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

Aug 19, 2021 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“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 “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. ...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Mysterytribune rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-crime, mystery-tribune-must-reads

Swedish Crime Fiction would not have been what it is today without Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. A common-law wife and husband team of detective writers from Sweden, they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels (police procedurals) about the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the main protagonist.

Both authors also wrote novels separately. For the Martin Beck series, they plotted and researched each book to ...more

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Apr 01, 2014 Doreen Dalesandro rated it liked it · review of another edition

Genre: mystery
Rating: 3.5
I listened to this book.

Wasn't drawn in as much as I have been with other Martin Beck stories.

Tom Weiner does a great job narrating. ...more

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May 04, 2015 Ron rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Interesting characters & storyline, but not very exciting.

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Dec 23, 2015 Gisela Hafezparast rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Good read. Another excellent look into life in the 70s from a Scandinavian, socialist policeman and an interesting view into Hungary, which in this book seems very ordered and peaceful with the undercurrent of the upraising against communist dictatorship which had preceded this time as an undercurrent.

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