The Man on the Balcony (A Martin Beck Police Mystery) [Audiobook, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Maj Sjowall (Author), Per Wahloo (Author), Tom Weiner (Reader), Alan Blair (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2009

[This is the MP3CD audiobook format.]

A quietly relentless thriller, The Man on the Balcony juxtaposes the most inhuman of crimes with the humanity of the men who must solve it--their perseverance, frustration, and horror--resulting in a police procedural that is as moving and credible as it is enthralling.

Someone is killing young girls in the once-peaceful parks of Stockholm--killing them after having his way. The people of Stockholm are tense and fearful. Police Superintendent Martin Beck has two witnesses: a cold-blooded mugger who won't say much and a three-year-old boy who can't say much. The dedicated work of the police force seems to be leading nowhere, and with each passing day, the likelihood of another murder grows. But then Beck remembers someone--or something he overheard . . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

''The first great series of police thrillers....[Sjowall and Wahloo] caught the color of the political times and above all are truly exciting.''-- Michael Ondaatje

''[The Martin Beck mysteries] don't just read well; they reread even better. . . . Ingenious.''-- New York Times Book Review

''These books are cream to crime buffs.''-- Cosmopolitan

''Written forty years ago by husband-and-wife team Sjowall and Wahloo, this third in the Martin Beck mystery series remains timely and relevant. Tom Weiner recounts the gruesome crimes in this canny police procedural without making them sensational. Weiner's rendition of Beck and his assortment of overworked, underpaid colleagues is colorful and understated. His intelligent, objective narration details the seemingly disparate puzzle pieces until they make a terrible sense. A real treat for mystery lovers.'' --AudioFile

Language Notes

Text: English, Swedish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• MP3 CD: 1 pages
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433260557
• ISBN-13: 978-1433260551
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,246,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wahloo and Sjowall are unsurpassed masters!, February 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man on the Balcony (Paperback)

The Martin Beck stories written by the gifted husband and wife writers, Wahloo and Sjowall are well written and will hold your attention. Guaranteed. These are crime novels with a social conscience of the 60's era. The authors bemoan the disintegration of the Swedish and western society, where everything is worse than it used to be. Martin Beck is a cop who is no villain, and who does his job because somebody has to do it. We look at the evils of the 60's society almost with nostalgia today. If only today's society could be as bad as the one Martin Beck had to face every day. Had he been able to see into the future, Martin Beck would have indeed been thankful that he didn't have to live in 2001. When I first bought the Black Lizard edition in a Berkeley bookstore years ago, I must confess it was strictly for the slick cover of a dead man with a face in a spaghetti plate (in "Murder At the Savoy"). Soon I had to have all ten of the Wahloo-Sjowall books. I still have them, and still occasionally go back to read them again!

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hero for Our Time, January 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man on the Balcony (Paperback)

Serial-killer novels with the detective in hot pursuit are a dime a dozen... This is a primary source for the genre, and a literary work of the first magnitude. One of those rare books with the ring of truth, making it all the more terrifying... The protagonist Martin Beck and his colleagues are in a league of their own, among the most compelling characters in modern fiction. The Martin Beck mysteries as a whole dwarf almost any other literary achievement of the last fifty years. If you've made it this far in this review, do yourself a favor and read one of these books. You won't regret it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent thriller, September 27, 2002

By 

daveklein222 (New Brunswick) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man on the Balcony (Paperback)

The second book in the Martin Beck detective series. ... the emphasis is more on the police procedural than the social and political commentary which would dominate the authors' later works.

The crime in this one is again sexual in nature, although even more barbaric: the serial rape and strangulation of little girls, whose bodies subsequently turn up in parks all over Stockholm. Beck is on the case (with his trusty partner Kollberg), and the two thoroughly investigage every lead, but to no avail. The tension in the book is simple, but palpable: ... As the detectives begin to feel the heat from their superiors and the public, the killer prepares to strike again...

And then the anticlimactic ending. No car chases, no shoot-outs, no ingenious breakthroughs, no sudden flashes of psychic insight: just simple police work and a healthy infusion of old-fashioned dumb luck.

One of the better novels in the series, again to be praised for its attention to details and realism.