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The Man on the Balcony [Paperback]

Maj Sjowall (Author), Per Wahloo (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews) |

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Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 1993
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.

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The first great series of police thrillers. . . . Truly exciting.”—Michael Ondaatje"Hauntingly effective storytelling."—The New York Times Book Review“Sjöwall and Wahlöö write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none.”—Val McDermid“It's 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

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Swedish
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (June 29, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679745963
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679745969
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Authors

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Per Wahlöö
Maj Sjowall

Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format: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!
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
A Hero for Our Time January 24, 2001
By A Customer
Format: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.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Decent thriller September 27, 2002
Format: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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
All too real
The third Martin Beck mystery, published 1967, was inspired by an actual crime: the murder of two little girls in Sweden in 1963. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Patto
yet another competent Martin Beck mystery...
'The Man on the Balcony' is like other murder mysteries by Wahloo/Sjowall: atmospheric, realistic and enjoyable. The prose is tight, the characterizations quite good ... Read more
Published 19 months ago by lazza
A portrait of Stockholm on edge
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... Read more
Published 21 months ago by j. olsen
A classic police procedural
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. Read more
Published on March 9, 2010 by Blue in Washington
"There's a killer on the road. His brain is squirming like a toad."
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... Read more
Published on July 30, 2009 by Leonard Fleisig
"This isn't an investigation, it's a guessing game."
Jo Nesbø 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. Read more
Published on July 12, 2009 by E. Bukowsky
Simple, Straightforward Police Procedural
It seems obscene to use the word "delightful" to describe a novel about a child killer, but that's what this book is: delightful. Read more
Published on July 26, 2007 by zorba
Dry but effective
Swedish police detective Martin Beck returns in his third book by Maj Sjowall and her husband, Per Wahloo. Read more
Published on June 10, 2007 by Westley
The Search for a Child Murderer
In the early morning a man sat on a balcony smoking and observing the activity in the street. A woman called the police to report this. No action taken (Chapter 2). Read more
Published on March 7, 2007 by Acute Observer
A Martin Beck Mystery...
Martin Beck, a Superintendent for the Stockholm Homicide squad, suddenly has to deal with a city that has become the scene of a rash of brutal muggings and child-sex murders.
Published on March 13, 2004 by Judy Smith
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