The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (A Martin Beck Police Mystery) [Audiobook, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Maj Sjowall (Author), Per Wahloo (Author), Tom Weiner (Reader), Joan Tate (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

Police Inspector Martin Beck has just begun his holiday when a phone call sends him off to Budapest, where a journalist has vanished without a trace. As he trolls about in the Eastern Europe underworld for a man nobody knows, he pursues a case whose international boundaries grow with every new clue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

Martin Beck is a man driven to solve puzzles, with a small tragic intuition swimming deep in his mental waters that will surface suddenly to give a muted howl and then dive down again. --New York Times

Enormously satisfying. Washington Post Book World They changed the genre. Whoever is writing crime fiction after these novels is inspired by them in one way or another. Henning Mankell If you haven t read Sjowall/Wahloo, start now. Sunday Telegraph --.

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

• MP3 CD: 1 pages
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433249014
• ISBN-13: 978-1433249013
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As I was going up the stair, January 4, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Paperback)

I met a man who wasn't there.

Summer vacation season is in full swing and Inspector Martin Beck has just arrived in an isolated summer cottage on an island off the Swedish coast. The very next morning a neighbor rows out to advise him that he is wanted on the telephone. He is needed back in Stockholm for a meeting with the Police Chief and the Swedish Foreign office. Beck grudgingly returns for the meeting and is asked to travel to Budapest, Hungary to find a missing journalist. The journalist, Alf Matsson, has gone missing and the tabloid newspaper he works for has pressured the Foreign Office to search for the report. Beck has been asked to `volunteer' for the task. Despite, or perhaps because of, his wife's displeasure (their marriage is not in the best condition) at his departure, Beck accepts the assignment. In short order he is provided with a full set of travel documents, a brief dossier on Matsson, and a ticket for Budapest. The only thing Beck lacks is the first clue as to how to locate Matsson.

As the story progresses we see Beck put together bits and pieces of information as he wanders, seemingly aimlessly, through the picturesque streets of Budapest. Beck is traveling purely as a civilian and soon attracts the attention of the Budapest police force, in particular a detective who may or may not be an ally of Beck. Beck also attracts the attention of what may be either Budapest's underworld or representatives of the Hungarian security forces. For all intents and purposes Beck is a stranger in a strange land.

As with all the other Martin Beck mysteries in this ten-book series (this is the third in the series), "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" is rich with character-driven narrative. Beck's character and his relationships with his colleagues and his wife are fleshed out as Beck plods along trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Matsson's disappearance. The authors, the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, do a nice job of revealing details in a measured pace along the way. The plot and narrative do fall squarely within the usual police procedural `formula' but that does nothing to take away from the enjoyment of reading the book. Although the reader may find the ending a bit predictable (I didn't) the real enjoyment of the series involves the development of Beck's character. As with many good detective series (Simenon's Maigret comes to mind here) the personality of Beck takes pride of place. He is far from being a super hero, is no Sherlock Holmes (who is?), smokes too much, doesn't eat right, and has some troubles at home. He is appealing because of these flaws not despite them and his dogged determination and his personal involvement in the cases he handles drags the reader right into the story. He works at his job and doesn't and cannot rely on flashes of genius to solve a crime.

The Beck series has been an entertaining one. I recommend starting with the first book in the series (Roseanna) and working your way in chronological order. My only fault with the publisher, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (a division of Random House) is that they do not identify the order of books in the series. Despite that minor quibble any reader who enjoys Simenon, Eric Ambler, or Boris Akunin will enjoy the Martin Beck detective mysteries. Recommended. L. Fleisig.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a timeless gem of a story, October 16, 2011

By 

Dr. Christine Maingard "Author of "Think ... (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

It is hard to believe that The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) was written in the mid-60's and published in English in 1969. Swjowall & Wahloo were a husband & wife writing team (perhaps this is were Nicci French got their aspiration from) who have written a series of police thrillers and this one is the second in the "Martin Beck" series.

I loved this timeless gem that so masterfully portrays Swedish Detective Inspector Beck in his pursuit of uncovering the disappearance of a journalist in Budapest. Were it not for the obvious absence of any reference to technology & mobile phones one would think that the story was only written yesterday. Swjowall & Wahloo are masters in examining human nature and their plot, both in terms of subject and structure, is flawless.

If you like timeless police thrillers, this is well worth a read.

Christine Maingard, Author of 'Think Less Be More:Mental Detox for Everyone'

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A hopeless meaningless assignment", November 18, 2010

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

This, the second Martin Beck mystery, is somewhat atypical. The inspector is not operating in Sweden but in Budapest, where a Swedish journalist named Alf Matsson has disappeared. Beck's "hopeless meaningless assignment" is to find Matsson - with no official status and no staff support.

It's the Iron Curtain era, besides, and the case may be politically sensitive. So Beck is forbidden to speak with the local police.

Clueless and directionless, Beck wanders around admiring the Danube and feasting on Hungarian food at a tourist's pace, even though he's been told to find his man in a week. But he does unearth a few suggestive details. Eventually his very presence starts stirring things up.

As Val McDermid points out in her insightful introduction, the plotting of the Martin Beck mysteries is superb. With this book, you think you're getting one kind of story, and it turns into something quite different.

Before Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö became crime writers, they were journalists, and here they paint a fascinating picture of a rowdy set of hard-working, hard-drinking reporters and feature writers. The missing journalist emerges as a particularly nasty character. Beck finds himself feeling strangely indifferent to Matsson's fate as he moves closer to finding him.

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke was first published in 1966. Martin Beck is already middle-aged and seems to like his job better than his family. The obsessive depressive Swedish detective we meet again and again in today's Scandinavian crime fiction can be traced back to Martin Beck.

I loved the casual realism of this book, the spare prose, the quirky humor and the unpredictable meanderings of the plot. There's a subtlety of approach that reminds me of Simenon. I plan to read the whole series in order.