admit that the first two novels, that Meisterdetektiv Kalle Blomquist and Kalle Blomquist lebt gefährlich have been a bit more of a reading pleasure than Kalle Blomquist, Eva Lotta und Rasmus (with its for me rather ridiculous and uninteresting kidnapping plot). And yes, I also do tend to find that Susan Beard's English 2017/2018 language translations are a bit more humorous, that Cäcilie's Heinig and Karl Kurt Peters' German language texts, although they flow very nicely, are also (at times) just a bit dry and overly serious in tone (and thus, a high three star rating for the Kalle Blomquist omnibus, albeit that for the Susan Beard translations, my ratings are slightly higher).