Customer Reviews

Roseanna: A Martin Beck Police Mystery (1) (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's first Martin Beck mystery, "Roseanna," deals with the unexpected discovery of a corpse in Motala, Sweden, when a bucket dredging machine unclogs a canal to prepare it for the spring boat traffic. On a warm and beautiful day, the bucket gobbles up not only mud but the nude body of a young woman in her late twenties. The police try to identify the victim, but since no one of her description has been reported missing, the authorities are stymied. First Detective Inspector Martin Beck of the Swedish National Police, an eight year veteran of the Homicide Bureau, rushes off to work, eager to say goodbye to his indolent wife ("Years had passed since they had really talked.") When he arrives at Motala to assist local law enforcement officials with the aforementioned case, Beck receives a gloomy report: "We haven't learned a thing [in eight days]. We don't know who she is, we don't know the scene of the crime, and we have no suspects." Beck's colleagues, Melander and Kollberg, are doing what they can to assist with the investigation, but are also getting nowhere. Although most people would throw up their hands in defeat, Beck is "stubborn and logical, and completely calm." Although he develops a terrible cold and sore throat, he continues with his routine. He and his team persist until they finally discover the name of the deceased; they then attempt to retrace her movements in the days leading up to her death.

What makes "Roseanna," first published in 1965, a groundbreaking crime novel? Sjöwall and Wahlöö write in a spare, no-nonsense style, with just the right amount of detail, no theatrics, and little violence. They humanize their detectives, depicting each with his particular problems, quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Melander has a photographic memory and smokes smelly cigars; Kollberg is chubby and addicted to rich food. Both are highly competent. The dialogue is realistic and often dryly amusing. The authors demonstrate how unromantic and tedious police work can be, often requiring an inordinate amount of time in the pursuit of leads that prove fruitless. It is only the detectives' stubborn determination to succeed that finally leads to a resolution. Those who pursue murderers pay a huge price for their dedication. They live stressful lives, with very little time to sleep or enjoy a leisurely meal. To achieve their goal, they need the ability to observe the evidence closely and interpret it correctly. Martin Beck has both of these skills; in addition, when confronted with a complex puzzle, he uses his sharp intuition and imagination to put the jumbled pieces together. He may not be physically formidable ("He was pale and looked sallow and he had dark circles under his eyes.") or heroic, but Beck is meticulous and thorough, with an ability see the whole picture. He rarely misses the forest for the trees. Sometimes the only difference between a cold case and a satisfying conclusion is a detective's refusal to give up, even when he is confronted with a seemingly perfect crime.

This is a simple book. A crime is committed and the police, led by Martin Beck, assiduously and systematically track down the killer. As others have noted, the book is tersely written but each sentence is power-packed. As you go through the book, you get a good feel for the characters and the settings. There is enough suspense and drama to keep you riveted, but not overwhelmed. This is a gem of a police procedural in all respects.

I read an interview with Jeff Vandermeer where he mentioned this series as being an influence/inspiration for his latest novel. Vandermeer is an author who I always find interesting, so I decided to check out the first Martin Beck novel. And I'm really glad that I did.

The amazing thing for me is that Roseanna is one of the best examples of a procedural I have ever read, but one that also succeeds in making the players real and relatable. And in only 200 pages, using very tight prose! The procedural elements not only give the audience a sense of the work involved in solving a homicide, but also the tedium and frustration, the pressure and the responsibility. There's a brilliant paragraph on the very first page that illustrates the bureaucracy of life for a government worker trying to get something done. At the same time, and in the same style, Wahloo and Sjowall infuse their characters with humanity - sickness, domestic conflict, hobbies, teasing between coworkers, comfortable and uncomfortable silences.

I was excited to learn that this is the first of ten books that the authors collectively called "The Story of a Crime". I'm equally excited to dig further into that story.

I love everything Henning Mankell has written and was sad to see that the Kurt Wallander series was closer to an end than its beginning after reading through the published works.

Imagine my delight and surprise to find a pair of authors from 20+ years before that set the same tone and tell the tale with uncommon skill. Roseanna by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is the debut of the series which has at least ten other books in it. Like the Wallander series, this series focuses on a central police inspector, Martin Beck. Beck is, like Wallander, a middle aged policeman with complicated romantic relationships. The police world he lives in has lots of false leads, a lot of time consuming work to track down those leads, and the occasional reward. Like Mankell, the two authors manage to comment extensively on the changes sweeping across Swedish society and culture.

If you like action based police procedurals, go read the master of the genre, Ed McBain and his 87th Precinct series. However, if you want something that conforms a bit more to how real detectives work, this is a great place to start.

I'm really looking forward to working my way through this series.

I don't normally write Amazon reviews, but I can't keep my mouth shut about this book. It was one of the best books I've ever read. Lately, I've become a big fan of Swedish police procedurals, devouring Nesser and Mankell, but Sjowall and Wahloo are going right to the top of my "must read this or die" list.

The story is simple: During a routine dredging of a Swedish lake, workers uncover the body of mutilated, strangled young woman. Inspector Martin Beck and his detectives catch the case, and they have their work cut out for them. Who is this woman? Where did she come from? Who did her in? And, most importantly, can they keep him from killing again?

There's just something wonderful about Swedish procedurals. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they're so refreshing and interesting compared to American thrillers, which often drip with gratuitous violence and sex and are terribly written. Generally, the Swedes keep it simple and straightforward, using 10 words where Americans might take 30 to convey the same thing. Sjowall and Wahloo don't disappoint; the writing moves along at a great pace, very smooth and engaging, every word carefully selected. (And clearly translated with love; and precision. I'm normally wary of translations, but the men and women who translate Swedish procedurals are just brilliant.)

