From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Roseanna (Martin Beck, #1)

Maj Sjöwall,

Per Wahlöö

Start date: November 15, 2022

Finish date: December 6, 2022

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: The first in this acclaimed series
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What Members Thought

May 27, 2017 Judy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: european-reading-challeng

A woman's body is found in a canal by a dredger, but her identity is unknown. Quiet, unhappy police inspector Martin Beck becomes increasingly obsessed with the case, determined to find out who the woman was and to track down her killer. The book is gripping, written in a pared-down style which avoids unnecessary detail. Nevertheless, it creates the atmosphere both of the small Swedish town where the crime is discovered and of the national homicide department in Stockholm where Beck and his team ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Nov 05, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series-first-novel, crime-fiction, translated-crime-fiction, crime-fiction-scandinavia

First in a series featuring Martin beck, set in Sweden. As the story opens, the body of a young girl is found in a canal. Martin Beck is in charge of the investigation into her death, but to get anywhere they first have to figure out who she was. It takes awhile, but once they've identified her, the real fun begins: finding out who might have wanted her dead and why.

What a great series opener! The characters are very human and realistic, the prose is not overdone. There were a couple of places o ...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: police-procedural, mystery, swedish-mystery

Not too long ago I read my first Martin Beck book by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö--The Man on the Balcony. That book was a little intense for me (it involved the murders of children...something I have a really hard time reading about), but I enjoyed the writing so much, I wanted to give the series another try. So, I went back to the beginning and picked up Roseanna from the library.

Roseanna tells the story of a nameless young woman whose body is found in Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern. The canal Not too long ago I read my first Martin Beck book by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö--The Man on the Balcony. That book was a little intense for me (it involved the murders of children...something I have a really hard time reading about), but I enjoyed the writing so much, I wanted to give the series another try. So, I went back to the beginning and picked up Roseanna from the library.

Roseanna tells the story of a nameless young woman whose body is found in Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern. The canal leading to the lake had clogged up and needed dredged. During the dredging process the machines brought up more than the crew bargained for. The woman was naked and had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Beyond that, Martin Beck and his fellow officers had little to go on. They didn't know who she was, where she came from, how she got there, or who might have put her there. Before they can catch a killer, they need to know who the victim was. By the end of three months, they know very little more--her name was Roseanna, she came from the US, and had taken a cabin on the cruise ship Diana. Any of the 85 passengers and crew could be the murderer....or it's possible that one of the deck passengers (those who join the boat for a day or so and ride for only part of the trip) might be the culprit. Slowly, the team gathers evidence and work up a picture of the guilty party. Will Beck catch him before he kills again?

This book (and the remaining books in the series of ten) is said to have changed the way crime novels were written. Sjöwall and Wahlöö broke with the trend of using stereotypical characters and gave their audience real men and women. Beck is no super-cop, he has no "little grey cells" to call upon. He's a real man--depressed with a difficult home life--who happens to be good at his job and very patient. Patience would seem to be the driving force of this novel. It takes a lot of patience to keep pursuing the case after months of little to no progress. Just waiting for a little break to start the ball rolling again. The writing is spare and clean, yet very gripping. Even though there is a lot of waiting in this story, the reader is never bored. A top-notch rendering of the police procedural. Three and a half stars. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review