Cop Killer: The Story of a Crime [Hardcover]

Maj Sjowall (Author), Per Wahloo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1986

The shocking ninth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahoo finds Beck investigating parallel cases that have shocked a small rural community. In a country town, a woman is brutally murdered and left buried in a swamp. There are two main suspects: her closest neighbor and her ex-husband. Meanwhile, on a quiet suburban street a midnight shootout takes place between three cops and two teenage boys. Dead, one cop and one kid. Wounded, two cops. Escaped, one kid. Martin Beck and his partner Lenart Kollberg are called in to investigate. As Beck digs deeper into the murky waters of the young girl’s murder, Kollberg scours the town for the teenager, and together they are forced to examine the changing face of crime.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first great series of police thrillers. . . . Truly exciting.Michael Ondaatje The [Martin Beck] series has maintained such a degree of excellence that comparisons are near impossible --Minneapolis Tribune

Its hard to think of any other thriller writers (apart from Simenon perhaps) who can capture so much of a society in a couple of hundred pages and yet still hold true to the thriller form. Sean and Nicci French Sjowall and Wahloo write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none. Val McDermid jowall and Wahloo continue to be tops for discriminating crime book readers. Denver Post Ingenious. . . . Their mysteries don't just read well; they reread even better. . . . The writing is lean, with mournful undertones. The New York Times Martin Beck is as always very believable: this, we feel, is what it must mean to be an honest and intelligent policeman in modern Sweden, or anywhere else. Times Literary Supplement In the hands of Wahloo and Sjowall . . . the police story -- with no loss of suspense or action [has been] brilliantly fashioned into a sharp instrument for social commentary. Washington Post. Edge-of-the-seat suspense. --San Francisco Examiner

Its hard to think of any other thriller writers (apart from Simenon perhaps) who can capture so much of a society in a couple of hundred pages and yet still hold true to the thriller form. Sean and Nicci French Sjowall and Wahloo write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none. Val McDermid jowall and Wahloo continue to be tops for discriminating crime book readers. Denver Post Ingenious. . . . Their mysteries don't just read well; they reread even better. . . . The writing is lean, with mournful undertones. The New York Times Martin Beck is as always very believable: this, we feel, is what it must mean to be an honest and intelligent policeman in modern Sweden, or anywhere else. Times Literary Supplement In the hands of Wahloo and Sjowall . . . the police story -- with no loss of suspense or action [has been] brilliantly fashioned into a sharp instrument for social commentary. Washington Post. Edge-of-the-seat suspense. --San Francisco Examiner

Language Notes

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (June 30, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891903771
• ISBN-13: 978-0891903772
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,198,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Before Henning Mankell and Before Stieg Larsson, August 8, 2010

By 

Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cop Killer (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

There was the Swedish writing team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. They created the character of Inspector Martin Beck and in ten volumes pretty much gave birth to the concept of Swedish noir. Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallander series and Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander/Mikael Blomkvist stories are the literary progeny of Sjowall and Wahloo's wonderful creation.

"Cop Killer" is the ninth of ten stories in the Inspector Beck series. It focuses on the disappearance and likely murder of Sig Mard in a small town far from Stockholm. Inspector Martin Beck, now the head of Sweden's national homicide bureau is called in to investigate. There is some pressure on Beck to round up the usual suspects, certainly the available evidence seems to suggest a limited universe of potential killers), but Beck will have none of it. Beck, as usual, is painstakingly thorough, almost plodding. There are no Sherlock Holmes-like flashes of genius. Beck is a good cop because he works hard, is thorough and has a way of sifting through the evidence until a picture forms of the crime sufficient for a resolution.

A number of things keep the Martin Beck stories interesting for me. First and foremost is the character development of the major players. Beck and his colleagues are far from angels or virtuous men on horseback coming in to save the world from crime. They are cops, first and foremost, doing a tough job in a country which has had (based on these books at least) more than its share of murder and mayhem. Yet, after reading a few of these books I've grown attached to Beck and his crew. They aren't geniuses but they work. They dig out clues and they wait and they analyze and they dig some more. Second is the setting: Sweden in the 60s and 70s. Sjowall and Wahloo world view (they were socialist and strong supporters of the Social Democratic Party) does 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. Cop Killers sets out the dysfunction created by the Swedish 'system'in stark relief and in particular on the impact of that dysfunction on Beck and his colleagues. They still do their job but they cannot help but take a cynical approach to the world around them, particularly toward the preening bureaucrats that rise to the top of the administrative heap for all sorts of reasons not related to competence.

I did like Cop Killer and I do recommend it. It can be read as a stand-alone novel. However, given the evolution of Beck and his fellow officers over the course of the series I'd recommend that the books be read in order. (A chronological list is or will be set out in a comment below this review). I think if you like the initial couple of books enough to keep reading you just may find yourself reading all ten.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery/detective fiction, August 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Cop Killer (A Martin Beck Police Mystery, No. 9) (Paperback)

All of the Martin Beck mysteries (I believe there are 10 in all) are excellent reads that offer a window into the criminal Scandinavian landscape. Sharply etched characterizations and stories that remind one of the Magritte novels of Simenon. It's a shame that they are hard to find!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty alright, September 27, 2002

By 

daveklein222 (New Brunswick) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cop Killer: The Story of a Crime (Hardcover)

The ninth Martin Beck novel. Not as good as some of their previous work, but still pretty engaging nonetheless. ... The authors frequently remind us of how much better things were back in the good old days. Funny satire, but pretty cranky, and not much of a thriller.

The book redeems itself with some of Gunvald Larsson's uproarious antics and the shocking revelation of the identity of the title character.

"Cop Killer" is entertaining in parts, but I think Sjowall and Wahloo were beginning to get bored with the police procedural, and it shows.