Most vivid is the characterization. Like other Swedish authors, Sjowall and Wahloo don't "over-characterize." They don't drown readers with dozens of pages of backstory and physical description. They use adjectives sparingly. Instead, readers are treated to the golden rule: show, don't tell. Actions and dialogue dominate the characterization, giving us a genuine feel for Beck, Ahlberg, Kollander and all the others. Naturally, we get to know Beck the best, spending the majority of the novel with him. He's crisp and realistic.

The writing is suspenseful and compelling. I hate the cliché "couldn't put it down," but seriously, I was glued to this book, frantically trying to finish it at work before the press started. Wahloo and Sjowall start slow with the puzzling discovery of the unknown corpse, slowly add interest to the case, then grab you by the nuts and never let go as it rockets to a fantastic, satisfying conclusion. It's not that there are overly surprising twists and turns -- it's more realistic, in that there are dead ends and misinformation and uncooperative witnesses, and the cops are in the dark, and so are you, feeling your way along the edges in shadow, trying to find the killer.

This book also contains one of the most disturbing, creepiest scenes I've ever read. Without giving too much away: Beck and his team are studying amateur video footage of the fateful cruise, which inadvertently caught shots of the murdered girl. Can't you imagine them in that quiet room, watching jerky, poorly lit, silent 1960s video footage of a girl just hours from her death? Then they start counting down her life: "Here she has 12 hours to live, now just 8, this must have been taken 3 hours before..." It disturbed me all night. Fantastic, wonderfully written, really digs its claws into you. There's a psychological aspect to the case that really affects you and creeps you out -- and dammit, I love it.

If you like crime novels, read this. If you like police procedurals, read this. If you like psychological thrillers, read this. Hell, if you're just looking for good reading, read this. I can't recommend it enough. I'll be buying the remaining Martin Beck books, as well as other novels by the authors, whether paired or individually, as soon as I can. Fantastic.

A while ago I tried a Martin Beck mystery starting farther along in the series. I just didn't connect with it. So this time I got the first book, and that worked. Now I'm thoroughly captivated.

The story begins with the discovery of the naked corpse of a young woman in a Swedish canal by a dredging boat. Martin Beck of the National Police is called in from Stockholm to help the local detective. Identifying the victim takes months, and then the police are still at square one figuring out who killed her.

Beck engages our sympathy by a low-key misery that reminds us of our own worst moments. He has trouble sleeping, smokes too much, eats too little and is feeling lousy more often than not. The lively young woman he married has become a dull, overweight housewife more interested in Beck's health than his heart. And so Beck throws himself into his work, all his romantic instincts transmuted into a grimly compassionate obsession with both victim and murderer.

There's a lot of looking, waiting, watching and brooding going on. This somehow drew me into the lives of the characters much more than non-stop action would have done. At the same time, the action, when it came, was agonizingly suspenseful.

Roseanna was first published in 1965 in a Sweden that no longer exists - no cell phones, no email, no floods of refugees - and I enjoyed spending some time in that simpler world. As Henning Mankell points out in the introduction, Sjöwall and Wahlöö "wanted to use crime and criminal investigations as a mirror of Swedish society..." I'm looking forward to reading all ten of the Martin Beck books, and seeing Sweden change through Beck's eyes.

It is easy to see that Henning Mankell was influenced by Sjowall & Wahloo. Spare, succinct writing in a culturally aware police procedural; with epic overtones. I look forward to reading the whole series of ten to get a better idea of what Sjowall & Wahloo are trying to relate about the state of Sweden 1965-75 and (modern) society.


ROSEANNA is a strange book in some ways. Detective Inspector Martin Beck is an enigmatic and wispy presence. He seems to live and operate on another plane. He is always suffering from a bad stomach, a cold, etc. He is an existential figure. He is compassionate, yet laconic. After his civic duty, he has nothing for his wife and children. He is neither conventionally admirable, nor heroic.


The mystery's plot is tight and satisfying; the book is difficult to put down. It is unflinching, raw, and must have been a revelation in 1965. It's hard to shock the modern reader, but the immediacy of ROSEANNA, and the un-answerable questions raised still hold up well when read today. Recommended.

I have been spoiled with white knuckle murder mysteries that I almost didn't finish this book. Written in 1965, it really made me slow down and think about crimes and how they were solved back then. I think this book was a breath of fresh air, mostly because I'm not used to the old detective or manual solving of a murder. I gave this book a chance and really learned how murders were solved back in the 60s. This book took place mostly in Sweden, with many references to other parts of the world, including Lincoln, Nebraska, where the murder victim was from. If you can get past the obvious grammatical errors made during the translation from Swedish to English, then it is worth the read. However, you have to give this book a chance because the main climax comes about 50 pages to the end of the book. Please don't read just the last pages of the book because it gives an overview of most of the passengers of the boat, why Detective Martin Beck is the way he is, and the gripping details as to how they solved a virtually unsolvable crime. All they started out with was a dead body in a lake.

I would have given it 5 stars, but it got a little tedious in some sections...overkill...
but on the whole a wonderful mystery... would like to read more like this one

The mystery in Roseanna is not based on finding the murderer. Instead, the mystery is related to identifying the victim and tracing her activities while travelling in Sweden. Two strange coincidences are central to this novel: 1) that a detective in Lincoln, NE would recognize a grainy photo of the vicitim; 2) that a policeman is in the same restaurant and recognizes the suspect based on another grainy photo. What luck! In between these coincidences, Martin Beck and his colleagues follow well-established (but tedious) police procedure.