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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is a brilliant police procedural., July 16, 1998
By A Customer
"The Abomidable Man" is one of the better entries in the ten "Martin Beck" mysteries by the husband-and-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It features the unforgettable characters of Martin Beck, Leonard Kollberg, and their colleagues at the newly nationalized Swedish Police Force as a particularly brutal murder of a police officer in a hospital is investigated. With few clues, Beck and his colleagues eventually solve the case, but are overtaken by events in the sort of bleak existential denouement that characterizes this unmatched series of crime stories. The authors use the police procedural as a prism through which to look at society, and their liberal outlook seems innocent and quaint given the passage of time. Search your local used bookstores and garage sales for any entries in this series (not too uncommon in paperback) and let's hope that Black Lizard rereleases the whole series. NOTE: This book was made into an outstanding Swedis! ! h film called "The Man on the Roof", available on video at certain outlets.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best in the series, September 27, 2002
The sixth Martin Beck novel. The crime this time around is the brutal murder of a decorated police officer in his hospital bed. Beck (now divorced from his shrewish wife) and his partner Kollberg, are on the case again. This is the best novel in the series, masterfully interweaving the virtues of Beck's patient, methodical style of detection with a damning indictment of the pointless brutality and general incompetence of modern law enforcement. The point of the book, made in a variety of ways, is that law enforcement needs better cops, not bigger guns. Excellent as both a crime thriller and social commentary. And don't miss the cliffhanger ending. Unfortunately, it's out of print, and hard to find. Beg, borrow, or steal a copy, and read it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Man on the Roof, August 30, 2010
This 7th Martin Beck Mystery was made into a film in Sweden in 1976 titled "Mannen pa taket" (The Man on the Roof). After reading the book, it is easy to imagine what that film must look like; because the last full 65 or so pages of "The Abominable Man" are some of the best visual-action writing I've ever read. The book really puts you right there for a very extended, visually complex, inner-city Stockholm, gunman-on-the-roof, lone-madman vs. hundreds standoff.
"The Abominable Man" was released in 1971 in Sweden, the same year as the film "Dirty Harry" in the U.S.; and the book's extended climax scene definitely has some of that same feel. This pure-action, cinematic second half is what distinguishes this book from others in the series (I wonder if Sjowall & Wahloo had seen "Dirty Harry" before writing the second half of the book). Expert writing nonetheless.
The book's first 150 or so pages are more familiar territory for the series; both in the tight plotting and the underlying themes. In this case the writers are looking at police brutality; and its' prevailing systemic coverup from bottom to top; as yet another example of governmental/societal breakdown in Sweden. The case presented and its' backstory have interesting aspects of complexity, and are not dated in the least bit; nor unique to Sweden for that matter.
The character portraits presented by the writers are very realistic and not over-simplified. As the case unfolds, our hero Martin Beck is plagued increasingly by a sense of dread and responsibility. Beck really shines in this book; both as the backbone of conscience of the series, and as a "man of action."
The "abominable man" of the book's title refers not to the gunman on the roof; but instead to the man who essentially put him up there... Good book. Recommended.
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