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The Laughing Policeman
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.7374
EAN: 9780679742234
ISBN: 0679742239
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: December 01, 1992
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: December 01, 1992
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
In this classic police procedural, the ever-dyspeptic Martin Beck has nothing to be amused about, even though it's Christmastime. Åke Stenstrom, a young detective in Beck's squad, has just been killed in an unprecedented mass murder aboard a Stockholm city bus. Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or did he push a murderer too far in his efforts to make a name for himself on the force? Realizing that Stenstrom's presence on the bus was no mere coincidence, his compatriots retrace his steps and chase years-old clues to a crime long thought unsolvable. Along with Roseanna, this is one of the best of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's ten Martin Beck mysteries.
With its wonderfully observed lawmen (including the inimitable Martin Beck), its brilliantly rendered felons and their murky Stockholm underworld, and its deftly engineered plot, The Laughing Policeman is a classic of the police procedural and "must reading for anyone who claims to be [a student] of the best detective fiction" (Saturday Review).
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Terrific Procedural in Stockholm, Circa 1968!
Just about as flawless as any procedural in any nation, gets! Amid 1968 Vietnam War Protests, in Weather-worn, Chilling December Stockholm and Suburbs, a mass murder in a night- time bus spreads horror and chills thruout Sweden. Eight Dead, including an off-duty cop, known to the entire force. And the criminal apparently loose amid minimal clues. Some great portraits of the police, including the huge, cynical no-nonsense one (name forgotten here), social and cultural commentary, outstanding detecting ... Read More
Rating:  - Solving a Cold Case
In November 1968 there was a big demonstration by the American Embassy in Stockholm in spite of the pouring rain. Two policemen find a bus that went off the road. Eight bodies, one a detective, and a lot of shells. Detective Martin Beck is called from home for this mass murder. Chapter 8 has the press conference; little was known. Could a madman have planned this so carefully? When they question the girlfriend of the slain detective they learn he had been working hard on a secret investigation (Chapter ... Read More
Rating: - Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.
George Santayana
On a rainy Stockholm night a gunman opens fire on Stockholm bus, killing eight passengers and critically wounding a ninth. The crime scene is bloody and chaotic. Critical clues may have been destroyed when the first police officers arrive on the scene and trample through the bus. Police Superintendent Martin Beck is placed in charge of the investigation. There appear to be no clues and no apparent motive. His task is the monumental one of taking this chaotic scene and imposing ... Read More
Rating: - Not a Barrel of Laughs
The Laughing Policeman is the best known book of the multi-volume Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Despite the title there is little laughing in this grim and gloomy yet classic police procedural. The book is marked by the sparse dialogue and buttoned-down personalities of the Swedish characters. (The book was later made into a movie of the same name starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, but set in San Francisco!)
The entire detective force of Sweden is assigned to solve the murder ... Read More
Rating: - Do mass murderers have an inherited criminal streak?
Martin Beck and Lennart Kohlberg are playing chess. They are police officers assigned to the homicide squad. It is November 1967 in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm. The officers discover a double decker bus filled with dead people including a dead policeman. On that date there had been a demonstration at the American embassy protesting the War in Vietnam. The dead policeman was one of the officers assigned to the homicide unit, Ake Senstrom. His service-revolver is pulled out. Senstrom always kept his watch on ... Read More
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