Customer Reviews

The Man on the Balcony (A Martin Beck Police Mystery)[Library Binding]

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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!

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.

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.

Jim Morrison

"The Man on the Balcony" paints another grim picture of life in Sweden as seen through the eyes of Inspector Martin Beck and his colleagues on the Stockholm police force. It is a taut, well -written story and one that helps explain why the Martin Beck stories have held up so well since they were written 40 years ago.

"The Man on the Balcony" opens early on a hot summer morning in Stockholm. A man stands quietly on a balcony watching the day break. He does nothing but smoke cigarettes and observe the sparse activity taking place on the street below. Without any apparent connection to the opening scene the story really begins when local officers on a stakeout looking a violent mugger stumble upon the body of a very young girl. She was been sexually abused by the murderer. It becomes clear early in the investigation that the gruesome scene was the work of a serial murderer/child-abuser.

Inspector Beck and his crew begin their investigation. There are few clues and Beck is forced to rely not on flashes of genius to solve the murdered but on the painstaking chores endemic to police work: taking bits and pieces of information, small clues or possible clues, and putting together the pieces of a very complicated jigsaw puzzle.

I think the series is notable for its character development. Beck and his colleagues are cops doing a tough job in a tough city. They are flawed, sometimes abrasive, and their personal lives are not pictures of studied contentment. Yet, Sjowall and Wahloo paint them in such a seemingly realistic way that you cannot help but become attached to them. The series is also notable for the historical snapshot the authors have taken of Sweden (Stockholm in particular) in the 60s and early 70s. Sjowall and Wahloo were socialists and strong supporters of the ruling Social Democratic Party but they did not create a rose-colored look at society but, rather, one that shows crime and moral decay even within a system that on its surface is dedicated to egalitarianism. They even seem to put forward some puritanical notions as they describe some of the consequences of the sexual revolution of the 60s and its impact on Swedish life. To that extent you can get a pretty interesting picture of the internal dynamic or conflict between Sweden's traditional conservative social values, its `progressive' political values and the sexual revolution of the 60s. That said, these remain detective stories and good ones at that. They are not polemics, quite the contrary in fact. Sjowall and Wahloo paint what seems to me an accurate portrait of life in Sweden in the 60s but that serves as a backdrop to the story - and not a polemic to advance some social end. Put simply these are excellent detective stories. L. Fleisig

Jo Nesbų writes, in his introduction to the reprint of 1967's "The Man on the Balcony," that "artists stand on the shoulders of those who have come before." Indeed, the husband and wife writing team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, in their Martin Beck police mysteries, helped set the standard for crime fiction that is often imitated but rarely duplicated. "The Man on the Balcony," skillfully translated from the Swedish by Alan Blair, is based on a real case that occurred in Stockholm in 1963 in which two small girls were abducted, sexually abused, and murdered. This chilling story brings home the obstacles that law enforcement officers face when they attempt to identify and apprehend a suspect who lives beneath the radar and leaves few helpful clues. Even as they sift through mountains of data and telephone tips, the jaded detectives fear that all their efforts may ultimately prove fruitless.

The story opens on a morning in Stockholm, Sweden, with a man leaning on the rail of his balcony, observing the passers-by while he smokes incessantly. "He was of average height and normal build. His face was nondescript and he was dressed in a white shirt with no tie, unpressed brown gabardine trousers, gray socks and black shoes." We wonder why this individual has so much time on his hands. More importantly, is he looking for something or someone in particular? The reader is somewhat alarmed when a little girl, around eight years old, starts walking down the street and "the man on the balcony followed her with his eyes." Surely, nothing good can come of this.

Next, we go to the police station where a group of sleep-deprived detectives are on duty: There is Martin Beck, a Detective Superintendent who, for sixteen years, has been stuck in a loveless marriage to his nagging wife, Inga; the boorish and tactless Detective Inspector Gunvald Larsson, a six-foot three behemoth with no social skills; Frederik Melander, who has a photographic memory that enables him to recall arcane facts; and Lennart Kollberg, a portly detective lucky enough to be blessed with a devoted wife who is expecting their first child. The squad has its hands full trying to catch an elusive mugger who strikes again and again with impunity, and even more pressing, a shadowy figure who lures young girls away from their parents, and then proceeds to molest and strangle them.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are masters of the police procedural. With their unflinching look at a decadent society in which no one is safe, they bring home the terror of everyday life. They also demonstrate the ways in which unrelenting stress and long hours away from home damage the emotional well-being and personal lives of many homicide detectives. The authors portray the police officers skillfully, and by the end of the book, we feel as if we have grown to understand why they are so quirky, quick-tempered, and frustrated.

