The Man on the Balcony: A Martin Beck Police Mystery (3)

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. This is basically the story of a hunt for a serial killer in Stockholm. The team of detectives tracking the killer is an interesting bunch, made so by the authors' well-constructed character portraits and the intricate description the basic process of detecting by the principals. The writing (and translation) is spare but complex and intelligent. Within its austerity there is humor and irony that give the story humanity and credibility. It's a book that has respect for its readers. Ultimately, the police team led by the iconic Inspector Martin Beck finds that their best witnesses in the case are a serial mugger (who must be found and apprehended to be helpful) and a little old lady with binoculars who has been ignored by the police when she first reports suspicious behavior by a neighbor. She too, must be tracked down before her input can be used in the manhunt. This is an altogether original and highly engaging mystery that will make you want to read more of the Martin Beck series. At least, that was my conclusion. Highly recommended.

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). A mugger is looking for a victim in the park (Chapter 5). Two drinkers looking for privacy found the body of a young girl in the park (Chapter 6). The following chapters give the story of the investigation into the murder. The girl's mother was divorced and worked hard, the father was late in child support payments. The heavy rain at night obliterated all clues. Then another young girl was murdered (Chapter 11). A jealous girlfriend goes to the police to identify the mugger (Chapter 13). The police break into the apartment and capture Rolf Lundgren (Chapter 14). Stolen goods were found in his apartment (Chapter 15). Lundgren gave a description of the man near the water tower (Chapter 16). The 3-year old boy mentions a word that may be a clue to the killer (Chapter 17). Then Martin Beck remembers a report from two weeks earlier. Was it relevant (Chapter 22)? This sparse clue starts a search (Chapter 24). A rare coincidence allows a policeman to find Mrs. Andersson (Chapter 25). The police search the apartment of the man on the balcony and find something (Chapter 27). Another young girl is found dead (Chapter 28)! She had been told to stay out of that park. Then a suspect is seen at a park (Chapter 29). A hundred police search the area, and find a suspect. In Chapter 30 two radio car policemen stop by a wooded area, one goes to relieve himself. He sees a man who fits the description of the suspect and brings him in. The hunt is over. This novel is faster-paced than later novels because it omits imagined details about the fictional characters. It does give details about life for ordinary people and their apartments.

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.

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!

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.