The Abominable Man: A Martin Beck Police Mystery (7)

The sixth Martin Beck novel. The crime this time around is the brutal murder of a decorated police officer in his hospital bed. Beck (now divorced from his shrewish wife) and his partner Kollberg, are on the case again. This is the best novel in the series, masterfully interweaving the virtues of Beck's patient, methodical style of detection with a damning indictment of the pointless brutality and general incompetence of modern law enforcement. The point of the book, made in a variety of ways, is that law enforcement needs better cops, not bigger guns. Excellent as both a crime thriller and social commentary. And don't miss the cliffhanger ending.Unfortunately, it's out of print, and hard to find. Beg, borrow, or steal a copy, and read it.

"The Abomidable Man" is one of the better entries in the ten "Martin Beck" mysteries by the husband-and-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It features the unforgettable characters of Martin Beck, Leonard Kollberg, and their colleagues at the newly nationalized Swedish Police Force as a particularly brutal murder of a police officer in a hospital is investigated. With few clues, Beck and his colleagues eventually solve the case, but are overtaken by events in the sort of bleak existential denouement that characterizes this unmatched series of crime stories. The authors use the police procedural as a prism through which to look at society, and their liberal outlook seems innocent and quaint given the passage of time. Search your local used bookstores and garage sales for any entries in this series (not too uncommon in paperback) and let's hope that Black Lizard rereleases the whole series. NOTE: This book was made into an outstanding Swedis! ! h film called "The Man on the Roof", available on video at certain outlets.

Another spellbinding Martin Beck mystery that invites the reader into the world of the Swedish police in the 70's. The characters are memorable, the plot is very believable, it's an excellent piece of mystery fiction.

In light of the way this book keeps returning to my mind, I'd like to give it a fairly high rating. It is a work of murder-mystery fiction, written by two Scandanavian journalists. I don't want to give too much away. There is a "Darryl Gates" type of figure: i.e. a Police Chief who for years presides over a brutal police force. That is why I keep recalling this book. One might argue Gates's merits, but this work presents the worst-case-scenario.