This brilliant novel paved the way for others that followed it. Not only do the authors underscore the traumatic aspects of police work, but they also emphasize the changing nature of society. People no longer look out for one another as closely as they once did. We are anonymous faces in an uncaring universe. Ironically, with all of the time and energy that the police expend, sometimes it takes a lucky break, not brilliant deductive powers, to solve a tough case. With its sardonic humor and psychological analysis of the sickness afflicting a small number of twisted individuals, "The Man on the Balcony" is as disturbing as it is mesmerizing. Over forty years have passed since this book was first published. During the late sixties, there were no cell phones and no DNA analysis. Computer technology was in its infancy. Nevertheless, this novel is still as fresh, timely, and compelling as it was back then.

It seems obscene to use the word "delightful" to describe a novel about a child killer, but that's what this book is: delightful. Unlike many contemporary police novels that feature page after page of chases and all-too-serendipitous events that move the plot forward, this one describes professional detectives simply, logically and thoroughly pursuing their culprit. The prose in this short book is spare; descriptions are terse. But each word, each sentence is dense with meaning and mood. The authors are masters at using only a few words to evoke a full description of the characters. If you're looking for a good change-of-pace in a crime novel, this one fills the bill.

In only 180 spare, sharp pages of writing, Sjowall & Wahloo really manage to transport you to the city of Stockholm, Sweden for a week or so of high anxiety in the early summertime of 1967. There is a predator loose in the city and preying on its children. This well-executed police procedural starring Martin Beck, is the vehicle these talented writers use to present their view of Stockholm and Sweden as a society in crisis.

Sjowall & Wahloo do an amazing job of giving you a feel for daily life in this city and nation at this particular time. The writers' gift for detail and description of people and places extends well beyond the killer and the cops to provide a broad and convincing portrait.

I don't exactly buy the writers' extreme view of a society suddenly and completely ruled by universal violence, perversion and depravity. But even so, Sjowall & Wahloo are so talented; their writing so interesting and pinpoint accurate in form and description, that the experience of reading the book is quite rewarding nonetheless.

Although this crime novel was published for the first time in 1968, it has a timeless quality that makes it read as a contemporary novel. This is basically the story of a hunt for a serial killer in Stockholm. The team of detectives tracking the killer is an interesting bunch, made so by the authors' well-constructed character portraits and the intricate description the basic process of detecting by the principals. The writing (and translation) is spare but complex and intelligent. Within its austerity there is humor and irony that give the story humanity and credibility. It's a book that has respect for its readers.

Ultimately, the police team led by the iconic Inspector Martin Beck finds that their best witnesses in the case are a serial mugger (who must be found and apprehended to be helpful) and a little old lady with binoculars who has been ignored by the police when she first reports suspicious behavior by a neighbor. She too, must be tracked down before her input can be used in the manhunt.

This is an altogether original and highly engaging mystery that will make you want to read more of the Martin Beck series. At least, that was my conclusion. Highly recommended.

The third Martin Beck mystery, published 1967, was inspired by an actual crime: the murder of two little girls in Sweden in 1963. But the authors go beyond the repulsive nature of such acts to create a world of cops, criminals and everyday people of absorbing psychological realism.

Joe Nesbų in the introduction points out the "fascinating unpredictability" and "feeling of haphazardness" in the narration. Somehow this creates a realer-than-real experience.

The story opens with a description of a man on his balcony. We know he's important because he's in the title. But who is he? A key witness? A criminal? Or just a symbolic citizen suspended in an incomprehensible universe? Events will tell.

One after another, little girls who like to play in parks are found murdered with signs of molestation. Martin Beck is now an inspector superintendent, but his promotion makes him feel no special competence to deal with so vile a killer.

He and his team have no clues. They make up for their lack of ideas by working all day and night and sleeping fitfully, as if brooding to the point of exhaustion will solve the case. And it does, in a sense, with luck and accident and inspiration thrown in.

There are some unforgettable, weirdly comic scenes: Beck solemnly interrogating a three year old, for example, and inspector Kollberg nervously interviewing a half-dressed young woman of casual morals.

Sjöwall and Wahlöö "shaped the genre" of crime fiction, as Nesbų points out. So if you've read a lot of detective stories, reading these authors is peculiarly thrilling - an investigation into the history of crime fiction. I'm taking the books in order, to get to know the characters and live alongside them. I'm delighted to have seven more mysteries still to come.

If you're intelligent enough to be reading this, do yourself a favor and read several of the books in this series. I like some better than others, this is one of the better ones. The admirable thing about this series is that the authors equally slam police-state fascism and dunderheaded liberalism.